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+ {"source_url": "https://www.statesman.com", "url": "https://www.statesman.com/news/20200102/texas-law-protecting-armed-churchgoers-draws-national-attention", "title": "Texas law protecting armed churchgoers draws national attention", "top_image": "https://www.statesman.com/storyimage/TX/20200102/NEWS/200109932/AR/0/AR-200109932.jpg", "meta_img": "https://www.statesman.com/storyimage/TX/20200102/NEWS/200109932/AR/0/AR-200109932.jpg", "images": ["https://www.statesman.com/storyimage/TX/20200102/NEWS/200109932/AR/0/AR-200109932.jpg", "http://b.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=9289482&cv=2.0&cj=1", "https://www.statesman.com/Global/images/head/nameplate/statesman_logo.png", "https://api.pymx5.com/v1/sites/track?event_type=PAGE_VIEW&noscript=1", "https://www.statesman.com/storyimage/TX/20200102/NEWS/200109932/AR/0/AR-200109932.jpg&MaxH=200&MaxW=200"], "movies": [], "text": "Top Texas officials this week cited the actions of several armed churchgoers who subdued a gunman in their sanctuary this weekend as a model of how Americans should protect themselves from potential mass shooters.\n\nThe attack, after which two church members and the gunman were dead, came two years after the Texas legislature passed a law that authorized anyone with a concealed-carry license to bring their weapon into houses of worship. That law was a response to the 2017 attack on a church in Sutherland Springs that left 26 people dead before a local resident shot the gunman outside the building and forced him to flee.\n\nThe shooter who attacked West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, a suburb of Fort Worth, on Sunday was killed by a single shot from church member Jack Wilson, a former reserve sheriff\u2019s deputy and Army veteran. Wilson, who owns a shooting range in nearby Granbury, said he started training fellow members to be a part of the church\u2019s volunteer security team when it launched after the Texas law passed.\n\n\u201cIf there is any church in this state, in America, that was prepared for this, it was this church,\u201d Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said at a news conference Monday. \u201cThey had done their training. And I think that you could see it in the results.\u201d\n\nHe credited the new law with making the armed congregants\u2019 quick responses possible, calling it a \u201cmodel of what other churches and other places of business need to focus on.\u201d\n\nPresident Donald Trump weighed in Monday evening, tweeting that the attack \u201cwas over in 6 seconds thanks to the brave parishioners who acted to protect 242 fellow worshippers. Lives were saved by these heroes, and Texas laws allowing them to carry arms!\u201d\n\nBut other state leaders took issue with Trump and Paxton\u2019s interpretation of the incident. Former Texas congressman and onetime presidential candidate Beto O\u2019Rourke said the shooting was a reflection of the state\u2019s lax gun-control measures.\n\n\u201cOur representatives in Texas have left us open to these kinds of attacks,\u201d he tweeted. \u201cTime to change our representatives.\u201d\n\nGun-control activists called out the rate of firearm-related homicides and suicides in the Texas, which ranks in the middle of the pack nationally for gun deaths, according to federal data.\n\n\u201cIf more guns and fewer gun laws made Texas safer, it would be the safest state in the US,\u201d tweeted Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. \u201cInstead, it has high rates of gun suicide and homicide, and is home to 4 of the 10 deadliest mass shootings.\u201d\n\nThe shooter, whom authorities identified as 43-year-old Keith Thomas Kinnunen, fatally shot two members of the church\u2019s volunteer security team, both men in their 60s, during the Sunday service before Wilson fired back at him, officials said.\n\nDuring a vigil Monday evening, senior minister Britt Farmer said he had encountered Kinnunen at the church before.\n\n\u201cI had seen him. I had visited with him. I had given him food. I had offered him food at other occasions he had been to our building,\u201d he said.\n\nA video of the attack, captured by the church\u2019s live-stream camera, shows the gunman sitting in a pew during the service before the shooting. He stands up and paces briefly before he speaks to another churchgoer and pulls a large gun from his coat at about 10:50 a.m. He then fires toward the man he spoke to, striking him and another man standing nearby, as other congregants scream and dive beneath the pews.\n\nThe video then shows a fourth man, apparently Wilson, shoot the gunman. At least four congregants with weapons raised rush toward the attacker, who had fallen to the ground.\n\nThe two victims were taken to a hospital but soon died of their injuries. The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the men as Anton Wallace, 64, of Fort Worth and Richard White, 67, of River Oaks.\n\n\u201cWe have lost some great men. But so many other lives could have been lost,\u201d Farmer said at the vigil Monday. \u201cI love this community, I love this church, I love this state and I love our country and I love our freedoms. And I\u2019m not going to let evil take that away.\u201d\n\nFootage of the shooting has been removed from church YouTube page, though it continues to circulate through social media platforms.\n\nThe FBI is working with local and state authorities to investigate the shooting. Paxton said investigators are uncertain of the gunman\u2019s motive and are searching for people who knew the shooter.\n\nKinnunen, who had previous arrests for alleged assault, theft and possession of an illegal weapon, appeared to be \u201cmore of a loner.\u201d\n\nIt is \u201cprobably going to be very difficult to determine what his motivations were, other than maybe mental illness,\u201d Paxton said.\n\nAuthorities said Kinnunen may have been transient and might have visited the church several times.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, this country has seen so many of these that we\u2019ve actually gotten used to it at this point,\u201d Jeoff Williams, the regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s tragic, and it\u2019s a terrible situation, especially during the holiday season.\u201d\n\nA spokesperson for the West Freeway Church of Christ and Farmer\u2019s family declined Monday to address the church\u2019s security practices. It is unclear whether the church screens people who carry guns into the building.\n\nFarmer recently self-published a work of fiction, set in Texas Hill Country, about an attack on the United States by Muslim terrorists \u2014 an event, he writes in the book\u2019s introduction, that he hopes \u201cnever comes to pass, but, there is always that possibility.\u201d\n\nAs the story begins, a group of Texas ranchers worry forebodingly about the presence of terrorists in the United States. Later, as an Islamic State flag is hoisted atop the Empire State Building, they are glad to have stockpiled guns and ammunition.\n\n\u201c\u2018Guns needed now,\u201d the main character thinks as the crisis gets underway.\n\nBefore the new law, gun owners in Texas could not carry weapons into a house of worship without specific authorization from church leadership. The Sutherland Springs attack spurred Texas lawmakers in a Republican-controlled legislature to loosen the state\u2019s gun laws so that they could do so more easily.\n\nWhile there is no specific law that allows armed volunteers in places of worship, members of a congregation can use their concealed-carry license to protect their religious community, said South Texas College of Law Houston professor Josh Blackman.\n\nHouses of worship and other businesses in Texas are still legally authorized to ban firearms on their premises. But in September, another law went into effect requiring a house of worship to post a sign stating it is opting out before it can prohibit licensed individuals from carrying weapons inside.\n\nConservative politicians and gun rights advocates credited the looser gun laws with saving lives.\n\n\u201cThe brave officers from the White Settlement Police Department were on the scene in less than two minutes, but these men who had volunteered for the church security team had already secured their church,\u201d Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, said in a statement.\n\nThe National Rifle Association renewed its \u201cgood guy with a gun\u201d defense of looser firearms restrictions in a Sunday tweet praising the armed churchgoer\u2019s actions \u2014 a defense that gun-control group Newtown Action Alliance called a \u201cmyth,\u201d noting that Wilson was \u201chighly trained.\u201d\n\nSen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, praised the armed response.\n\nPaxton added Monday: \u201cWe can\u2019t prevent every incident, we can\u2019t prevent mental illness from occurring, and we can\u2019t prevent every crazy person from pulling a gun. But you can be prepared like this church was.\u201d", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": ["Abigail Hauslohner", "Deanna Paul", "Kim Bellwarethe Washington Post"], "publish_date": "Thu Jan 2 00:00:00 2020", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "Top Texas officials this week cited the actions of several armed churchgoers who subdued a gunman in their sanctuary this weekend as a model of how Americans should protect themselves from potential mass shooters.The attack, after which two church members and the gunman were dead, came two years after the Texas legislature passed a law that authorized anyone with a concealed-carry license to bring their weapon into houses of worship. 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