U.S.A. -(Ammoland.com)- An armed murderer entered a Texas church last week. Armed parishioners stopped him in seconds and saved hundreds of lives. Some anti-rights politicians didn’t like that public demonstration of self-defense. These politicians, and some Hollywood celebrities, called for more gun-control. We know that self-defense worked, but I was shocked at how badly gun-control failed to keep us safe. Let’s look at the record.
The murderer had a long and troubled past. He had issues with drug abuse, homelessness, mental health, multiple divorces, domestic violence and restraining orders, and a long criminal history. Contrary to the media myth, the murderer did not use an AR style rifle, but used Joe Biden’s firearm of choice, a shotgun. In theory, the murderer should have been unable to get any firearm.
The Conservative Review listed some of his contacts with the law-
- May 4, 1998: Arrested in Tucson for carrying a firearm without a license. He was found guilty, but given no jail time.
- June 25, 1999: Arrested for misconduct involving weapons in Tucson. Charges dismissed.
- August 6, 1999: Arrested for theft and endangerment in Tucson. Found guilty on theft charge.
- August 18, 1999: Arrested for spilling load onto highway in Pima County, AZ. Found guilty.
- 2000: Convicted for driving without a license in Arizona.
- August 25, 2004: Arrested for disorderly conduct in Tucson. Charges dismissed.
- December 3, 2008: Arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, for felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was found guilty the next year but was sentenced to just 90 days for a lesser charge.
- August 12, 2009: Arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Tucson.
- December 8, 2010: Charged with theft in Tucson and numerous failures to appear in court. Never served any new prison time.
- August 11, 2011: Charged with assault, disorderly conduct, and failure to appear in Tucson.
- November 29, 2011: Arrested in Grady County, Oklahoma, for domestic violence and felony aggravated assault. Plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and served 90 days with credit for time served.
- February 9, 2012: A warrant for his arrest was issued for arson in Grady, Oklahoma. He was eventually arrested for lighting tampons on fire and burning a cotton field. He paid a $4,500 fine.
- December 10, 2013: Arrested for theft in Fort Worth, Texas. Found guilty.
- March 25, 2014: Charged with assault knowingly causing injury in Tucson and illegally possessing a weapon.
- June 16, 2015: Arrested in River Oaks, Texas, for unpaid parking tickets.
- September 12, 2016: According to MyCentralJersey.com, he was arrested in Linden, New Jersey, for possession of a 12-gauge shotgun while he was taking pictures of an oil refinery. At the time, New Jersey police also found a contempt of court warrant stemming from an aggravated assault case in Oklahoma.
The murderer’s ex-wife called him violent and paranoid when she sought a restraining order. The murderer had been judged mentally incompetent to stand trial. In 2013, the murderer was diagnosed with forms of psychosis and depression and was prescribed medications to treat the conditions, according to a report by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. These actions or his criminal history should have resulted in a conviction that would have made him a prohibited person who could not own, transport, or carry a firearm.
Our firearms background check system only works when prosecutors and judges do their job. After they failed, the armed citizens in the church did theirs.
Six or seven armed defenders in the church moved toward the attacker. The first defender to fire his gun was the third defender the attacker engaged. The entire exchange took less than 6 seconds. Contrary to the myths spread by gun-control advocates, these armed civilians did not shoot innocent bystanders. The defenders did not shoot each other, and they were not shot by the police when law enforcement arrived minutes later.
Given the way sentencing reform is being implemented, we could have many more individuals with a history of violent crimes who are never convicted of a felony, and thus never put an the list of people prohibited from buying a firearm. Self-defense is imperfect, but it is clearly more reliable than our legal system at stopping crazy murderers. Lives are at stake.
About Rob Morse
The original article with references is here. Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily, and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob is an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.
A correction is in order. In the second to last paragraph the second sentence states, “The first defender to fire his gun was the third defender the attacker engaged.” The attacker never “engaged” the person who killed him. I don’t think he even realized what he was. This was a good thing. A writer’s job is to tell the story correctly. There are enough people that will embellish it without any help from the writer. Before someone says I’m being “picky”, I am not. We have a powerful tool if we just choose to use it. That tool is the… Read more »
Bad guy drew weapon, bad guy murdered security guard, bad guy murdered usher, bad guy moves toward the front left of sanctuary and fires a round toward the pastor just when he was shot in the head by un noticed security guard, bad guy takes up residence in hell. All of this happened in about six seconds. This is a classic case of why you can’t wait for the police. What the left never states is just how fast things go sideways. Those who want to go unarmed, good luck, I hope you never need it. The rest of us… Read more »
Bill:
“That includes murderers, cartel/gang bangers, socialists, communists, and terrorists.”
You left out politicians.
he was eschewing redundancy
DB: Please before you read further; I up-voted you as usual and I am far less picky than RoyD. I just want to make a point. When the anti-gun news media cannot avoid reporting private citizens’ defensive use of firearms, they spin it. They spin to distract from the fact that the person is a private citizen. For this incident, the media often refers to defending citizen as a security guard, inferring a hired professional officer. As if someone other and above private citizens, they often refer to as civilians. Although, he is designated as security by his church, he… Read more »
I stand corrected. Thank you.
Arm up, carry on.
@JackMac – I’d further add that media is stressing that he was formerly an auxiliary deputy. In Texas that is a volunteer position, some of whom serve (at least) into their seventies. Sheriff gets free labor, volunteers gain LEOSA protection while in position and if they serve ten years for life. Media portrays Jack Wilson as former LEO – thus “more qualified” than your typical gun nut. I see his history as auxiliary deputy to be further evidence of his status as (Greater) Typical Texas Gun Nut. As evidence that Auxiliary status does not make better shooters – a group… Read more »
Sounds familiar. Several times our work “pistol club” offered the work “sort” team to a friendly shooting competition. They declined every time. We all knew why.
Wow, this guy should have been committed to jail or the loony farm. LOTS of failures on enforcement and judicial. I know that this guy had been fed by this Church before, maybe that is why the security was lax enough to not search him — OUTSIDE if possible. Dressed as he was with a long coat, fake beard and a wig maybe should have raised alarm bells sooner that it did. For all the arm chair warriors out there, there are legal consequences for showing, much less drawing, a firearm so it seems the guards were reticent for that… Read more »
@DB – Strongly agree – except for comment about three lives. No way I would ever count the dirtbag responsible for the other two deaths. Hesitate to suggest he was or would be suicidal. Crazy people often do not see risks which they are taking, and judging by his disguise I suspect he thought he would shoot up the place and melt away untraceably.
Thank you for your service to your church. Would that all places of congregation had similar security arrangements. Together we can eliminate soft target syndrome.
Amen.
Arm up, carry on.
Yup, there IS a bigger picture here. Even if it is not direct, the left uses events to spin things out of the citizen mindset. New world order? Enslavement? Until it becomes imminent, all we can do is protect those around us directly. That said, it is obviously coming. If Va is the starting point, so much the better. Shooter ready? Stand by…
Arm up, carry on.
Does Parkland come to mind about failures!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rob, I agree that he should never have had access to a shotgun or any other firearm. It was good that the congregants’ security team was able to take him down that quickly, but I have a serious beef with their security protocols. They spotted him as being aberrant in the parking lot. They arranged to have him videoed before he was more than seated. WHY WAS HE ALLOWED INTO THE CHURCH? It is private property, yet despite alarm bells going off in all their heads they never asked to look inside his coat while he was in the parking… Read more »
There is a fine line between being accepting, welcoming, and accmodating, as part of a church’s mission into community, and being what might appear paranoid and protective. It is one thing to know that evil does indeed dwell in the hearts of men, and will have its way until each individual surrenders their life to serve the God who made us. And even being able to discern the point at which this conversioin is solid and not just a “foxhole conversion” or a moment of excitement, but results in a truly changed life. Mr. Wilson had his antannae fiercely twitching,… Read more »
Has anyone heard any reports as to the provenance of that shotgun? Was a trace run, and what did that turn up? Any word as to HOW he got it? Seems he SHOULD< based on his record, have been in NICS as DENY code, so it seems he could not have legally purchased that gun. HOW did he get it? WHO provided it to him? This case already does a great job of pointing out the incompetence of the whole backgrund check farce anyway. He SHOULD have been a Prohibited Person based on his past. WAS he? I think this… Read more »
@Tio – Not to be a conspiracy nut – but is it possible that an anti gave him the gun, knowing how nuts he is? His possession and acquisition of a firearm can and likely will be used as “evidence” of need for UBC. This of course ignores that anyone even seeing this guy could hardly claim to have believed he could legally possess a firearm. Under current law it is illegal to knowingly provide a firearm to a prohibited person which includes if one should have reasonably suspected. Thus if it was not stolen by him, others are complicit… Read more »
This man, a member of the sub-citizen prohibited underclass was arrested in New Jersey for the possession of a firearm. Possession of a firearm, the most horrendous crime against their Crown. Yet, released as a free sub-citizen. We the people have given to our public servants the authority to deny freedom from citizens for criminal acts. Our public servants have become our masters by taking the power to deny rights to free citizens. This man’s freedom should have been denied by confinement in a prison or mental health facility. He had provided sufferance grounds for our public servants to have… Read more »
It also bears reporting that the removal of some Gun Control measures prevented this from being worse than it was. Texas’ Governor rescinded the inclusion of churches as designated “no Carry, Gun free zones” about a year ago. Forgive me if I am mistaken on that, as I am working off of memory only here. As such, the removal of an infringement provided the church with the legal and undisclosed ability to have several firearms inside the worship hall, and which were promptly turned upon the assailant the moment trouble started during service. Also to my memory, I seem to… Read more »
The problem is the idea of “letting them” GIVE US back the GOD given, unalienable, constitutionally RIGHTS. They are not legally able to remove our RIGHTS in the first place. Had the socialist, communist, demoncrapic left leaning rinos had their way there would have been many more innocent but dead people.
Arm up, carry on.
@Deplorable Bill Which is why no where did I say they were returning back our rights, but instead qualified it as the removal of an infringement. I also pointed to it being a hindrance to the church before, and that the removal was therefore letting them go about their business without being trodden upon to let anyone know (this may be where you are taking the “allowance” part from). I never meant for it to be interpreted as an allowance of rights, but the use of the word allowed was supposed to signify that the Church “was able” to operate… Read more »
@Rev – Changes to restrictions were carried out by legislature and are thus law. Forgive me if I’m misinterpreting what you wrote – but these are not state level – executive orders which would be subject to reversal by whomever becomes governor next. If you listen to Jack Wilson’s interview on this subject, the security group was formed before that law change. At that point team members had to be licensed as commercial security guards (he refers to it as LTC 2C). A bit more cost and effort to get the license and I think had to be signed up… Read more »
@Finnky Fair enough, please remember I was doing this off of memory from a year ago, and I am not overly familiar with Texas. Since the Texas legislature convenes so rarely compared to the rest of the states, Texas’ governor has ruling authority that many do not have in other executive offices. I’m quite happy to hear that it came from the Legislature, and that he signed it. The sad fact though is that that is even necessary in the first place. “I’m guessing that some (several?) of the additional armed backup visible in the video would not have been… Read more »
@Rev – Sorry for slow response. Pretty sure this is the interview https://www.ammoland.com/2020/01/texas-church-shooting-hero-jack-wilson-shares-his-side-of-the-story/#axzz6AxQd6RRW Have not expectation that you would keep up with TX law. There are after all so many states with constantly changing laws. I typically only look at other states when I’m about to travel there (or through) – or when a state rises to national exposure as is currently happening with Virginia. Afraid that despite brief pre-travel study, I probably take inadvertent legal risks when I travel. Conceal well enough and it’s a non-issue… Haven’t rewatched to make sure this is where I caught that snippet. It… Read more »
@Finnky
Thanks. I have not watched any videos lately, but I will make time later this week to watch that one and any others I find which might be out there on Jack Wilson. Did see he got his award yesterday.
No worries about taking a few days. In any event, take care.
” I was shocked at how badly gun-control failed”
Really? I stopped being shocked at how badly our society has failed back when they took the ten cent pillows away from airline passengers. When they refuse to even loan you a used ten cent pillow for an hour, but just herd you on like sheep for the profit… well, I think it’s obvious that no other evil schemes will be too low down and petty to contemplate either.
Personally, I stopped being shocked at the amount of insanity around in about 1991.
My favorite “T” shirt:
“Gun control is the ability to hit the target”