One thing we knew was going to happen after the shooting at a church in White Settlement, TX was that we were going to get hot takes from everyone and their brother. Yes, that includes us here at Bearing Arms, to be fair.

Right now, we know remarkably little about who the killer was or much of anything else. We just have the video and news reports of what transpired.

Well, we have that and two political parties with very different takes on what happened, apparently.

Following another deadly shooting on Sunday, Texas Republicans praised members of a church security team who stopped a gunman, citing state laws allowing weapons in houses of worship. Meanwhile, Democrats repeated their call for more restrictive gun laws that they say would prevent shootings.

Politicians weighed in on the Sunday morning shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ in the Fort Worth suburb of White Settlement, where a gunman killed two churchgoers before being shot and killed in the sanctuary.

At a Sunday evening press conference in White Settlement, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick credited laws passed by the Texas legislature for allowing churchgoers to carry weapons and have a trained security team.

“As elected officials, we must do more to protect Texans,” state Sen. Beverly Powell, D-Burleson, said in a statement. “Months ago, I, along with many of my colleagues in the House and Senate, called for a special session to address the rise of gun violence in Texas. We can and must respect the Second Amendment, but the time has come to address serious solutions to save the lives of innocent Texans.”

Governor Abbot also offered up his thoughts in a tweeted statement.

Statement on shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement: pic.twitter.com/Crrrvavvs6

— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) December 29, 2019

Yet despite the fact that armed citizens ended the threat and we know absolutely nothing about how the gunman obtained his weapon, some Democrats immediately took up the call for more gun control. Among those was state Senator Beverly Powell.

My statement on today’s shooting in White Settlement: pic.twitter.com/rFpWfWFbst

— Senator Beverly Powell (@beverlypowelltx) December 29, 2019

State Representative Joe Moody at first offered up a message that few could find fault with–thanking those who responded and wishing it hadn’t been necessary–but then followed up with a litany of proposals he thinks the state should pass. All of them are gun control measures.

So I’ll be specific.

First of all, you and I work in TX, so let’s talk about that.

We don’t enforce our protective order laws in a uniform way. We have no private sale background checks. We have no safe storage incentive. We don’t flag in state fugitives. #txlege https://t.co/6U7RC06rvP

— Joe Moody (@moodyforelpaso) December 30, 2019

Also entering the fray was failed senatorial and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke.

So saddened to hear about another church shooting in Texas, this one in White Settlement near Fort Worth. Clearly what we are doing in Texas, what we are doing in this country, when it comes to guns is not working. https://t.co/krwcpL1lih

— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) December 29, 2019

I don’t know, though. The gunman was down in six seconds, and while it’s unfortunate two people lost their lives, the truth is that it could have been so much worse.

It sounds to me like the gun laws in Texas did wonders to help the law-abiding churchgoers in White Settlement, especially since we don’t know anything about the killer or how he obtained his weapon.

At this point, he could have passed the background check despite numerous reasons he shouldn’t have, or he could have stolen the gun. We simply don’t know anything, so claiming that more gun control laws are needed is, at most, premature.

Then again, have gun grabbers ever waited for the facts to come in? These are the same people lamenting “high capacity magazines” and invoking Parkland in the same speeches, never once acknowledging that the Parkland killer used 10-round magazines, for example. They don’t let facts get in the way of their narrative.

That’s especially true here.

While we still know very little about the killer, we do know one important fact: the body count would be a whole lot higher were armed citizens not there. That’s an absolute fact.