Former Fort Wayne Mayor and current Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke, speaking at the Rotary Club yesterday:
Political action is also needed. Helmke has criticized Republican officials and said he will do the same with the Democratic-led Congress if it chooses to ignore the country's gun problem.
Virginia Tech has been referred to as a wake-up call, but Helmke said the country has seen many others. He rattled off a dozen or more fatal school and workplace shootings in recent years including Columbine, West Nickel Mines, Pa., and the shooting at Johnson Space Center in Texas the same week as the Virginia Tech shootings.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, on the other hand:
Gov. Rick Perry, mulling ways to stop the kind of murderous rampages that recently left 33 dead on a college campus in Virginia, said Monday there's one sure-fire solution he likes: allow Texans to take their concealed handguns anywhere.
Period.
Perry said he opposes any concealed gun-toting restrictions at all — whether it's in a hospital, a public school, a beer joint or even the local courthouse.
