27 killed in Texas church massacre

No place in America is safe. No place.

At least 27 dead, dozens injured in Texas church massacre
New York Post, Nov 5 2017 2:13 PM

At least 27 people were killed and two dozen more injured when a gunman opened fire inside a crowded Texas church today. The unidentified shooter walked into the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs just before noon and began firing. One of the shot victims is a 2-year-old child. Wilson County Commissioner Albert Gamez, Jr. said the death toll is at 27 — and expected to climb. "My heart is broken," he said. "We never think where it can happen, and it does happen. It doesn’t matter where you’re at. In a small community, real quiet and everything, look what can happen."

The gunman, believed to be a local resident, fled in a vehicle but cops caught up with him after a short chase, according to Gamez, who said it was unclear whether cops killed the gunman or he turned the weapon on himself. The church regularly posts its weekly services to its Youtube page, and investigators are now searching for video that could shed more light on what happened. "Our prayers are with all who were harmed by this evil act," Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted on Twitter. "Our thanks to law enforcement for their response."

The town — population about 400 — is roughly 30 miles southwest of San Antonio. The violence comes just a month after the US’s worst-ever mass shooting — when madman Stephen Paddock opened fire on an outdoor Las Vegas concert on October 1, killing 58 and injuring hundreds.

http://nypost.com/2017/11/05/multipl...urch-shooting/

Update from the New York Post:

"The Texas shooter responsible for killing at least 27 people Sunday has been identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, who was married and a resident of New Braunfels, a suburb of San Antonio. Kelley opened fire inside a Sutherland Springs church Sunday morning, killing at least 27 people, including the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter, and injuring at least 20, including a 2-year-old child."

Statistically in the United States, there is approximately one gun for every man, woman and child. The so-called "gun nuts" and the NRA continue to insist that having more guns makes our nation safer. Really? The number of gun deaths has risen dramatically in the past two years and ABC News notes that four of the five deadliest shootings in US history have occurred in the past year and a half.

Devin Kelley joined the Air Force in 2010, was court-martialed for assault in 2012 and was given a dishonorable discharge for bad conduct in 2014. Last week he bought an AR-14 assault rifle and bragged about it on Facebook. And nobody thought anything was amiss?

A reporter asked Trump about enacting new gun control legislation. He deflected, saying, "Mental health is the issue here. This was a very deranged individual." Well, Donald, it was not "mental health" that killed all those people. It was an assault rifle -- and Kelley didn't even have a permit to carry a gun. The dead range in age from 18 months to 73 years.

CNN interviewed the man who shot the killer. The killer drove off and the other man got in a car and chased him. The killer apparently died while he was driving and crashed his car.

It's very simple. Democrats care. Republicans do not.

Obama, Biden seek action on gun violence after Texas shooting

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...ing/835696001/

Animal cruelty. Assaults. Stalking. Harassment of ex-girlfriends. A "bad conduct" dishonorable discharge from the Air Force. And Devin Kelley had absolutely no difficulty obtaining an assault rifle. None whatsoever. In the United States, far too many crazy people who should not have guns do have guns. If not, they can easily get guns. It is sad and disgraceful that nothing is ever done to change this.

Who is Devin Kelley, the Texas church shooter?

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/tex...hooter-n817806

Officials now say the killer was still alive when he crashed his car into a ditch. He then shot himself in the head. Fourteen shooting victims remain hospitalized. Ten are in critical condition.

No. 2 Senate Republican to introduce background check bill in wake of deadly Texas shooting
Reuters, Nov 7 2017 2:02 PM

Texas Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said today that he plans to introduce legislation to ensure federal agencies put required criminal records into a national database, after a shooting on Sunday in which 26 people were killed in a church. "I plan to introduce legislation to ensure that all federal departments and agencies, including the Department of Defense, upload the required conviction records into the national database," Cornyn said in a statement.

The gunman in the Texas shooting had been convicted by court-martial in 2012 of assaulting his first wife and stepson during his stint in the U.S. Air Force, but the Air Force did not enter the conviction into an FBI database used during background checks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-te...-idUSKBN1D72OY

Federal law prohibits gun possession by anyone who "has been committed to any mental institution" -- another reason Devin Kelley should not have been allowed to buy an assault rifle.

Texas gunman escaped from psychiatric hospital in 2012

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/u...ng-church.html

The pastor, whose 14-year-old daughter was one of the victims, considered having the church demolished because continuing to hold services there would be "too painful." Then he came up with a better idea:

Sutherland Springs Baptist Church sanctuary to re-open as memorial one week after mass shooting

http://www.click2houston.com/news/na...-mass-shooting

US cities sue military over gun background-check system
Reuters, Dec 26 2017 8:54 AM

The cities of New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia have sued the US Department of Defense to make it fix its system for reporting conviction records to a database used for background checks on gun buyers. The lawsuit was filed on Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia and came after the US Air Force revealed it failed to report the criminal record of the man who in November killed 26 people and wounded 20 others in a shooting at a Texas church.

The complaint said it sought an injunction to prevent future "senseless carnage" by requiring the Defense Department to locate all records in its possession that should be reported in order to fix "deadly gaps" in the background check database.

Former Airman Devin Kelley, who opened fire in the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs on November 5, was convicted five years ago by a general court-martial on two charges of domestic assault against his wife and stepson. The Air Force said that information was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation oversees and uses to run required background check requests from gun dealers before a sale. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has since ordered the Justice Department to undertake a review of the system to help plug potential reporting gaps.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-t...-idUSKBN1EK168

Today we learned that the FBI did not follow up on two phone calls reporting that Nikolas Cruz planned to shoot students at his Florida high school -- and on February 14 he killed 17 people. Today we also learned that sheriff's deputies did not pursue a sexual assault investigation of Devin Kelley -- and a conviction and prison sentence would have prevented him killing 26 people at a Texas church in November 2017. The FBI and the police need to do a much better job of investigating threats and allegations. People's lives are at stake.

Sheriff didn't pursue sex case against Texas church shooter

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/16...ch-gunman.html

Gun violence in the United States is now so commonplace, schools and churches are installing metal detectors. How sad that this has become necessary.

Two Manhattan churches that survived 9/11 give in to the 'madness of the world,' install metal detectors

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...325-story.html

According to Dallas Drake, a criminologist at the Center For Homicide Research in Minneapolis, there were 147 shootings in Christian churches between 2006 and 2016. That number does not include mosques or synagogues. And then came last year's massacre of 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. No place in America is safe anymore. No place.

Church shootings are becoming much more common
Yet the existing data suggests churches aren't more or less vulnerable to gun violence than other publicly accessible spaces.

https://psmag.com/news/church-shooti...ch-more-common

As I said at the beginning of this thread and again in the above post, no place in America is safe. No place.

One dead, one wounded in shooting at Mormon church in Nevada

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/1-...XLXM?ocid=AMZN

In a new series of interviews, Danielle Kelley says her husband tied her to the bed, put on body armor, picked up a rifle and two handguns and then shot and killed 26 people in a church before committing suicide. If she could have gotten to a phone and called 911, the massacre might have been prevented. And she says she still loves him, even though she hates what he did. Yeah, he was just so sweet and lovable. Sheesh!

Church gunman's wife says he handcuffed her to bed and told her he'd be 'right back'

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sutherl...fe-speaks-out/