Gunman kills 26 people in Texas church, stopped by civilian with gun.

Texas Governor Greg Abbot at a candlelight vigil. Reuters. 

A gunman has killed 26 people and wounded 20 more in a mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Reuters. The attacker, Devin Patrick Kelley, attacked the church but was confronted by an armed citizen who engaged in a gunfight with the suspect. Kelley then dropped his rifle and fled the scene and was found later after he crashed his car. Kelley was found dead, but it is unclear if he was killed by the citizen or if he killed himself. Kelley was an Air Force veteran but was discharged dishonorably in 2010. No motive has been released and Kelley's social media pages have been deleted. 

EDIT: Added the video below. 

My Comment:

I won't speculate too much about the motive for this attack. There is a lot of fake news going on right now claiming things that can't be confirmed. There are rumors swirling that this guy was antifa or ISIS or something else, but none of that has been confirmed by reliable sources. It does seem like the guy was a radical atheist, but with his social media deleted I can't confirm that the screenshots I have seen are accurate. If I had to guess, I'd say it is politically motivated but I can't prove it. I also think it's fairly obviously not an ISIS/Islamic motivated attack either. 

This is the third attack in recent memory targeting a church in the United States. There was the Charleston attack and, more recently, the attack in Nashville. Attacking churches is despicable and a disturbing trend. I'm not very religious myself but killing people while they are worshiping is beyond disgusting. 

Why attack a church? Other than the obvious political or religious reasons, it seems that they are easy places to assault. Churches aren't exactly known for having multiple exits and places to hide. Also, in many cases, guns are banned from churches so there is little chance of people fighting back, assuming they would be prepared to do so anyways. There also might be the psychological motivation to defile something holy... 

The media is downplaying the fact that this gunman was stopped by a civilian with a gun. Unfortunately the gunman had already killed dozens of people before the guy was able to react. He, quite wisely, waited for the gunman to exit. When he did, the shot at him, forcing him to drop his rifle and then flee in his car. He also very bravely chased after the attacker. We don't know for sure if he killed himself or if the civilian did, but it's obvious that the civilians actions stopped the attacker. 

What that person did was very heroic and should be a fairly strong argument against gun control. If the civilian didn't have his own firearm, the suspect could have escaped or continued his rampage. Since this attack happened in Texas, I doubt that this church was the only one in the area and the attacker certainly could have attacked other churches. He wasn't able to do so because he was shot at, chased and possibly killed by a good guy with a gun. 

Sure, more lives may have been saved if the civilian had rushed into the church. Or perhaps not, maybe Kelley would have shot him instead. But the fact remains this guy went above and beyond the call of duty. He didn't have to do anything because he was safe at home when the gunfire started. Instead, he engaged the attacker in the safest way possible. This person is a hero. 

I also want to point out that because the attacker was dishonorably discharged from the Air Force. A dishonorable discharge is equivalent to a felony conviction which, of course, bars ownership of firearms. Obviously that means that Kelley obtained his weapons illegally. Gun control wouldn't have stopped him because he already broke the law. 

I do hope that the investigation into this attack goes better than the one after the Las Vegas shooting. We still don't have much information about that case. Indeed, it seems like we already know more about this attack than we do about Las Vegas. At least in this case we were able to briefly see the social media postings this guy made, which will give hints for motive. Hopefully this investigation is more transparent...