Mass Church Shooting in Texas (Fatalities)

[Rachel333]

They're saying now that he was mad at his mother-in-law, who had attended the church before but wasn't there that day.

[Howl]

This guy God-splains the whole darn thing for us:

Conservative writer: God was ‘answering prayers’ of Texas victims by letting them get shot

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Hans Fiene, a Lutheran pastor who is also a regular contributor to the right-wing website The Federalist, has written a new column in which he explains that allowing 26 people to die at the hands of a crazed gunman at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, this weekend was actually God’s way of answering their prayers.

Fiene begins his column by attacking liberals who have mocked Republican politicians who only offer “thoughts and prayers” for shooting victims — and who don’t take any direct action that could prevent future shootings.

He then explains to liberals that it was part of God’s plan that over two dozen people would get shot up while in their own house of worship.

“It may seem, on the surface, that God was refusing to give such protection to his Texan children,” he writes. “But we are also praying that God would deliver us from evil eternally. Through these same words, we are asking God to deliver us out of this evil world and into his heavenly glory, where no violence, persecution, cruelty, or hatred will ever afflict us again.”

Fiene then says that, in order to fully defeat evil eternally, God has to let evil get some temporary victories, such as this weekend’s mass shooting.

“So when a madman with a rifle sought to persecute the faithful at First Baptist Church on Sunday morning, he failed,” Fiene says. “Just like those who put Christ to death, and just like those who have brought violence to believers in every generation, this man only succeeded in being the means through which God delivered his children from this evil world into an eternity of righteousness and peace.”

"in order to fully defeat evil eternally, God has to let evil get some temporary victories, such as this weekend’s mass shooting"

Is there some bible-fu to support this or is it just some bull shit Hans came up with on the spur of the moment?

I don't think the pastor and his wife, who lost their daughter and a large portion of the congregation, are pursuing this line of thinking. 

[Ozlsn]

11 hours ago, quiversR4hunting said:

@FeministShrew after the last church shooting (Sept. 24, 2017, Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, Antioch, Tenn.) my priest stood at the pulpit and announced that if there is an active shooter to get out.

I honestly don't know what I find more mindboggling - that there was another church shooting less than 3 months ago (that I totally missed hearing about) or that your priest felt it necessary to give this advice because it is common enough to be something you need to think about. May your beautiful windows stay unbroken. 

13 hours ago, quiversR4hunting said:

 

@Snarkangel Gabriel so the answer is gun control, magazine control, background checks and licensed weapons. I don't think we will take away all the guns (I hunt, I don't think we need to take away all guns) but we do need common sense and we have a free-for-all over here. It is very sad.

Totally agree. I tend to like Jim Wright's Bang Bang Sanity essay on Stonekettle Station as one potential route. I have no idea how feasible it is, but I think engaging the moderates is a good way forward.

[quiversR4hunting]

8 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

I honestly don't know what I find more mindboggling - that there was another church shooting less than 3 months ago (that I totally missed hearing about) or that your priest felt it necessary to give this advice because it is common enough to be something you need to think about. May your beautiful windows stay unbroken.

I feel the same way. Plus I found myself berating myself that I never would have thought to break the windows to escape. I have let myself off the hook on not thinking of breaking a window, I decided many of us probably never would have thought about doing that. Now when I go places and think escape routes (I work in a court house, we get a lot of nut jobs) I now think of the windows as escape routes, too.

[Rachel333]

The shooter escaped from a mental facility in 2012. So that's a history of severe domestic violence, animal cruelty, sexual assault, mental issues, "attempting to carry out death threats" (from the article I just linked)... it's unbelievable that this guy was still able to pass a background check and buy a gun.

[Hufflepuffpride]

8 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

The shooter escaped from a mental facility in 2012. So that's a history of severe domestic violence, animal cruelty, sexual assault, mental issues, "attempting to carry out death threats" (from the article I just linked)... it's unbelievable that this guy was still able to pass a background check and buy a gun.

Bolded is mine.

DT recently rolled back measures President Obama put in place to avoid people with severe mental illness having access to guns. 

If you can, I would suggest getting a hold of your representative to protest it. I would, but Im a lowly Canadian. 

[GrumpyGran]

Everything else aside, it seems clear that this was not a person known as a great guy in his community. I can understand going on with your life, hoping someone will not do something horrible if he has made his hatred for you known. But I find it hard to believe that his parents weren't aware that he could not legally own guns. Or that he was angry with his mother-in-law. Or that he had issues, lots of issues with violent behavior and illegally possessing guns on a military base.

Did they think he went on vacation for a year when he was in prison? Or that he just decided to leave the military because he didn't like it? They had to have known how dangerous he was.

[Howl]

He also was hired as an (unarmed) night-shift security guard at Schlitterbahn water park in New Braunfels, TX, but was fired in July after a little over five weeks on the job.  How the hell did he pass the criminal history background check to get hired for THAT job?  From the San Antonio web site SACurrent.com:
 

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In a Monday press conference, [Texas] Department of Public Safety spokesman Freeman Martin said that Kelley did not have a license to carry a gun in Texas — but he did have a state unarmed security guard license, which requires a background check. Schlitterbahn confirmed that Kelley had passed a criminal background check through DPS.