Church shooting
In Knoxville. One dead. Five injured.
The Mrs. often asks why I carry to church. It’s because shootings keep happening at churches.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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July 27th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Amen, brother. (Pun intended.)
July 27th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
What brave people gave their lives today. Greg McKendry sacrificed himself and bought time for those who disarmed the shooter.
A second person has passed also.
First rule, fight back.
The shooter had an ammunition fanny pack. Had he been able to reload this could have been a massacre.
July 27th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
They are in my prayers.
Isn’t Larry Henderson a Unitarian, if I recall?
July 27th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church is posted “gun-free,” given this and this.
July 27th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
There’s a dependant variable here somewhere, and I think it has something to do with being shot at whether we carry to church or not.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:19 am
First of all my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones. God be with you through these times. Secondly…Do you think this idiot would have really obeyed the “Gun Free” sign if it were posted? Come on! Those are the places where all of the shootings are taking place…in “Gun Free” zones. Criminals aren’t going to abide by the law. Why do you think they are criminals. I think every legal American should use their second amendment right and carry a weapon. People like this might think twice before doing things like this if they know that more people are carrying weapons.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I want to know when this TREND of killing innocent people in public places is going to stop. Schools, churches and malls; It doesn’t make sense to me. At first I was against people carrying guns but now I also agree with people using their second amendment rights. I’m just afraid that more people carrying guns could lead to more shootings
July 28th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Hopefully the opposite whould be the effect. The law abiding citizens that LEGALLY obtain handgun permits for self defense against these hoodlums, are not the ones you should be afraid of. That is why we carry guns, to protect ourselves and our families. If they, the criminals, want a gun, they will find an ILLEGAL way of obtaining it anyway. I LEGALLY carry a weapon wherever I go for this exact reason. You should feel safer knowing that if some idiot came into your place of worship or business that your friend had a way to protect themselves and you hopefully.
So don’t be afraid when you see your neighbor proudly carrying his handgun…thank him for it. I carry my handgun openly more and more these days to let people know that we are out there and we will fight to protect ourselves and our families.
July 28th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
What a shame. I am an East TN Unitarian Universalist, but I go to a different parish. I personally do not care to own or use firearms, but I know that many others do, and that the vast majority of them do so responsibly.
What happened yesterday was not about guns, and it is doubtful that anything could have been done to prevent it. The latest news is that this person was frustrated by an inability to find work and that his food stamps were being cut. The ironic thing, is that the UU’s would have been among the first to help this man out.
I heard the police comment that this “wasn’t a mental health issue.”
Hello???? Someone blows away innocent church-going people on a Sunday morning? Sounds like a head-case to me.
This guy was counting on being a “Suicide by Cop.” Instead, he was tackled and disarmed (by unarmed churchgoers) and charged with 1st degree murder. If he is, in turn, murdered by the state, it still won’t bring the dead back, nor undo anything that has happened. Even after all this, I still don’t believe that the death penalty serves society, but I sure hope to hell that guy is removed from society forever. He’ll have the rest of his days to think about what he’s done. May God have mercy on his soul, and may he find some way to do some good for someone. I won’t derive any comfort from his execution. Many of my fellow UU’ers feel the same way.
Just the other day, someone suffering from Bipolar disorder shot at and tried to run down the police. He was shot and killed. Thank God nobody else was injured. That issue left me wondering, how on earth did a diagnosed bipolar patient get a gun to begin with? Guns + Mental illness… not such a good mix.
I suspect the problem will only get worse as more returning vets come back from Iraq with PTSD. I hope they get the help they need. The very least we can do as a country is to make sure that the fine men and women who defend our country are not made worse-off by their service and sacrifice.
Let us all help each other out by making sure that anyone who chooses to own a gun will do so safely and responsibly.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Daniel, I grew up in a time when we were surrounded by returned vets from WWII, Korea, some from both, and a few from WWI. They didn’t have PTSD, only because the term hadn’t been invented yet. As a group they were no more likely to do bad things with firearms than any other group of folks. I think your concern in that particular is misplaced.
I do think we do them a disservice if and when they seek any mental or emotional guidance in dealing with their experiences we try to disabuse them of their second amendment rights. Piss poor payoff for loyal service.
July 29th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
No. This was far from a issue of guns; who has them and who doesn’t. It’s an issue of hate and how so much of it consumes so much of America. Hate speech is all over our maintstream networks in the form of FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and hundreds of other smaller networks and organizations. these organizations provide the fuel for the likes of a Jim Adkisson. They feed and flame his anger, culminating in his voices assruing him of the righteousness of killing “liberals”, no matter what their age.
Perhaps we need to slience this hate speech that pervades our society.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
So Ray, who was it who said Charltong Heston should be killed with .44 Bulldog?
Who was it who lied and killed some eighty people in Waco? It wasn’t Coulter, or Limbaugh, or any of those guys, nor did any of them endorse either. There are many more examples.
Should Spike Lee run and hide from you now, how about BJ? or Reno?
What about Patrick Lynch? Don’t know who he is or what he said do you? Look it up. Not a conservative in the bunch.
Adkisson’s actions were more in keeping with the liberal bent. Go read, learn.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
You are not alone. I have carried my Glock 19 to Church for sometime now. Yes I have faith in God, faith that he will give me the skill to place my bullet in a vital area if need be.
July 30th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Straigharrow- Can we agree that there are people who are careless with their comments on the left and right of the political spectrum? Anyone who advocates acts of violence against others should not be given a microphone. I don’t care what their political stripes are.
That said, nobody is without stain. But to address Ray’s comment, some perspective is necessary.
Following are examples of the kind of filth being peddled in today’s political discourse. Many of those mentioned below are priveledged to have microphones belonging to vast media empires, with audiences in the many millions. Furthermore, this filth is their only stock in trade, and they spew it 24/7/365.
———————————-
Lee Rogers: “[T]he day will come when unpleasant things are going to happen to a bunch of stupid liberals and it’s going to be very amusing to watch.”
Rush Limbaugh: “I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus — living fossils — so we will never forget what these people stood for.”
RedState contributor “Thomas Crown”:I repeat: Should the entire American Left fall over dead tomorrow, I would rejoice, and order pizza to celebrate. They are not my countrymen; they are animals who happen to walk upright and make noises that approximate speech. They are below human. I look forward to seeing each and every one in Hell.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin:There were, and are, “two incompatible moral visions for this country. We had to settle it then. We’re going to have to settle it now. I hope not with blood, not with guns, but we’re going to have to settle it nonetheless. The good news is that I think our side is finally ready to settle it. Roll up its sleeves, take off its jacket, and get a little bloody. Spill a little blood. We’ll settle it. And we’ll win. And then there’s no holding us back.
Ann Coulter:”We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too.”
Joe M. Richardson, letter to Editor and Publisher:I say start executing the leftists in our country, soon.
Rep. Peter King:And Joe Wilson has no right to complain. And I think people like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy such a free ride and all the media, they’re the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove.
“Sock” Sokolowski, to Stephanie Miller:As with Cindy Sheehan the best thing that could happen to you would be seeing some WONDERFUL activist sticking an AK-47 up your Glory Holes and sending you into eternity… I would gather my 1st amendment rights permit me to HOPE (!) and PRAY (!) that someone decides you’re better off as statistics. Honestly, should I hear of either you leaving this earth prematurely I would initiate a personal celebration that would make Animal House appear to be just another quiet Sunday in church.
Melanie Morgan: “We’ve got a bull’s-eye painted on [Nancy Pelosi’s] big, wide laughing eyes.”
Kathleen Parker:Here’s a note I got recently from a friend and former Delta Force member, who has been observing American politics from the trenches: “These bastards like Clark and Kerry and that incipient ass, Dean, and Gephardt and Kucinich and that absolute mental midget Sharpton, race baiter, should all be lined up and shot.”
John Shelley:All verminous, hate-America, liberal-socialist-commie filth should be contained and selectively eliminated.
Paul Cameron:”Unless we get medically lucky, in three or four years, one of the options discussed will be the extermination of homosexuals.”
———————–
I invite you to provide a similar list, of similar comments from the left- provided we compare apples to apples. Please don’t take the lame and tired response of coughing up a couple of comments by anonymous bloggers. Been there, done that.
Show me leftists advocating killing people who have the same media exposure and the same audience size as the Limbaughs of the world, and then we can start talking.
In any case, I will be the first one to censure and call for the silencing of hate speech in the media, no matter where it comes from.
———————
The RW pundits (and the filthy rich power brokers who pay for their microphones and printing presses) are very uncomfortable right now. Good.
Now, you don’t need to tell me that millions of law-abiding citizens listen to this crap and would never harm anyone. I know that. But in addition to their bile, we are also treated to lies and mischaracterizations. These people all spout the same message. Liberals are sub-human scum, etc. We’re talking about half the country here. Could it be that the pundits (and the classes that enable them) have much to gain by keeping the little people of America at each other’s throats, while the people who hold real power are busy screwing them all? RW and LW?
Hint- the Liberals are not to blame for this, and I am sick and goddamn tired of being the scapegoat for these bozos.
The kind of foam spilling from the radio is red meat for many, and it becomes justification for violence for those who are not wrapped quite as tightly as the rest of us.
Watch your thoughts, for thoughts become words
Watch your words, because words become actions
Watch your actions, because actions become habits
Watch your habits, because habits become destiny
—————————————
No doubt, the causes of the terrible massacre in Knoxville are complex, and may never be known, but there is no doubt that the constant drumbeat of hate on the radio has created a very nasty climate in this country, and has incited a great deal of anger. It does us no good.
Us little people- and that means everyone making less than, perhaps, $500,000 a year, have much more in common than some may think. We are all getting screwed. I don’t need to go into detail here. The rich and powerful go to bed every night trembling in fear over what will happen if all the little people suddenly stop squabbling and get together to fight for their FAIR share of the pie?
I am not a rich person, or some “elitist” snob. I am a little person. I don’t belong to “the club.” I just am an ordinary working stiff with a family to support. I worry about paying my bills just like you do. I want my children to be safe, just like you do. When I am cut, I bleed, just like you.
———————–
What makes people different than animals?
Even if it could be conclusively proven that RW Hate Radio is entirely blameless for the tragedy, what good does it do society to pedal such filth? Why pander to people’s reptile brains- the lowest part of the brain, by spouting simplistic, peurile filth, just so the sponsors can sell a few more useless baubles, and just so a few people can become very rich at the expense of everyone else?
Aren’t we better than that? Shouldn’t we be better than that?
Besides, if your only response to the filth being peddled by RW talk-radio hacks is to cry, “But they do it too!!” it’s very telling that the best you can do is to hold your heroes to the same low standard of those who you revile. I would expect an argument that demonstrates their moral superiority over the so-called “liberal scum.”
I don’t want a response or a rebuttal. I just want people to THINK about this. For GOD’S SAKE- THINK about what we are doing to ourselves. All of us.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Thank you to the owner of this site.
I am grateful for the opportunity for my viewpoints to be heard. God bless.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Daniel, no problem.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Sorry- the passage I quoted earlier was incorrect. It goes like this:
Watch your thoughts, for thoughts become Words
Watch your words, because words become Actions
Watch your actions, because actions become Habits
Watch your habits, because habits become Character
Watch your character, because character becomes Destiny
Though often attributed to Frank Outlaw, there is no official record of such a person existing. In any case, I think the message is a powerful one.
————-
On a different matter:
I am not afraid to express my opinions strongly.
I fully expect my opinions and views to be at odds with many of the regular visitors to this blog.
I also make you a promise-
I will be intellectually honest.
I will be respectful to individuals posting here.
I look forward to the opportunity to talk to you all, as adults, about things that are important to us. I am your neighbor, and an American who cares deeply about his country, and wants us to work ever harder to be the best we can be. There is much work to do.
Thanks, and God bless.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Love your nieghboor as you love yourself and to Love God with all your heart. Let’s not try to pass blame, people make their own choices and are responsable for their own actions. Blaming the left or right over what he said or she said does not make much sense unless you allow yourself to be led around like a mule. Pray for those in need and be kind to all. Remembering that people kill not guns, they are just a tool. A hammer will kill, a butter knife will kill, a baseball bat will kill, are we going to outlaw these also, but the crime is when we plan out the murder , even if we do not carry it out. Get yourselfs a red letter bible and read the Words of Christ if nothing else. Take Care and May God Bless You and Keep You
August 1st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
In the 1920’s a little guy spent nights spewing hate speech in a bar. He was a real crowd pleaser. He told the people who to hate, told them who to blame for there problems. He told them who was a patriot and who was not. Nobody told him to shut up. By 1945 50 million people, including 450+ thousand Americans, were dead.