Recording of Testimony of Texas Republican Representative
Suzanna Gratia Hupp
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE CRIME PREVENTION COMMITTEE first heard from Suzanna Gratia Hupp, a Republican legislator from Texas. Hupp's parents were among 23 people killed in 1991 during the nation's largest mass shooting. The incident occurred before Texas passed a law allowing most individuals to carry a concealed handgun.
Hupp says she had a gun in her car, but not in her purse in the restaurant where the shooting took place. She says she could only watch as a gunman walked through the restaurant shooting people one by one, including her father. Someone broke out a window, and Hupp was able to escape, but her mother didn't follow her.
"The cops, (who) were in the building next door, got over there in time to see my mother had crawled out into the open, where my father was, and she was cradling him until the gunman got back around to her. They said that's how they knew who the gunman was. They said he put the gun to her head, she looked up at him, put her head down, and he pulled the trigger," Hupp said.
Hupp says she was angry that "the Texas Legislature hadn't given her the right to protect myself." She says there's no guarantee she could've killed the gunman, but her revolver "would've changed the odds."