Open carry law for students on campus could save lives should a mass shooting occur

You may not have heard of Suzanna Hupp but it’s a good bet you fully know about the mass shooting she survived on October 16, 1991 when George Hennard crashed his pickup truck through a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas and shot and killed 23 people before killing himself.

Hupp lost both her parents in the shooting and did own a gun at the time but, because Texas law forbid her to carry a gun into public places, she was unable to save her parents.

Hupp, a former Republican of the Texas House of Representatives from 1997-2007, testified before Congress in 2013 arguing against the state’s gun control laws.

“I don’t view myself as a victim of gun violence,” Hupp said in an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. “I view myself as a victim of a maniac who happened to use a gun as a tool. It still makes me angry when I think about it. You can’t go up against a guy with a salt shaker or a butter knife.”

Imagine if such a law had been in place when the mass shooting happened at Virginia Tech in 2007 where 32 people were killed by Seung-Hui Cho. 

If only someone in those buildings the killer was in had had a license to carry a firearm, the number of those dead and injured could have been lower.

It amazes me that when it comes to the possibility of allowing people with proper licenses to carry concealed handguns on campus, students are scared that every day could be a could be a “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” style situation where everyone with a gun will start shooting everyone else.

The open carry law in Texas does not mean there will be a massive jump in gun sales allowing students to buy a gun.

Personally, guns scare me. I have a dog who barks at anything that lets me know when there is trouble nearby and then I can take steps on what to do if I am face to face with a gunman. Buying let alone even considering looking into owning a firearm is not on my list of things I want.

The whole point, however, of owning a gun is to hopefully never use it. It’s a deterrent.

If you still think prohibiting students from having a firearm on campus is better then consider this nightmare scenario that, God willing, will never happen.

It’s around 11:30 a.m. and the hall near the Subway restaurant at your college campus is packed with students, faculty and employees waiting in line to buy lunch. No one notices a guy walking through the hall carrying a large duffle bag who goes into the back of the cafeteria where not as many students. He calmly starts taking out his cache of weapons. Still no one notices until the shots ring out from his AK-47 assault rifle.

Within a minute 60 or more are dead or injured. The call goes out to campus police. By the time they get to the building and students are running for their lives shots are still ringing out inside. Dallas police would still need time to assess the situation from witnesses.  

I would suggest the situation could have been resolved in the space of minutes if someone in that restaurant had a license to carry a firearm on campus and take out the shooter.

As Hupp told Congress, “I’m a mom and I just can’t imagine being back in that position, but instead of having my parents with me, having my kids with me and not have any way to protect them. You can be a liberal and talk about gun control all you want, but when you’re actually in the situation, most normal people want to be able to defend themselves and their children and grandchildren.”

©3/25/15

Are we ready for female standalone superhero movies?

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

Shh! Can you hear it? Listen again! It’s the sounds of women everywhere shouting the phrases, “I am Woman! Hear me roar!” and “Women rule!” The chants are so loud I cannot even hear myself think writing this column! They are even drowning out the cheers of the “Big Bang Theory” crowd as well.

Like it or not, there’s a reason for this. On July 23, 2017, the big screen will no longer be a male superhero’s world anymore. The days where female super heroines occupying the same film alongside the male superhero in the same blockbuster franchise movie will officially be over. Two and a half years from now following her big screen debut in March 2016 alongside the “Man of Steel” and the “Caped Crusader” in "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice," the Amazonian princess Wonder Woman (aka Diana Prince as played by Gal Gadot of "Fast & Furious 6" - 2013) will get her own standalone superhero movie in what is already being planned as a trilogy by DC Comics and Warner Brothers.

Then in July 2018 Marvel Comics and Disney will bring their own female superhero to the big screen known as Captain Marvel. While I know enough about Wonder Woman, I am ignorant when it comes to Captain Marvel. The comic book nerds, the “Big Bang Theory crowd” and the “I am woman hear me roar” crowd will have to set me straight about who this female character is. The most I know is what Marvel President Kevin Feige said last November when announcing future Marvel Comic movie projects.

Ms. Marvel as she is pictured in the comics.

“This Captain Marvel’s name is Carol Danvers,” Feige said. “This film has been in the works almost as long as Doctor Strange or Guardians of the Galaxy before it came out, and one of the key things was figuring out what we wanted to do with it. Her adventures are very earthbound, but her powers are based in the cosmic realm.”

The big screen isn’t the only place where female superheroes will make their presence known. Late last year, Thor became a woman in her own alternate comic series from Marvel.

"The inscription on Thor’s hammer reads ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.’ Well, it’s time to update that inscription," said Marvel editor Wil Moss in a statement last year. "The new Thor continues Marvel’s proud tradition of strong female characters like Captain Marvel, Storm, Black Widow and more. And this new Thor isn’t a temporary female substitute – she’s now the one and only Thor, and she is worthy!"

This May, Marvel will introduce an all-female Avengers series called A-Force that will feature She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Storm, Medusa, Jean Grey and Dazzler. I can already see a female Avengers movie coming after the male Avengers movies end in 2019.

Melissa Benoist as Supergirl.

While on television, CBS has been hard at work bringing Supergirl to the small screen and unlike producer/screenwriter David E. Kelley’s proposed Wonder Woman series in 2011 that crashed and burned before her invisible plane ever took off, I have not heard any critical rumblings about the upcoming series let alone the “Woman of Steel’s” costume which debuted on the Internet recently featuring star Melissa Benoist in the title role. Allow me to offer my own negative criticism of her. She looks too thin and has no muscle. I don’t think villain Lex Luthor has anything to worry about.

The question I have is who besides women, the nerds and the “Big Bang Theory” crowd will sit in front of their flat screens and computers and download the Supergirl series off Netflix and Hulu? Whereas the Batman, Superman and Avengers movies appeal to both sexes, how many guys will actually sit through a female standalone superhero film? It’s like having a girlfriend or wife drag their boyfriend or husband literally on a leash to see some romantic "Chick Flick" that appeals only to women.

It’s not as if women superheroes have had long running success in both television and the big screen. Yes, the original Wonder Woman tv series with Lynda Carter had a catchy song that I still can’t get out of my head but the show featuring the Amazonian princess in the “satin tights, fighting for your rights, and the old red, white and blue” lasted only 60 episodes from 1975 to 1979. Compare that number to the WB’s "Smallville" series about a young Clark Kent that lasted ten years (2001-2011) with 217 episodes.

ABC's Agent Carter.

I see ABC’s "Agent Carter" with Hayley Atwell which airs right after "Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D." on Tuesday nights as nothing more than a test to see if a female driven series about a woman who worked with Captain America can stand on its own without the guy with the red, white and blue shield.

How many remember the 1984 movie, "Supergirl," with Helen Slater in her movie debut? I suspect more people remember "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987) whose $15 million gross was one million more than what "Supergirl" made at the box office.

Or "Catwoman" (2004) in which star Halle Berry won and accepted the Worst Actress Raspberry Award in person in 2005?

That doesn’t mean the powers that be at Disney’s Marvel and Warner Brothers DC comics don’t realize how much is at stake if they fail. I am sure somewhere at Disney’s Marvel offices is a rule written on a wall somewhere that says “Hell hath no fury like Mickey Mouse and former president and Marvel Comics chairman Stan Lee scorned” along with their own set of ten commandments where the first one says “Thou shalt not make any Marvel movie that becomes a box office flop.” (By comparison, I am sure the same rule and Ten Commandments are posted up on a wall on the Disney’s Star Wars offices of film producer Kathleen Kennedy as well).

The powers that be at Warner Brothers were apparently so careful to not hop on any eggshells with the Wonder Woman franchise that they hired Game of Thrones director Michelle Maclaren to helm the first film thinking the movie would benefit more if it were directed by a woman.

There is still one other obstacle that the Amazonian princess and Captain Marvel’s Carol Danvers will have to conquer though and that’s the box office. Money is what makes the world go round. The amount of green will be what determines if what audiences get is another bomb the equivalent of a Supergirl or Catwoman movie or if they get another Superman/Avengers style blockbuster franchise.

©3/18/15

Gone Too Soon: Michael Frazier (1970-2015)

Michael Frazer in his Army uniform.

Some of my fondest memories as a student at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas between 1984 and 1988 took place throughout much of my junior year whenever fellow classmate Michael Frazier was around. I recalled those moments a lot the past few days upon hearing through former classmates on Facebook that Mike had unexpectedly passed away March 11, 2015, following a brief illness at 45, leaving behind his wife of 25 years, Wendy, his son, Matt, two daughters, Monica and Katie, their two dogs, Vader and Woody, and hundreds of friends and family.

I had the pleasure of getting to know Mike in my geometry, religion classes and study hall. For me to call him the class clown would be wrong as he was far from it. True he always joked in class, but it was never to so much to draw attention to himself as it was to make everyone around him laugh.

Mike had me in stitches in study hall when he started talking like Elvis Presley sometimes singing one of the King’s songs. He would often times talk like an old man in a gruff voice that literally made him sound like he was in his 80s. If I made some smart aleck comment to him, he’d go into his “old man” routine telling me “Shut up you ol’whippersnapper! I’ll take you in the back room and bust you up!”

I know those of you reading this cannot understand why I found his antics so funny as the only way you would know is if you heard him in that voice. One time during geometry class when teacher Mrs. Clark asked him what he was doing, he told her, “I am my fellow student’s helping hand.” Then he started singing, “Lean on me. When you are not strong and I’ll be your friend.” Even when Mike upset me, which was only once, my anger at him lasted just a couple minutes as in the time he sprayed blue ink all over my BL uniform only to find the ink disappeared within seconds. Mike laughed telling me it was invisible ink.

I wasn’t at all surprised given how tall he was (six feet I think) and how built he was like a football player to learn when I connected with him on Facebook a few years back that he enlisted in the Army shortly upon graduating from North Garland High School and was honorably discharged in 1995. I remember upon my loaning him my copy of the 1983 military cadet film, "The Lords of Discipline," in high school, Mike told me his favorite character was Dante Pignetti, a tall bulky balding cadet played by Rick Rossovich who enjoyed kicking ass. It was because of that “old man” voice he did that I did not so much call him “Pignetti” as I did “The Godfather” though I’ll never know if he was able to mimic Marlon Brando’s mumbling voice.

There were a couple times because he made me laugh in class where I’d get into trouble as a result. One day during ethics class, Mike just sat there on one end of the room giving me the evil eye (with one eyebrow raised). My ethics teacher, Mr. Poundstone, stopped class to ask me what my problem was. I had no choice but to say Mike’s giving me the evil stare.

Other times during ethics class Mike would become the “old man” again which would annoy Mr. Poundstone where when the class was silent, he’d yell out loud to another fellow classmate named Diedra Brown and say, “How you doin there, Diedra!” Mr. Poundstone’s disapproving look to Mike was priceless; as though he was saying “Why don’t you people grow up?”

Regrettably the last time I saw Mike was during a BL football game as he didn’t graduate with us senior year in 1988. Upon my seeing him again that night, the first word he said to me was “Joseph!” The only one who calls me that is my mom and that’s when she gets pissed, other than calling me, “Joey”, which I also get ribbed about by friends who hear her say it.

My only contact with Mike in recent years was through Facebook. Every once in a while, he often clicked on the “like” option whenever I posted stuff he agreed with me on. I’m finding there is a lot you can learn about someone by just browsing through one’s Facebook posts. I could tell he was a Star Wars fan. When he posted the teaser trailer for "Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens" (2015) on Facebook last November, Mike wrote “I am unashamed and giddy to repost this. Reminds me of spending our 20-dollar vacation allowance on action figures. Of course, my Darth could fly. He had a cape.”

Other times, Mike offered religious commentary when the time warranted it. When I questioned how when it comes to giving up things for Lent last month that decision is supposed to be between the person and God and not to be shared via social networking, he responded back to me writing, “I like to think those making such announcements are making themselves accountable to the public. Like me giving up the…LOL.”

When I posted a picture in July 2012 of what was believed to be an Angel hovering above the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado at a memorial service for the victims killed by mass shooter James Holmes, Mike replied to my post saying, “I believe there are Angels, and they are with us. It is not outside the Lord’s preview to perform miracles. I don’t believe this is an Angel any more than that picture of the twin towers had Satan’s face in the smoke after the planes hit. Angels are spirits, not clouds. If they were going to appear to anyone, why would they be veiled in a cloud?”

The most recent discussion, which caused differing perspectives on Facebook among former classmates was the subject of terminally ill patient Brittany Maynard’s decision to commit suicide last November when Mike posted a video from Fr. I. J. Menezes about Euthanasia.

“Just posting for practicing Catholics on my feed,” Mike wrote. “I believe the priest said that pain should be managed though and cost isn't really the issue either. Its a slippery slope from presuming what's best for the ill and what is best for the person watching or who gets to decide."

There is a part of me writing this column at hearing of Mike’s sudden passing that wants to express anger at God at having him been taken away from everyone too soon.

I know, however, that he wouldn’t want me to express any negative feelings of why God called him home but to instead recall the happier times.

Farewell Mike, I am glad to have known you. Thank you for making me laugh and anyone who knows me personally knows how hard it is for them to get me to do that.

©3/12/15