THE DAILY BLADE: Praise The Lord, And Pass The Ammunition
At her first press conference Jeanne Assam described what happened after Matthew Murray entered the New Life Church in Colorado Springs last Sunday, started shooting and refused her order to drop his weapon:
"I saw him coming through the doors" and took cover, Assam said. "I came out of cover and identified myself and engaged him and took him down."
"G-d was with me," Assam said. "I didn't think for a minute to run away."
Assam said she believes G-d gave her the strength to confront Murray, keeping her calm and focused even though he appeared to be twice her size and was more heavily armed. [Note: Assam, a police officer in downtown Minneapolis during the 1990s is described by another pastor as 110 pounds “dripping wet.”] ...
"It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God," she said.
Before Assam stopped Murray in his tracks, he killed Stephanie and Rachael Works, 18 and 16, and wounded their father, David Works, 51; he is in fair condition at a local hospital recovering from gunshot wounds in his groin area and abdomen.
Grudgingly noting that Assam’s actions “probably” saved lives, The Washington Post notes that the incident “certainly opened the eyes of an American public that had no idea that some churches are protected by congregants discreetly packing heat” [emphasis, The Stiletto’s]:
Why are there security guards at a church?" said Gary Schneeberger, repeating a question that has been asked in recent days. Schneeberger is vice president for media relations at Focus on the Family, whose Colorado Springs lobby includes a plaque framing a bullet hole left in a wall by a man who held four people hostage in 1996.
"The reality of the situation is - it's a sad reality, but it's a reality - there are no sanctuaries anymore. We've seen this happen in schools, in malls, playgrounds, parks, churches. No place is safe anymore."
Assam was one of several members of the New Life congregation wearing a pistol under her church clothes and a radio earpiece under her hair. A former police officer in Minneapolis, she served as a security volunteer at the evangelical ministry. Its 10,000 members gather in a four-building complex that resembles a shopping mall and requires similar attention to crowd control and disaster planning.
"We have 40-plus security staff members over four properties: warehouse, church, elementary school, prison outreach facilities," said Sean Smith, who oversees security at the Potter's House, a 30,000-member church in Dallas. More than 400 staffers from larger congregations attended a conference on church security that Potter's House organized this year, more than double the turnout in 2005.
Unlike the WaPo, New Life's Senior Pastor Brady Boyd is no Doubting Thomas: He credits Assam - who is licensed to carry a gun and volunteers as a guard for the church - with saving the lives of 50 to 100 people, because Murray "had enough ammunition on him to cause a lot of damage" (Murray was carrying two handguns, an assault rifle and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition). Boyd adds that Assam had urged the church to strengthen its security after the church shooting in nearby Arvada – which was also Murray’s handiwork.
When you compare the carnage at Luby’s and Virginia Tech with the limited loss of life at the New Life Church because an armed citizen took action, one has to wonder how the WaPo and other elite media that have an entrenched anti-Second Amendment bias can continue to justify “gun-free zones.”
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