Editing Suzanna Hupp

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder
|image=Suzanna Hupp.png
|name=Suzanna Gratia Hupp
|caption= Hupp testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 12, 2013
|nationality=[[United States|American]]
|office=[[Texas]] State Representative for District 54 (Bell, Burnet, and Lampasas counties)
|party=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]   
|term_start=1997
|term_end=2007
|preceded=Layton Black 
|succeeded=[[Jimmie Don Aycock]]
|birth_date= {{birth date and age|1959|09|28}}
|birth_place= Friendswood, Texas
|occupation=Chiropractor
|spouse= Gregory Scott "Greg" Hupp
|children=Alexander Hupp, Ethan Hupp
|parents= Al and Ursula "Suzy" Kunath Gratia
}}
'''Suzanna Gratia Hupp''' (born September 28, 1959)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E4Wb89VixTEC&pg=PA59|title=Shooting Straight|isbn=9780895261236|access-date=4 December 2015|last1=Lapierre|first1=Wayne|last2=Baker|first2=James Jay|date=25 July 2002|publisher=Regnery }}</ref> is a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] former state representative, who represented from 1997 to 2007 District 54 in central [[Texas]], which encompasses Bell, Burnet, and Lampasas counties.<ref name=txhouse>{{cite web|url=https://lrl.texas.gov/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=184&searchparams=chamber=H~city=~countyID=0~RcountyID=~district=54~first=~gender=~last=Hupp~leaderNote=~leg=~party=~roleDesc=~Committee=|title=Suzanna Hupp|publisher=Texas State Legislative Library|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref>

After surviving the 1991 [[Luby's shooting|shooting]] at the former [[Luby's|Luby's Cafeteria]] in Killeen, Texas, Hupp became a leading advocate of an individual's right to carry a [[Concealed carry in the United States|concealed weapon]]. 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]], Texas.<ref name=privateerpublications.com>{{cite book |last1=Suzanna |first1=Suzanna G. |date=October 2009|title=From Luby's to the Legislature: One Woman's Fight Against Gun Control |url=http://privateerpublications.com/product/from-lubys-to-legislature/ |format=hardback |publisher=Privateer Publications |isbn= 9780965678445 |author1-link=Suzanna Gratia Hupp|access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref>

==Background==
The daughter of Alphonse "Al" and Ursula "Suzy" Kunath Gratia, Suzanna Hupp was reared in [[Friendswood, Texas]], a city partly in Harris and Galveston counties in suburban [[Houston, Texas|Houston]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/01/hupp-to-lead-review-of-social-services-benefits-for-veterans.html/|title=Hupp to lead review of social services benefits for veterans|work=Trail Blazers Blog|access-date=December 4, 2015}}{{dead link|date=January 2023}}</ref><ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E4Wb89VixTEC&pg=PA59|title=Shooting Straight: Telling the Truth About Guns in America|author=Wayne Lapierre and James Jay Baker|publisher=Regnery on [[Google]] Books|pages=59–60|date=2002|isbn=9780895261236|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref> She has an older brother, Allan Gratia, and a younger sister, Erika. She attended the [[University of Texas at El Paso]] and [[Texas Chiropractic College]] in Pasadena, from which she received a Doctor of Chiropractic degree in 1985.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

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.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

==Career==
===Surviving the [[Luby's shooting|Luby's massacre]]===
Hupp and her parents were having lunch at the Luby's in Killeen in 1991, when a [[mass shooting]] 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."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wmsa.net/legacy-wmsa/gratia-hupp_1992.htm |first=Suzanna |last=Hupp |title=Dr. Suzanna Gratia's testimony (in favor of favor of Missouri's HB-1720) |publisher=[[WMSA]]|date=1992|access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref name="books.google.com"/>

Hupp was 32 years old at the time of the shooting.<ref name="books.google.com"/> 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]] 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.<ref name=youtube>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1u0Byq5Qis |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/M1u0Byq5Qis |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=Suzanna Hupp: Testifying before Congress|publisher=You Tube|date=August 27, 2008|access-date=January 18, 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref> She testified across the country in support of concealed handgun laws and was elected to the [[Texas House of Representatives]] in 1996.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/archive/ovw/docs/nac_web_bios.pdf |title= Biographical Information |publisher= U.S. Department of Justice, National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women|date=June 19, 2006|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref> The concealed-weapons bill was signed by then-Governor [[George W. Bush]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE6DB1438F935A35750C0A963958260|author=Sam Howe Verhovek|title= States Seek to Let Citizens Carry Concealed Weapons|date=March 6, 1995|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref>

===Election results, 1996 to 2004===

In the 1996 legislative election, the incumbent [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] 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 of the United States|Vice President]] [[Al Gore]] 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 (modern United States)|Moderate Republican]] [[Jimmie Don Aycock]], a [[veterinarian]].

===Appearances and accolades===
Hupp has been quoted in such publications as ''[[U.S. News & World Report]],'' ''[[The Wall Street Journal]],'' ''[[Texas Monthly]],'' and ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' and ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' magazines. She was featured on [[CBS]]'s ''48 Hours'' series, on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[ABC World News Tonight]] 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]] channel [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]]. Hupp can be heard in episode 81 of ''[[This American Life]]'' giving a first-hand account of her experience in the massacre.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3104157/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1|title=Suzanna Hupp|publisher=Internet Movie Data Base|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref>

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 of the Texas House of Representatives|Speaker]] [[Tom Craddick]], a [[conservative]] from [[Midland, Texas|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.<ref name=txhouse/>

Hupp has been recognized by many conservative interest groups: the [[American Family Association]], [[Free Market Foundation]], the Texas Association of Business, the [[Chamber of Commerce]], [[Texas Alliance for Life]], Texas [[Eagle Forum]], and the Young Conservatives of Texas.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} She was rated 100 percent pro-life by the Texas [[Right to Life]] Committee.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} In 1997 she received the Sybil Ludington Women's Freedom Award from the [[National Rifle Association of America]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Sybil Ludington Women's Freedom Award |url=https://awards.nra.org/awards/sybil-ludington-womens-freedom-award/ |website=awards.nra.org |publisher=National Rifle Association of America |access-date=17 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609032932/https://awards.nra.org/awards/sybil-ludington-womens-freedom-award/ |archive-date=June 9, 2023 |language=en-US |url-status=live}}</ref> named in honor of [[Sybil Ludington]] (1761-1839), a heroine of the [[American Revolutionary War]]. In 1998, [[Charlton Heston]], the NRA president at the time, honored Hupp as the first Texan awarded a lifetime NRA membership.<ref name=privateerpublications.com/>

According to Hupp, "How a politician stands on the [[Second Amendment]] 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."<ref name=youtube/> Hupp has hosted a [[radio]] 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 [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] 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 horse]]s on a small ranch near [[Kempner, Texas|Kempner]] in [[Lampasas County, Texas|Lampasas County]], Texas.

==References==
{{reflist}}

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