Posted on 12/13/2007 9:15:27 AM PST by jazusamo
Thursday, December 13, 2007
What can you say about the Sunday slaughter at a megachurch and missionary training center in Colorado?
What can you say when a 24-year-old man who said he "hates" Christians shoots two twentysomethings dead at the Youth With a Mission office in Arvada, before killing two teenage girls at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs? That we'll never have an ample explanation for such blood-soaked depravity this side of paradise? Yes. That a special wickedness is afoot in the world when this kind of evil runs amok in a house of God? Surely. That there's a savage irony in the fact that Sunday's violence was visited upon people preparing for Christmas, the birthday of the Prince of Peace? Too true.
Yes, all that, but also this: Thank God the New Life Church in Colorado Springs was not a gun-free zone. Thank God volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam was licensed to carry a weapon. Thank God she used her gun to stop Matthew Murray. Yes, thank God.
Murray arrived at New Life Church, according to Colorado Springs police Sgt. Jeff Johnson, with two handguns, an assault rifle and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. How many more dead would there have been if the New Life Church had been a gun-free zone and the rampaging Murray had been the only one armed last Sunday? Fifty? One hundred? A few hundred? And how many maimed and wounded?
After a reporter asked if she felt like a hero, Assam simply said, "I wasn't just going to wait for [Murray] to do further damage."
We'd all do well to think about New Life Church and Jeanne Assam the next time somebody reflexively pontificates on the glories of gun-free zones or frets about law-abiding citizens licensed to pack heat.
A church would seem to be the last place where you'd need people carrying concealed weapons. It's the kind of place you wouldn't consider declaring a gun-free zone, because -- well, because it's a place of peace and worship. But would the folks at New Life have been better off if their only recourse had been to call 9-1-1 and wait for the SWAT teams to arrive? Or were they fortunate that Assam had a gun because some of the church's 15 to 20 volunteer security people are armed if they have licenses to carry weapons?
The answer is obvious unless you're willing to sacrifice innocents to a faith-based, fact-challenged, gun-control ideology that trusts gun-free zones and fears concealed-weapons permits.
The answer is obvious unless you favor sending more lambs to the slaughter.
Here's an even easier question: Would the New Life Church victims be alive today if somebody at the Youth With A Mission office in Arvada had been armed when a hate-filled and hellbent Murray came calling earlier that day?
Carrying a concealed weapon is, of course, not for everyone. I get as nervous as the next city or suburb slicker when it comes to guns. I can't imagine shooting anything but my foot or innocent bystanders in a crisis situation. But the knee-knocking of gun-phobias and grandstanding of gun-control zealots shouldn't keep law-abiding -- and gun-competent -- individuals from protecting themselves and the rest of us.
They're probably up to the task. The volunteer security folks at the New Life were organized before Sunday's mayhem. Assam, for her part, had served as a police officer in the 1990s. Of course, not everyone with a licensed concealed weapon will have her experience, but that's hardly the point. Their presence certainly beats the alternative of letting a weapons-laden madman mow down more people.
The facts are clear: The problem's not people with concealed-weapons permits and concealed weapons. The problem is people who don't apply for concealed-weapons permits and aren't particularly attentive to gun-free zone boundaries.
In short, it's not the gun, but who's toting the gun.
Of course, most of us know this. As Alan Ladd said in the 1953 Western "Shane," "A gun is a tool, Marian, as good or as bad as the man using it."
Thank goodness she was there to prevent further mayhem, but this article fails to mention that Matthew Murray committed suicide per the coroner’s report.
True, but he wouldn’t have committed suicide till many more were shot by him if she hadn’t acted. The suicide part has little to do with it, IMO.
yes, all of us have read how he shot himself in the head AFTER Jeanne aimed and shot him up a few times. The point is — while he likely would have killed himself eventually, he would NOT have done it until AFTER he killed as many people in that church building as he could have. THAT is clear from everything known about this boy. He was angry, and he wasn’t going down alone. SHE absolutely did save untold lives by what she did.
How he officially died makes no difference — OR that she has something in her past that tarnished her credibility as a police officer. God help us, if all of OUR dirty laundry got aired on national TV, when we acted with bravery and courage in the way she did. She’s a human being — with amazing character and commitment to doing the right thing before the Lord.
yes, and more americans need to get trained and carry guns because the world of devils in people is not getting any smaller.
If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;
He has bent His bow and made it ready. He has also
prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His
arrows fiery shafts. Behold, he travails with wickedness,
And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood.
He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen
into the hole which he made. His mischief will return
upon his own head, And his violence will descend upon
his own pate. I will give thanks to the LORD according
to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name
of the LORD Most High. (Psalm 7: 12-17)
You are 100% correct it is not the gun that commits the crime but the hand that is holding it and you can’t legislate a criminal intent. The biggest problem with just about all these shootings is they are carried out where gun ownership is severely restricted or eliminated all together. Denver , Littleton (Columbine) Arvada are such places. Here in Wyoming there is in our state constution a clause that states no law can be passed on any level that abridges the federal constitution Colorado does not have that. A person who has a concealed carry permit from Ft Collins CO cannot carry in Denver because each city etc has their own laws. That came from the attorney generals office because I used to travel through Denver quite often. Even though Co recognized a WY permit Denver would not and I could be arrested for having that firearm. These laws were on the books when the Columbine shootings took place. With exception of the Vegas shootings these acts have taken place in “gun free” locations and the sick individuals who carry out these crimes know that. That is why it is business as usual until law enforcement or security shows up then they take their own life. It has been ruled on it the courts that we and we alone are responsible for our own protection unless somebody from law enforcement gets lucky and witnesses a crime in process they are not involved until after a crime has been commited. Places like Denver, Washington DC, Chicago to name a few need to repeal the laws that make self defense next to impossible. Carry permits work not just because people are allowed to carry but because the people who carry out these acts don’t know who does or does not have a gun. That is why crime rates are lower in gun friendly locations
Jeanne Assam...America’s finest!
That about says it all in short. A shame the libs that scream about gun violence can't be made to realize that.
Yes there is a special wickedness afoot - we call them Liberals.
Insightful post.
Is the author known as conservative or liberal? Is that a mainstream source?
If mainstrean, I'm surprised because it sounds like what a pro-second amendment news-site would have posted. WOW~
David Reinhard is the only conservative voice at The Oregonian (a truly leftwing publication). He writes one or two columns a week for them and many wonder why the paper allows it. lol
Amen. Now if we could just teach a liberal to think!
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