Suzanna Hupp
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Suzanna Gratia Hupp (born September 28, 1959) is a
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
former state representative, who represented from 1997 to 2007 District 54 in central
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, which encompasses Bell, Burnet, and Lampasas counties. After surviving the 1991
shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles ...
at the former Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, Hupp became a leading advocate of an individual's right to carry a
concealed weapon Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon (usually a sidearm such as a handgun), either in proximity to or on one's person or in public places in a manner that hides or conceals the weapon's pr ...
. Hupp was elected to her first of five consecutive terms in 1996. She did not seek a sixth two-year term in 2006. She has written a book, ''From Luby's to the Legislature: One Woman's Fight Against Gun Control,'' published by Privateer Publications in
San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...
, Texas.


Background

The daughter of Alphonse "Al" and Ursula "Suzy" Kunath Gratia, Suzanna Hupp was reared in
Friendswood, Texas Friendswood is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the metropolitan area. The city lies in Galveston and Harris Counties. As of the 2010 census, the population of Friendswood was 35,805. In 2007, CNN/''Money'' magazine listed Fr ...
, a city partly in Harris and Galveston counties in suburban
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
. She has an older brother, Allan Gratia, and a younger sister, Erika. She attended the
University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...
and
Texas Chiropractic College Texas Chiropractic College (TCC) is a private chiropractic college in Pasadena, Texas. Founded in 1908, it is the fourth oldest chiropractic college in the United States. TCC was originally located in San Antonio, Texas before moving in 1965 to P ...
in Pasadena, from which she received a Doctor of Chiropractic degree in 1985. Hupp moved first to Houston to practice and then in 1987 to Copperas Cove in Coryell County. She owned and operated the former Cove Physical Rehab Clinic from 1987 until 2000, when the facility was sold.


Career


Surviving the Luby's massacre

Hupp and her parents were having lunch at the Luby's in Killeen in 1991, when a
mass shooting There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 20 ...
took place. The gunman, George Hennard, shot forty-four people and killed twenty-four, including himself. The fatally wounded included both of Hupp's parents. Hupp later expressed regret about deciding to remove her gun from her purse and lock it in her car, lest she risk possibly running afoul of the state's concealed weapons laws; during the shootings, she reached for her weapon but then remembered that it was "a hundred feet away in my car." Her father, Al Gratia, who felt that he "needed to do something", tried to rush the gunman and was fatally shot in the chest. Seeing an escape route through a broken window (broken by the shoulder of another fleeing victim), Hupp grabbed her mother by the shirt and told her, "Come on, we have to go now!" As Hupp moved toward the only escape, she believed her mother was following her, only to find out later that Ursula had also been murdered, shot dead at point blank range while cradling her dying husband in her arms. Hupp was 32 years old at the time of the shooting. As a survivor of the massacre, she testified across the country in support of concealed-handgun laws. Hupp said that had there been a second chance to prevent the slaughter, she would have violated the Texas state law and carried the handgun inside her purse into the restaurant that day. Had she done so, she may not have lost her parents. She also stated in her testimony that she would have taken a
felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
charge against her, rather than losing her parents through the tragedy, adding that those shouldn't be the choices, however, and that people should be able to defend themselves in an emergency without having to choose one over another. She testified across the country in support of concealed handgun laws and was elected to the
Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...
in 1996. The concealed-weapons bill was signed by then-Governor
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
.


Election results, 1996 to 2004

In the 1996 legislative election, the incumbent
Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...
in the district, Layton Black, did not run again. Hupp's husband, Gregory Scott "Greg" Hupp (born 1969),was her campaign manager. She defeated Democratic nominee Dick Miller, 17,620 votes (52.8 percent) to 15,757 ballots (47.2 percent). At the time, the district included Bell and Lampasas counties but also the small populated counties of McCulloch, Mills, and San Saba. In 1998, Hupp defeated Democrat Don Armstrong, 11,954 votes (54.8 percent) to 9,866 ballots (45.2 percent). In 2000, she again defeated Armstrong, 23,139 (62.2 percent) to 14,084 (37.8 percent). The higher turnout reflected the presidential election year, when George W. Bush edged out
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...
to claim the presidency. Hupp was unopposed in 2002. In 2004, she defeated the Democrat Edward Lindsay of Killeen, 28,907 votes (60.9 percent) to 18,594 votes. (39.1 percent), who later ran as well against her successor, Moderate Republican Jimmie Don Aycock, a
veterinarian A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...
.


Appearances and accolades

Hupp has been quoted in such publications as '' U.S. News & World Report,'' ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
,'' ''
Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. ''Texas Monthly'' was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy and has been published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. since 1998 and is ...
,'' and ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' and ''
People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
'' magazines. She was featured on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
's ''48 Hours'' series, on
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
's ''
ABC World News Tonight ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting ...
with Charles Gibson,'' and in season 3, episode 9 of '' Penn & Teller: Bullshit!,'' a documentary series which aired from 2003 to 2010 on the
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
channel
Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
. Hupp can be heard in episode 81 of ''
This American Life ''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internatio ...
'' giving a first-hand account of her experience in the massacre. In the state House, Hupp was a member of the House Rural Caucus and the House Veterans and Military Affairs Caucus. In November 2003, then
Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...
Tom Craddick, a
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
from Midland and currently the longest-serving of all 150 Texas state House members, appointed Hupp to chair the House select committee on child welfare and foster care. Craddick also named her to chair the Human Services Committee in the 79th Legislature. She also served on the House Law Enforcement Committee. Hupp has been recognized by many conservative interest groups: the American Family Association,
Free Market Foundation The Free Market Foundation (FMF) is a classical liberal think tank located in Bryanston, Johannesburg, South Africa. Founded in 1975, the FMF was established to further human rights and democracy through the principles of an open society, the rul ...
, the Texas Association of Business, the Chamber of Commerce, Texas Alliance for Life, Texas
Eagle Forum Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum has ...
, and the Young Conservatives of Texas. She was rated 100 percent pro-life by the Texas Right to Life Committee. She received the Sybil Ludington Women's Freedom Award from the National Rifle Association, named in honor of Sybil Ludington (1761-1839), a heroine of the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. In 1998, Charlton Heston, the NRA president at the time, honored Hupp as the first Texan awarded a lifetime NRA membership. According to Hupp, "How a politician stands on the
Second Amendment The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...
tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of." Hupp has hosted a
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
talk program in the Greater Austin area. She is a co-founder of the Civil Liberties Defense Foundation, a non-profit legal foundation dedicated to providing educational information relating to the preservation of civil liberties guaranteed by the
Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pr ...
to the United States Constitution and to providing legal services to protect those rights. Hupp did not seek a sixth legislative term in 2006. Suzanna and Greg Hupp have two sons, Alexander and Ethan. The Hupps raise Arabian horses on a small ranch near Kempner in Lampasas County, Texas.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hupp, Suzanna Living people American chiropractors American shooting survivors American gun rights activists Ranchers from Texas Republican Party members of the Texas House of Representatives People from Lampasas County, Texas People from Friendswood, Texas University of Texas at El Paso alumni Women state legislators in Texas Activists from Texas 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Texas Chiropractic College alumni 1959 births