A black friend of the mass murderer who attacked Emanuel AME Zion Church claims that the church was a secondary target, chosen because it did not have security.

Last week, while drinking in the back of Scriven’s house, R___* blurted out his plans to carry out a mass shooting at the College of Charleston.

“I don’t think the church was his primary target because he told us he was going for the school,” Scriven said Friday. “But I think he couldn’t get into the school because of the security … so I think he just settled for the church.”

92-percent of mass killers intentionally chose so-called “gun free zones” where they thought they could kill a large number of people before being contested by armed guards, police, or concealed carriers.

Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was one of the victims of the killer’s racist attack, voted against allowing firearms in churches and other venues  as a member of the South Carolina State Senate.

Religious leaders in many parts of the nation take a very different view than that the late Rev. Pinckney, including black and white pastors who are Bearing Arms readers and who support concealed carry in houses of worship to deter these kinds of attacks.

* Bearing Arms does not publish the names of mass killers as a general rule, as celebrity is one of their motivators. In this instance, we've redacted murderer's name from a quoted article.