Taking a Shot at Crime
Back in 1987 when there was a rash robberies and killings of tourists in Florida, the state authorized Carrying a Concealed Weapon (CCW) law, in hopes that it would discourage shootings in restaurants and public places.
To the dismay of those who advocate stricter gun laws, the CCW law resulted in random shootings plummeting. The possibility of someone carrying a gun in the local McDonald’s, discouraged those who might have been tempted to shoot the place up.
Then, in the Texas town of Killeen, in 1991, one George Jo Hennard drove his pickup truck through the front window of Luby’s Restaurant, and using a Glock 17 pistol and a Ruger P89, began shooting customers.
He killed 23 and wounded 20, before blowing his own brains out.
A campaign launched by Suzanna Hupp, who was in the restaurant and saw her two parents gunned down, persuaded then-Governor George Bush to enact the Texas version of a concealed weapon law. Suzanna Hupp had left her gun in the car on that fateful day in Luby’s restaurant, and brooded that she might have been able to take the guy out and save her parents, had she been carrying.
Today, 39 states have laws that permit responsible people to carry a concealed weapon. While controversial, evidence is overwhelming that this law inhibits others from using guns indiscriminately.
Florida has gone from a leading state in gun violence, to being in the middle of the pack. People still recall, a case in central Florida’s Polk County in 2006 when Deputy Doug Spiers pulled over a speeding car, driven by one Angilo Freeland, who’d skipped bail on a variety of 1999 charges against him.
Deputy Spiers thought the guy’s driver’s license was phony, and called for back-up. As reported in the Orlando Sentinel, Deputy Matt Williams and his police dog were dispatched.
Freeland, apparently realizing he’d previously skipped bail, broke free and ran for the woods. The officers went after him – Williams and the dog in hot pursuit, Spiers in another direction, hoping to cut him off.
As Williams closed in, Freeland shot and killed the police dog. He then shot Williams, hitting him in the wrist, the left arm, the left thigh, the right leg, the right bicep, the spine.
As Williams lay wounded, Freeland shot him twice in the head, and took the officer’s gun and ammunition. Hearing the shots, Spiers ran to the scene and himself was shot in the thigh. Spiers called for more backup.
Freeland hid in the woods all night, and at dawn every available canine team and a 10-member SWAT team was in the area. When the SWAT team approached, Freeland apparently raised his right hand holding the gun, and the cops opened fire – 110 bullets fired, 68 of them hitting Freeland.
Later, the Florida Civil Rights Association complained that police had shown disregard for human life and had used excessive force.
“Why did you shoot the shoot this poor, undocumented immigrant 68 times?” Sheriff Grady Judd was asked.
“Because that was all the ammunition we had,” he replied.
Sheriff Judd was subsequently re-elected with 99% of the vote.
When the coroner reported the guy had died of natural causes, he was asked how this could be, with 68 bullet wounds? He replied: “When you’re shot 68 times, you’re naturally gonna die.”
They don’t fool around in Florida!