White Settlement Texas Church Shooting

[Judas Maccabeus]

Could someone explain to me why this person HAD a gun in the first place. He was clearly mentally ill, and a danger to himself and society.

J.M.

[gcdonner]

Could someone explain to me why this person HAD a gun in the first place. He was clearly mentally ill, and a danger to himself and society.

J.M.

That is an extremely good question...

[Judas Maccabeus]

Could someone explain to me why this person HAD a gun in the first place. He was clearly mentally ill, and a danger to himself and society.

J.M.

That is an extremely good question...

And I am not hearing of anyone asking it.

J,M.

[gcdonner]

Could someone explain to me why this person HAD a gun in the first place. He was clearly mentally ill, and a danger to himself and society.

J.M.

That is an extremely good question...

And I am not hearing of anyone asking it.

J,M.

The "official" answer would be that he slipped through the cracks in the system. Some guns in that state don't require registration if they are being used for "sporting". I expect shooting at birds in a sanctuary could be considered "sporting", right?

[Josh]

I don't have anything intelligent to say about this other than the fact that I have owned various firearms in my life and have never once felt compelled to carry one into church and would not want to live anyplace where I felt that was necessary. Same thing for schools and restaurants and every other public place.

Rather than discussing the minutia of what kinds of weapons were involved and what kinds of lines of sight and kill shots were available, I'd rather think about how we make a society where this isn't necessary.

Is that possible? The Bible says lawful authority that “does not bear the sword in vain” is mandated by God.

[MaxPC]

I don't have anything intelligent to say about this other than the fact that I have owned various firearms in my life and have never once felt compelled to carry one into church and would not want to live anyplace where I felt that was necessary. Same thing for schools and restaurants and every other public place.

Rather than discussing the minutia of what kinds of weapons were involved and what kinds of lines of sight and kill shots were available, I'd rather think about how we make a society where this isn't necessary.

Is that possible? The Bible says lawful authority that “does not bear the sword in vain” is mandated by God.

Josh, I agree with you. We humans cannot “make a society where this unnecessary”. History tells us that has been tried and failed for thousands of years. Man is a sinful creature; and the fruits of societal engineering have always ended in the subjugation of one group or another because of that. It nearly always requires involvement in political processes that compromise a discipleship walk with God. God who is all-knowing, all powerful perfects our poor efforts in our walk with Him if we trust in Him alone, for we are only responsible for our own relationship with God.

[ohio jones]

I don't have anything intelligent to say about this other than the fact that I have owned various firearms in my life and have never once felt compelled to carry one into church and would not want to live anyplace where I felt that was necessary. Same thing for schools and restaurants and every other public place.

Rather than discussing the minutia of what kinds of weapons were involved and what kinds of lines of sight and kill shots were available, I'd rather think about how we make a society where this isn't necessary.

Is that possible? The Bible says lawful authority that “does not bear the sword in vain” is mandated by God.

If some of those not-in-vain sword-bearers want to attend our churches to protect us from whatever, we should let them. If they do, we should make sure they hear about the Kingdom that has better armor than theirs. And pray that some of them eventually start bringing plowshares and pruning hooks to church.

[Josh]

Right. I disagree with Church of Christ theology, including membership for such sword-bearers.

However, lawfully killing in self defence an active shooter is exactly what God has ordained for the kingdoms of this world, including his own followers who are very deceived when it comes to theology and lifestyle.

[Ken]

I don't have anything intelligent to say about this other than the fact that I have owned various firearms in my life and have never once felt compelled to carry one into church and would not want to live anyplace where I felt that was necessary. Same thing for schools and restaurants and every other public place.

Rather than discussing the minutia of what kinds of weapons were involved and what kinds of lines of sight and kill shots were available, I'd rather think about how we make a society where this isn't necessary.

Is that possible? The Bible says lawful authority that “does not bear the sword in vain” is mandated by God.

Josh, I agree with you. We humans cannot “make a society where this unnecessary”. History tells us that has been tried and failed for thousands of years. Man is a sinful creature; and the fruits of societal engineering have always ended in the subjugation of one group or another because of that. It nearly always requires involvement in political processes that compromise a discipleship walk with God. God who is all-knowing, all powerful perfects our poor efforts in our walk with Him if we trust in Him alone, for we are only responsible for our own relationship with God.

Church and school shootings are not a thing in just about every other modern civilized society. So yes, it can be done. In fact it is the normal thing in western democracies. Or perhaps you think the UK, Norway, New Zealand, etc. are authoritarian hellholes and Honduras, Venezuela, Somalia, Yemen, and other gun-drenched countries are models to be emulated.

[Ken]

I don't have anything intelligent to say about this other than the fact that I have owned various firearms in my life and have never once felt compelled to carry one into church and would not want to live anyplace where I felt that was necessary. Same thing for schools and restaurants and every other public place.

Rather than discussing the minutia of what kinds of weapons were involved and what kinds of lines of sight and kill shots were available, I'd rather think about how we make a society where this isn't necessary.

Is that possible? The Bible says lawful authority that “does not bear the sword in vain” is mandated by God.

If some of those not-in-vain sword-bearers want to attend our churches to protect us from whatever, we should let them. If they do, we should make sure they hear about the Kingdom that has better armor than theirs. And pray that some of them eventually start bringing plowshares and pruning hooks to church.

I have a hard time reconciling an Anabaptist church that would cite biblical authority to argue picayune details about women's dress, head coverings, shoes, buttons, fabric patterns, etc. But then welcome firearms into the sanctuary.