{"id":40555,"date":"2019-12-30T03:04:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T03:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40555"},"modified":"2019-12-30T03:04:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T03:04:36","slug":"guns-have-their-place-still-not-sure-its-in-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40555","title":{"rendered":"Guns have their place; still not sure it&#8217;s in church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=gunviolence%20%23WhiteSettlementshooting%20%23concealedcarry&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2-dead-1-in-critical-condition-after-shooting-at-white-settlement-church-officials-say-the-dallas-morning-news.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-40556\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2-dead-1-in-critical-condition-after-shooting-at-white-settlement-church-officials-say-the-dallas-morning-news-300x158.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2-dead-1-in-critical-condition-after-shooting-at-white-settlement-church-officials-say-the-dallas-morning-news-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2-dead-1-in-critical-condition-after-shooting-at-white-settlement-church-officials-say-the-dallas-morning-news-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2-dead-1-in-critical-condition-after-shooting-at-white-settlement-church-officials-say-the-dallas-morning-news-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2-dead-1-in-critical-condition-after-shooting-at-white-settlement-church-officials-say-the-dallas-morning-news.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There once was a time when I opposed concealed handgun carry legislation in Texas. My fear at the time was that there might be shootouts at traffic intersections between motorists who would turn fender-benders into something quite different.<\/p>\n<p>Those fears have not materialized. I have recognized the absence of such roadside mayhem. I also have acknowledged my <em>acceptance<\/em> of concealed carry permits in Texas, if not an outright <em>endorsement<\/em> of them.<\/p>\n<p>Does that carry over to allowing firearms in houses of worship? Yes, we had a shootout in a church in White Settlement today. The gunman killed a parishioner and seriously wounded another one before churchgoers returned fire and killed the bad guy.<\/p>\n<p>One relatively successful incident involving firearms in churches does <em>not<\/em>, in my mind, make for a successful policy. I still fear the consequence of a pistol-packing worshiper opening fire in response to a gunman and missing the target badly, resulting in collateral casualties.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, there just is something bizarre and <em>unholy<\/em> about allowing worshipers to bring loaded firearms with them while they take communion and say their prayers to God.<\/p>\n<p>The day might come when I&#8217;ll accept the notion of guns in the church pew. Just not yet.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, I&#8217;ll pray that the White Settlement churchgoer recovers from the wound inflicted. I also will express my gratitude from some distance that the parishioners who took out the gunman knew what to do when the gunfire erupted.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=gunviolence%20%23WhiteSettlementshooting%20%23concealedcarry&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There once was a time when I opposed concealed handgun carry legislation in Texas. My fear at the time was that there might be shootouts at traffic intersections between motorists who would turn fender-benders into something quite different. Those fears have not materialized. I have recognized the absence of such roadside mayhem. I also have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40555\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Guns have their place; still not sure it&#8217;s in church<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1099,2037,9131],"class_list":["post-40555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-concealed-handgun-carry","tag-gun-violence","tag-white-settlement-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40557,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40555\/revisions\/40557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}