Sutherland Springs was a wakeup call for a lot of people. While anti-gunners latched onto it to try and attack AR-15s or push for universal background checks, others of us recognized that we were simply not safe in houses of worship. While we should be, the truth of the matter is that we’re not and the good Lord gave us the means to take care of that for ourselves. He gave us the intellect to develop firearms.
Unfortunately, man has a habit of screwing that up. In particular, with laws barring their carry from churches.
Yet what good did that do for Sutherland Springs? As per usual, the bad guy carried a gun in and started shooting. I mean, the laws against taking human life for no reason didn’t stop him, but some thought a law against having a gun on the property would? Seriously?
Luckily, a lot of places corrected that oversight, especially Texas. We now know how that worked out for them after a volunteer security team member put one in the head of a would-be mass shooter.
Now, an Indiana law has gone into effect that will allow churches there to do the same thing. It seems some aren’t wasting any time.
Some Indiana churches have begun setting up armed security teams since a state law took effect in July that allows the carrying of guns in houses of worship.
Such laws are in the headlines again because on Sunday in a church in Texas, 71-year-old firearms instructor and former reserve sheriff’s deputy Jack Wilson killed an armed assailant with a single shot. Wilson served as a security volunteer at the church.
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It was the latest in a spate of attacks on houses of worship or worshippers. Just this Sunday, a knife-wielding man stormed into a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City.
Indiana state Sen. Jack Sandlin, R-Indianapolis, said that without the presence of armed guards, the death toll in the Texas shooting would have been much worse, according to a story by WXIN in Indianapolis.
Sandlin and other gun rights advocates said those kinds of situations encouraged the Indiana legislature this year to pass a law that allows the carrying of guns in houses of worship.
Frankly, the only thing I like better than laws permitting volunteer security teams are laws that take the handcuffs off everyone and simply allow people to carry guns in church/temple/whatever you want to call your worship service.
The truth of the matter is that bad people are going to do bad things. In fact, they tend to like doing them to good people, and where can you find a lot of people who are likely to be good folks? That’s right. They’re at church.
To maniacs like the killer in White Settlement, that’s like hunting over a baited field. In their minds, they can put an end to a lot of good people since they’re all in one place.
Yet when there are armed citizens there, things go down a little differently. When there’s a Jack Wilson, things change. Suddenly, the prey starts shooting back, putting an end to the maniac’s plans prematurely (by his estimation, at least). More good guys get to go home to their families while the bad guy doesn’t.
That’s a win.
I can’t help but believe that White Settlement and its relatively low loss of life is spurring on the decisions by many Indiana churches to form their own volunteer security teams.
They say the Lord helps those who help themselves, so it’s good to see folks doing just that. Now for the rest of the states to get off the pot on this one.
