When John Fitzgerald Kennedy was deplaning from Air Force One in Dallas, TX one November day in 1963 with his wife, he turned to her and said, “We’re in nut country now.” That was the last day that Jack and Jackie had a private conversation because he was dead a few hours later. “Nut Country,” however, seems to be alive and flourishing. In the wake of the Sutherland Springs massacre, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) interprets the deadliest mass murder in his state’s history as evidence that church parishioners need to carry guns for self protection. Huffington Post:
“This is going to happen again,” Paxton told Fox News on Sunday, since “you can’t necessarily keep guns out of the hands of people who are going to violate the law.” To support his argument, Paxton pulled out the National Rifle Association’s favorite talking point: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
“All I can say is in Texas, at least we have the opportunity to have conceal carry,” Paxton said. “There’s always the opportunity that the gunman will be taken out before he has the opportunity to kill very many people.”
Fox News anchor Eric Shawn pushed back, arguing that a firearm and the church are “two potentially diametrically opposed concepts.” Paxton disagreed and called for more armed security guards in church or “at least arming some of the parishioners so they can respond to something like this.”
A new law that went into effect in September allows Texas churches to arm members of its congregations by hiring security companies or off-duty police officers.
Guns at church are welcomed as a way to handle conflict. Here’s a report by KFOX14 TV:
The pastor at Abundant Life in Central El Paso, Walter Dimmit, said the church is too small to be able to afford to hire security, but he said he and the other pastor are in favor of this law.
"We had a situation several months ago where we had one of our parishioners who is being threatened, very actively threatened, because I have a concealed carry license, I came to church armed for fear of her situation," Dimmitt said. "So we are in favor of this law being passed."
Dimmitt said the threatened woman was afraid of her life [sic] and the man knew she attended this church. He said he knows churches and religions are target [sic] sometimes, and this is the safest way to defend his congregation.
Well, they can’t write or punctuate in Texas, even the purported journalists, but at least they’ve got plenty of guns and ammo and plans for even more.
JFK was right.
Fast forward to 7:57 to hear the attorney general say how, “if somebody is willing to kill somebody they’re going to be willing to break a state law,” referencing gun control.