When evil came to the West Freeway Church of Christ in Texas, parishioners were ready.
Sadly, the murderer managed to kill two people—Anton “Tony” Wallace, a deacon who was holding a silver Communion tray at the time, and Richard White, who had yelled “Drop it!” as he reached for his own handgun—in the seconds before Jack Wilson, a member of the church’s volunteer security team, shot and killed the murderer.
This horrific event could have been much worse if not for the valiant actions of Wilson; still, this was hardly a flock of sheep, as reportedly, at least four other parishioners drew their self-defense handguns but didn’t shoot, presumably because they didn’t have a clear shot at the murderer in the crowded church.
This worst-case-scenario showed what good guys and gals can do with their freedom. It exhibited this so clearly, in fact, that even most mainstream-media outlets were forced to report that an armed good guy had undoubtedly saved lives by killing a bad guy.
It also embarrassed—or should have—former Vice President Joe Biden (D), as just last September Biden called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) decision to sign a bill allowing legal gun owners to carry concealed firearms in places of worship “irrational.” Really, Biden? It’s irrational to carry a self-defense tool in these times?
Still, it wasn’t long before the media found a way to get back to its anti-freedom narrative.
On January 1, for example, USA Today published an opinion piece that they summed up well in a tweet: “Jack Wilson is exactly the type of person you want around with a gun because he’s a firearms instructor. But we know nothing about the at least six other parishioners who also appeared to draw their handguns. And that’s terrifying.”
This opinion writer is terrified of normal, everyday Americans, as are many other members of the mainstream media who’ve expressed similar sentiments. These media members don’t trust you and me and other normal, law-abiding Americans with our freedom. They find American freedom to be so terrifying that they want it controlled to death. This isn’t an enlightened sort of opinion; it is the expression of fear rooted in ignorance of guns, of true liberty and even of statistics related to crime.
The thing is, it is characteristic of lawful gun owners to, even in a time of crisis, practice the NRA rules of gun safety. Those other armed citizens in that church didn’t shoot. They acted responsibly. This is the norm for law-abiding gun owners. Statistics clearly show that concealed-carry permit holders (and those who lawfully carry in states that have “constitutional carry”) are extremely law-abiding citizens.
The revealing part of this reaction is the bias expressed by this opinion writer. Any reasonable person should, at the very least, realize and acknowledge that, if they were in that church, they’d want as many armed Americans as possible between them and the murderer. That is rational.
