4. Pro-gun letter in Roanoke Times on restaurant ban repeal

http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story145322.html

Friday, February 28, 2003
Professor’s criticism of proposed legislation was silly
There’s a rational reason to carry a gun in a restaurant

By MARK E. TODD

PROFESSOR Sam G. Riley (“Virginia is for lovers? Hooligans?
Gunslingers?,” Feb. 20 Commentary page) sounds like an adequate
educator in communication studies. He certainly has mastered the arts
of hyperbole and satire. But does he teach his students open and
honest debate of the facts, rather than relying on emotional tirades?
Let’s look closer at the issues he brought up in his essay.

First he chastises Virginia’s General Assembly for bringing up
legislation pertaining to concealed carry of handguns, saying there
are “more important issues afoot.”

In our form of government, representatives address issues that
are important to their constituents. The gun ban in restaurants has
been a concern for a number of people ever since the legislature
instituted it. He asks, “Does anyone have a real need to enter a
restaurant packing heat?” and then proceeds to rattle off a number of
inane scenarios (“Steak arrives overcooked: shoot waiter in foot”).

Perhaps U.S. Rep. Suzanne Gratia-Hupp could best answer his
question of who “needs” to carry a concealed handgun in a restaurant.
She was licensed to carry a concealed handgun, but in 1991, Texas
also had a restaurant ban. Being a law-abiding citizen, she locked
her pistol in her car before she and her parents went into Luby’s
cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.

While they were eating, a psychotic killer drove his truck
through a window of the restaurant and calmly shot and killed
innocent patrons, including both her parents. She was close enough
for an easy shot, but her pistol sat useless in her locked car. The
carnage continued until police arrived and killed the psychopath, but
by then 22 innocent lives were lost.

A concealed handgun has been called an insurance policy and a
safety rescue tool. You never know when you will need fire insurance
for your house, so you keep it in force all the time, not just when
you are cooking. People don’t call you paranoid for keeping batteries
in your smoke alarms and your insurance up to date.

At the Luby’s massacre, there were no police officers in the
restaurant. There were also no officers present at mass killings in
McDonald’s and Wendy’s restaurants in recent years. A concealed
handgun can be used as a rescue tool to control a life-threatening
situation until law enforcement professionals arrive, just as you use
a fire extinguisher until firefighters arrive.

Riley also seems to promote the idea that the state will protect
you. However, the U.S. Supreme Court disagrees. It has ruled that
police departments have no duty to protect individual citizens, only
to protect the general public good. In essence, the court has said
that individuals are responsible for their own immediate safety.

The police, unfortunately, cannot be everywhere even when
urgently needed. The majority of the time they arrive after the fact,
to apprehend criminals so they can be punished. However, this doesn’t
help people in immediate danger. They may already be dead while
waiting for the state to protect them.

The latest proposed legislation, HB 1997, attempted to rectify
the restaurant ban, but in the opinion of many, including the
Virginia Gun Owners Coalition, it was unworkable. It attempted to
create a confusing patchwork of select restaurants where you could
carry concealed and others where you could not.

An amendment that the VGOC and I supported would have allowed
concealed carry in all restaurants – however, the person carrying
could not consume any alcohol. I think this is an appropriate
compromise. This would allow me to protect my family while walking to
the restaurant, while eating and then again while walking back to our
car.

Carrying a concealed handgun is an awesome responsibility, but
one that I and many Virginians are willing to accept. We are willing
to pay to be fingerprinted, pay to have background checks done every
five years, and pay to attend courses that teach the legal
responsibilities of citizen carry. This is in addition to the cost of
the weapon, ammunition and practice time to remain proficient.

Some people have asked how I, as a physician, can carry a
firearm. I tell them that I have seen firsthand the horror and
tragedy visited upon the innocent by evil or insane people. And I am
not willing to stand idly by and allow that to happen to me, my
family (or Riley, if he is sitting next to me in a restaurant)
without using every legal means available. My safety is my
responsibility.

MARK E. TODD of Salem is an emergency medicine physician and a
member of the Virginia Gun Owners Coalition.