The murder and wounding of most of the congregation of a small rural Baptist Church in South Texas provides a wake-up call for churches, schools and businesses that consider themselves gun-free areas.
Killers look for “soft targets.” Gun-free areas are the safest most desirable targets for killers who do not want to be on an equal footing with their intended victims. They are wanting to have an advantage that gives them an opportunity to do as much damage as possible without being interrupted.
Apparently, the Southerland First Baptist Church had no security plan that included armed individuals to protect the congregation from an attack by a killer of whatever type.
Large churches have security plans and armed people inside the church. Small churches have apparently concluded that they are not a target for terrorism and therefore a security system is not necessary. That is flawed reasoning. Things have changed during my lifetime.
During my youth, evil was out of style. Most people believed God was real and all people were accountable to Him. That is no longer the case. The most vile non-Christian respected pastors and known Christians and would not even use unacceptable language in their presence. Many school age children currently have no respect for adults or Christians. Rather than starting their school days with prayer and a song like “God Bless America,” and the lives of our Founding Fathers and national heroes, School age children are learning elementary witchcraft in the form of Harry Potter, who is the new hero for young American students.
We must realize that without God, the human being is capable of very evil behavior. Under these circumstances we must protect ourselves from the evil among us. Even small churches must designate qualified members of the congregation to be armed and capable of protecting the congregation from anyone who would harm them.
Government schools are dependent on government for security. In Greenville County, very large schools are dependent on one security officer and a response team from the local law enforcement office. In my view, that is grossly inadequate for defense against a trained team of ISIS type attackers. “When seconds count, police are only minutes away.” At some point, we will realize that qualified staff members inside schools must be armed or capable of obtaining arms instantly in case a killer gets inside the locked doors of the school.
Hopefully we will not wait for a terrorist attack that results in multiple student casualties before our school and government officials prepare for the worst.
Gun-free zones invite murder!