Armed worshipers stop mass shooting at a church in Texas.

An ATF agent and dog respond at the scene of the attack. Dallas  Morning News.

Armed worshipers shoot and kill an attacker who opened fire at a Texas church, putting an end to an attack that left two people shot, one of which died. Dallas Morning News. The attack occurred at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, which is west of Forth Worth. The attacker opened fire, shooting two people, but was then shot and killed by armed civilians. No motive for the attack has been released and police have not named the suspect. Police and politicians praised the two people who returned fire, stopping the suspect, but have not yet named them. At least five other people pulled firearms during the attack.

My Comment:

There is video of this attack but I will not post it here for several obvious reasons, with the video being removed and violating the terms of service being the top two. However, I have seen it and I can describe what happened. EDIT: The Truth About Guns has an article up with video showing the attack.

The attacker was near the back of the church when he pulled out what looks like a short shotgun, either a sawed off one or something like a Mossberg Shockwave. As he is pulling that gun out an armed man right next to him goes for his gun too but is shot by the attacker before he can draw down. The attacker then shoots a 2nd person who is right next to him before getting shot himself by yet another armed man, which seems to kill him instantly. At least five people are seen drawing guns in the aftermath. Either three or four shots appear to have been fired from all guns and the entire event happened in about three seconds.

I would say that this is the expected outcome of a shooting at a Texas Church but I think the Sutherland Springs shooting proves that you can't always expect an armed response at a Texas Church. Though the attacker in that case was indeed put down by an armed NRA member with an AR-15 it was after he had finished his killing. Nobody inside that church was armed and 26 people died because of it. 

In this most recent attack though, it seems an armed response saved lives. The Church was full and even though a shotgun has limited ammo and range, he could have killed a few more people. Even assuming he only had a 5 shot Shockwave, he could have shot and possibly killed two to three more, even without reloads. And he probably had reloads as well. This easily could have been a mass shooting where double digit people were killed or injured but in the end only one good guy died so far with the other one in critical condition. 

I do have to point out that it was critical that there were multiple people that were armed. The first man who drew down on the attacker didn't get his shot off and caught a shotgun blast to the chest. If he had been a little bit faster on the draw he could have shot the attacker before he shot anyone, but tragically he couldn't quite make it. It was a matter of milliseconds and he lost the race. Thankfully, there were many other people in this church that were armed and were able to stop the attacker in his tracks. The man who put this attacker down deserves a lot of the credit, but if he had failed there were others waiting in the wing. The first man may have failed to end the attack but he bought a critical second or two to allow others to stop the attacker. 

As for the Church itself I do wonder if these were just armed churchgoers or if they were armed security. It seemed like the two people that got shot were confronting the gunmen before things went to hell so I think they either were armed guards or they were parishioners that were trying to help out. Still, even if there was armed guards at this church, I don't think they would have hired more than one guard and the way I saw it at least five people pulled out guns.

I won't speculate too much on motive. This might have been a planned attack or a spur of the moment thing, though I can't imagine why someone would be so upset at a church service that they would pull out a shotgun. My guess is that this was a planned shooting and that the suspect for whatever reason decided to talk to some people before he started shooting. But he was sitting down before he got up and pulled out his shotgun so who knows what he was thinking? It's very possible that this was a political or religious statement of some kind but in the end that doesn't matter too much. Whatever his reason the attacker was put down quickly and that's what really matters. 

I do think it's a sad state of affairs that attacks on places of worship are sadly common these days. Though I agree that it's a very good thing to have armed people in churches it is sad that it is necessary. Churches and other places of worship are obviously supposed to be sacred ground but that very argument is why they get targeted, regardless if it's by Islamic extremist, political terrorists or simply assholes who want a large group of people gathered together. Thankfully, both churches and the people that go to them realize this and have taken steps to harden these churches as targets.

As for news coverage of this event, I think it is biased as always. I am a little surprised that they are covering it at all, but most of the headlines are leaving out the fact that the attacker was stopped by armed civilians. I think that given this attack happened on a Sunday in a week that contains a holiday, it will be memory holed soon and only local outlets will follow up with further investigations into the attackers motives and goals. That's why I used a local source who made it very clear that this attack was put down by good guys with guns.