The West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas was the site of a deadly shooting attack on Sunday morning, but the church’s minister credited laws permitting concealed carry in churches for stopping the attack before it got worse.
Britt Farmer, the senior minister at the West Freeway Church of Christ, has come forward with his views on recently passed gun laws. He credited those laws for allowing security volunteers at the church to legally carry weapons that allowed them to stop a suspect armed with a shotgun, who killed two people Sunday, Dallas Morning News reported.
“We lost two great men today, but it could have been a lot worse, and I am thankful our government has allowed us the opportunity to protect ourselves,” Farmer said.
This June, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed several pieces of gun legislation into law, including a bill allowing the concealed carry of firearms in places of worship, with permission from the congregation.
The legislation came as a result of a Nov. 2017 church attack in Sutherland Springs, TX, where 26 members of the congregation were killed.
“We have learned many times over that there is no such thing as a gun-free zone,” state Sen. Donna Campbell, a co-sponsor of the church gun legislation, said at the time of the bill’s passage. “Those with evil intentions will violate the law and carry out their heinous acts no matter what. It makes no sense to disarm the good guys and leave law-abiding citizens defenseless where violent offenders break the law to do great harm.”
The gunman, who still remains unidentified, reportedly entered the church with a shotgun and sat down before the 11 a.m. service. The gunman later stood up and began firing in the church, killing two people.
Armed security volunteers took immediate action and stopped the gunman within six seconds of him opening fire.
Video from the Church shooting in Texas today shows a heroic man stopping the active shooter. Watch the man in the upper left, a volunteer church security guard, take out the shooter (the third shot you hear is the good guy). pic.twitter.com/QJO2QxCNOH
— Ryan Austin (@ryanaustinict) December 29, 2019
Jack Wilson, a church security volunteer, claimed responsibility for firing the shot that stop the gunman, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Wilson and at least one other security volunteer took action and, in a live stream of the attack, other parishioners could be seen approaching the downed gunman with their own weapons drawn.
