12-13-07 Article at townhall.com - Colorado mega-church

[Greybeard]

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CalT ... ammunition

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition
By Cal Thomas
Thursday, December 13, 2007

I have been waiting for this to happen. For years we have witnessed the carnage when innocents were mowed down at schools, colleges, shopping malls and post offices. The unarmed (disarmed?) were easy targets for crazed gunmen armed with grievances, weapons and ammunition.
Now someone has shot back, probably saving many lives. All of the gun-control laws that have been passed and are still being contemplated could not have had the affect of one armed, trained and law-abiding citizen on the scene like 42-year-old Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The gunman, 24-year-old Mathew Murray, had been expelled from the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) organization for health reasons, according to officials. Authorities say Murray vowed revenge in several Web postings, which copied abundantly from the manifesto written by Columbine High School killer Eric Harris before the 1999 school massacre.

Jeanne Assam, the security guard who shot and killed an attacker at the New Life church (R), shakes hands with New Life Senior Pastor Brady Boyd (L) in Colorado Springs, Colorado after a news conference December 10, 2007. A man dressed in black, wearing combat boots and holding an assault rifle and at least one handgun, opened fire in the parking lot of the vast church after Sunday services, killing one person on the spot and wounding others. A second person died later, police said.

In rants laced with profanity, Murray lashed out against Christians he said had “brought this on yourselves.� He wrote that Christians “are to blame for most of the problems in the world.� Does that qualify as a “hate crime�? Probably not as such designations are usually given only to “oppressed minorities.�

It is Assam and not the shooter who received — and deserves — most of the media attention and praise. Calm and collected at a news conference, Assam detailed her movements and decision-making after hearing shots in the parking lot outside the church. She was especially attentive to possible danger after learning of the earlier shooting during which two people were killed at the YWAM facility several miles away. After hearing shots in the church parking lot, Assam said she walked about 100 yards through a hallway, hid herself and when Murray walked in, emerged from hiding and confronted him. “I was just asking God, bottom line, this is all you,� she said. “It was so loud. … It was scary. But God was with me. I asked him to be with me. And he never left my side.�

Assam is a former Minneapolis police officer who is licensed to carry a concealed weapon. She said she had been praying about what to do with her life and had volunteered to help with security at the 10,000-member church. She said, “I wasn’t going to wait for him to do other damage. I knew what I had to do.�

The El Paso County Coroner’s Office has since determined that Murray died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But it doesn’t matter. With at least five guns, all that ammunition and more weapons in the car, according to police, Assam’s presence stopped Murray from killing and wounding more people inside the church, which appeared to be his intent.

Church Pastor Brady Boyd said he has a 15- to 20-member security staff because “that’s the reality of our world. I don’t think any of us grew up in churches where that was a reality, but today it is.�
Killers — ones with mental disorders, or terrorists — look for places with large gatherings to amplify their acts. That’s why in recent years they have selected targets ranging from the World Trade Center, to Columbine High School, to shopping malls and now a megachurch. On the rare occasions when an armed person has been on the scene before police arrive, such acts have been stopped before further damage could be done. When no armed person has been present, by the time the police show up the killing is usually over and the gunman has shot himself.
The point is that gun laws will not deter criminals with evil intent and police can’t be everywhere they’re needed. But killers can be stopped by law-abiding citizens with guns. As the Supreme Court considers its ruling on whether the strict gun laws in the District of Columbia are constitutional, it might remember Jeanne Assam and her courageous, proper and for now legal response to a lawless act. Though four were killed at the two locations and several others wounded, many more owe their lives to Assam, who should be the new poster woman for those who wish to preserve the right to keep and bear arms.

Cal Thomas is co-author (with Bob Beckel) of the forthcoming book, "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America"

[frankie_the_yankee]

Great column and great post.

Cal Thomas has a pretty big audience. This message will reach a lot of people.

[mr surveyor]

Cal Thomas is one of THE best, common sense opinion writers in the U.S.A. His work is in the op-ed pages of many newspapers throught the nation.

[Greybeard]

Quote: "This message will reach a lot of people."

Yep, hopefully more people who will read and heed. We need to get the numbers up to around 15%, not the paltry 1.5% (or less who actually carry regularly).

I did not hear it, but a renewal student in class this morning said that Mark Davis was of a similar posture this morning on WBAP talk radio.

[DoubleJ]

he always is! I like Mark Davis. Him and Russ Martin seem to be good buddies. someone else who is a CHLer.

[TacShot]

Interested readers of the Cal Thomas article may wish to read the associated articles in the lower sidebar of the window. They are also interesting and supportive of our mutual cause.

[Liberty]

This aritcle might be worth sending to our state reps. Maybe they will wake up and allow allow teachers and students to defend themselves against what is seemingly inevitable. If Colombine and others weren't enough to wake tthem up maybe a success story is. here [ is another take on the recent shooting from a paper in Portland Main.

Has anyone ever wondered why people with guns who have kissed sanity good-bye never take out their uncontrollable rage on the nearest police station?

Nor do they drive off to the nearest Army base, shooting range or hunting club to vent their murderous frustration.

It should only take a moment's thought to understand why: Those places have people who have relatively easy access to weapons themselves.

It's one thing to be homicidal and suicidal, but it's quite another to consider that one's murderous intent could be brought to an untimely halt through the immediate application of superior firepower.

However, there are places that draw these people like magnets, and they, too, are easy to locate: They are the places where the possession of firearms is forbidden, and that fact is widely advertised.

Some of these places even go so far as to publicly display their vulnerability to mass murder through the posting of signs that say "No Guns Permitted" or "Gun-Free Zone."

Virginia Tech was proud of its "gun-free" status, and boasted about how safe a place it was once it posted signs forbidding firearms on campus.

Thirty-two people died there last April as the cost of that exercise in hubris and futility.

Other places where firearms are typically banned are stores, including shopping malls, government buildings, including schools, and places of worship.

We saw in the Columbine shootings how effective gun bans are for schools.

And in Omaha last week, eight people died in a shopping mall before the shooter, cornered by police, killed himself.

In Ogden, Utah, last February, a man killed five people in a mall before an armed off-duty police officer pinned him down until help could arrive.

And just this past weekend, a disturbed youth who had posted violent diatribes against Christians on an Internet site killed two students at a Colorado missionary center.

He later showed up at a church that had an association with the missionary group carrying multiple weapons and 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

But because of the earlier shootings, the church had activated its voluntary security force, composed of members who had licenses to carry concealed weapons and the training to use them.

The gunman killed two teenage girls in the church parking lot and wounded their father before he entered the church.

But once he got inside, he was confronted by one of the church's volunteer guards, Jeanne Assam, a former police officer armed with a pistol.

Its worth the full read.

[Greybeard]

Quote: "Assam, dubbed "Dirty Harriet" by one writer ..."

Now THAT is the most digusting thing I'm seen all week. Probably a good thing he did not mention the name of that writer ...

Edited to add: On second thought, not knowing the context of exactly how "Dirty Harriet" was used, it might just be considered it a badge of honor!

And another man's opinion: "I'd like to see her sitting next to Laura Bush at the State of the Union address next month, and singled out for recognition by the President." Amen to that. And what's to say that George wouldn't just do it?