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NEWS
Hays Free Press * July 31, 2013
The Hays Free Press (ISSN
1087-9323) published
weekly by Barton
Publications, Inc., 122 N•
Main St., Buda, TX 78610.
Periodicals postage paid
at Buda, TX 78610 and
additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Send
address changes to Barton
Publications, Inc., P.O. Box
339, Buda, TX 78610.
ISSN#1087-9323
NEWS TIPS
If you think it's news, we
probably do too!
• Newsroom phone:
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• E-mail: news@
haysfreepress.com
• Mail: P.O. Box 339,
Buda, Texas 78610
CORRECTIONS
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upon the character,
standing or reputation
of any person, firm or
corporation which may
appear in the pages of the
Hays Free Press will be
corrected upon being
brought to the attention
of the publisher.
DEADLINES
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the Hays Free Press is 5
p.m. Friday the week prior
to publication.
• The deadline for Letters
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Hays Free Press is noon
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encourage readers and
advertisers to observe the
Friday deadline.
LETrERS GUIDELINES
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timely topics of community
interest• We ask that
you keep them to about
350 words in length and
that you not indulge in
personal attacks on private
individuals. Letters may be
edited for brevity and clarity.
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Letter writers are limited
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HISTORY
Founded April 10, 1903, by
Thomas Fletcher Harwell as
The Kyle News, with offices
on the corner of Burleson
and Miller Streets in the
town s oldest remaining
building• It merged into
The Hays County Citizen
in 1956. The paper
consolidated with The Free
Press in October, 1978.
During its more than 100-
year history the newspaper
has maintained offices
at more than a dozen
locations in Kyle and Buda.
Concealed Handguns: Learning when not to shoot
Continued from pg. 1A
According to CHL in-
structor and National Rifle
Association (NRA) activist
Mike Cox, everyone should
take comfort in the fact that
more responsible citizens are
learning gun safety.
Cox teaches a 10-hour
CHL course from his home in
Driftwood and at Cabela's. On
July 13, Cox taught a class of
seven students.
"Take a look at the people
around yon. These are re-
sponsible upstanding citizens
that want to know how to
protect themselves," he said.
"We're not just a bunch of Joe
Six-Packs brandishing guns."
Cox says his students come
from all walks of life.
"Some are retired people,
some are recent widows,
some are school teachers,
some are businessmen that
have to travel," he said.
His CHL course concen-
trated on three basic areas:
the ever-changing laws
regarding handguns, con-
flict resolution and avoiding
conflict altogether. Cox also
shared his passion about
protecting Americans' second
amendment rights.
A lot of myths about gun
laws were dispelled that day
as the class discussed various
scenarios. Questions arose
about when it's okay to shoot
someone.
According to Cox, "It's
against the law to shoot
somebody... It is illegal!"
Displaying a handbook
containing Texas concealed
handgun laws, Cox said "...
but these give you a defense
against prosecution if it does
happen."
Cox warned that if anyone
is involved in a shooting,
even if they are acting within
their rights, that person
should expect to be arrested,
spend at least one night in jail
CHL instructor Mike Cox talks about
changing laws that deal with carrying
CHL FACT
Data from the DPS shows that
compared to the general pub-
lic, CHL holders have fewer
convictions of a crime. For
example, of the 2,768 convic-
tions of aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon from
2011 - the most recent year
of available data - three were
CHL holders. Of the 18,159
cases of family violence as-
sault that causes bodily injury,
20 were CHL holders.
and face a long legal battle.
He cautioned that even if a
jury finds someone not guilty,
civil suits may be brought on
by others involved.
"The best weapon in your
arsenal is your brain," Cox
said. "Just avoid the whole
situation if you can."
Texas has what's called a
"Stand Your Ground" law
giving individuals the right
to use reasonable force to
defend themselves without
PHOTO BY DAVID WHITE
firearm safety as well as the ever-
a concealed handgun.
any requirement to evade or
retreat from a dangerous situ-
ation.
But Cox stressed, "If you
can retreat, you should.
Never shoot to protect your
stuff... You'll get over your
missing stuff faster than
you'll get over having shot
someone over it."
Cox also said that in most
cases when people use fire-
arms to protect themselves,
they are within arms reach of *
the attacker and are usually
already under attack. He said
68 percent of Texans who
used a handgun for self-de-
fense shot their attacker from
the ground.
At the end of thel0-hour
course, a couple of students
questioned whether they
would even apply for a CHL,
because of the responsibil-
ity and liability involved.
Without a CHL it is still legal
to carry a concealed handgun
in a car or home.
Safe Haven" Safe room gives comfort
Continued from pg. 1A
not here because of something
traumatic that happened to her
in a relationship or criminal ac-
tivity.
She is, however, a cancer sur-
vivor.
"They found sarcoma (soft
tissue) on my left arm at age
18," she said. "I was a freshman
in college."
She's now 28.
Dean underwent chemo-
therapy and radiation, plus a
13-hour surgery to keep her left
arm.
"They talked about amputat-
ing it," she said.
Overall, she ended up hav-
ing about 15 other surgeries.
Doctors removed her elbow
and replaced it with a titanium
rod. When her physician first
caught the problem, Dean said
they thought it was just "tennis
elbow."
"They removed what they
thought was a cyst. It was a tu-
mor."
That experience shaped
Dean's outlook in life.
"I want to have a purpose in
]ife, to help others," she said.
During her cancer ordeal,
Dean said she had many advo-
cates helping her.
"It's very scary but to have
such a good support system, it
makes it that much easier."
And that's how she sees her
role as crime victim services
coordinator.
Dean has already received
feedback from her clients.
"They say, 'You're the first
person to listen to me and not
judge me for what happened.'
Victims' family members ask
them, 'Why do you keep going
back?'"
How does Dean do her job
but not take it all home?
"You just keep going - you
never know what tomorrow
"You can have another life. The stats
say a woman will leave an abusive
home seven times before she leaves
for good. So I tell them, 'be patient' and
then I get them resources they need."
-Samantha Dean, Victim Services
brings. You keep helping, driv-
ing."
And how's it going?
"So far so good," she said. "It
helps me when I'm helping a
person - this is my dream. For
a while I didn't think I'd be able
to do anything. They gave me a
death sentence."
But Dean said people can
find a way out and be a survi-
vor.
"You can have another life.
The stats say a woman will
leave an abusive home seven
times before she leaves for
good," she said. "So I tell them,
'be patient' and then I get them
resources they need."
She said resources are out
there. Her job is to point vic-
tims toward the right ones. She
offers short-term counseling.
"It's like an intervention - I
get them to a stable emotional
point."
Dean recognizes it's a stress-
ful job.
"I am always concerned
for their safety, especially if
their decision is to stay in the
house," she said. "Sometimes
they just want to make a report
but they don't want anything
bad to happen to [the person]."
Sometimes people report the
info to Dean, but it's not what
she calls official.
%_ few months later, it's esca-
lated. Now they're ready to get
transport to a shelter."
If they don't have a way to get
there, she take them. But
first, she has to call the 24-hour
hotline at the shelter.
"They request to speak to the
woman to make sure I'm not
forcing her, that she's coming of
her own free will," she said.
At the Kyle Police Depart-
ment, Dean said she's not en-
tirely sure how people find out
about her services, though she
imagines it's a combination of
her speaking at city council,
having the information on the
city's website and being there
for the department's recent rib-
bon cutting and open house.
But she thinks it's probably her
fellow colleagues who put the
word out the most.
"Kyle officers tell folks about
our services," Dean said.
"They're my biggest team play-
ers. It's nice to know I have this
whole team that has my back."
And while the job is stressful,
Dean said getting thanks from
the people she helps makes up
for all of that.
"What's rewarding is I'm
helping them rebuild life, find
a new way, get counseling,"
she said. "It's rewarding to have
them thank me for the help."
Summaries of the new laws in effect
Sept. 1 that deal with CHL holders
SB 1907 - Students with a
CHL may have firearms in their
personal locked vehicle when
parked on a private or public
university or college park-
ing lot. A student with a CHL
could not be prosecuted but
they are subject to the rule-
making authority of the school
and could be expelled.
SB299 - Provides language
to clarify the unintentional
display of a firearm by a
concealed handgun licensee.
The language changed from
"failure to conceal" to "inten-
tional display of a weapon in
a public place" when force or
deadly force is not authorized.
SB 864 - Reduces the number
of hours for the initial CHL
class from 10 to 4 hours.
liB 48 - Allows CHL holders
to renew their license online
without taking a renewal class.
HB 698 - Requires DPS to
provide alternate methods of
digital fingerprinting for CHL
applicants if the required facility
is more than 25 miles away
from the applicant's residence,
provided that the county has a
population of 46,000 or less.
HB 3142 - Repeals the SA/NA
(semi-automatic/non-automatic)
designation from the CHL license.
All CHL holders are licensed to
.carry either type of handgun.
HB 1421 - Allows law enforce-
ment agencies an option to sell
confiscated firearms to a federal
firearms dealer instead of de-
stroying them. After the cost
of the sale and other related
charges, funds could stay with
that law enforcement agency.
HB 333 - Requires hotels and
motels to provide advance no-
tice to customers if they prohibit
firearms.
Number of Texas Concealed Handgun
License Owners from 2002-2012
Percentage of
Year CHL Licenses Adult Population Adult Pop. with CHL
2012 584,850 18,840,803 3•1%
2010 461,724 17,501,310 2.6%
2008 314,574 16,899,229 1 •86%
2006 258,162 16,212,627 1.59%
2004 239,940 15,500,225 1.55%
2002 224,172 14,959,247 1.5%
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