Devin Patrick Kelley murdered 27 and wounded at least another 20 in his attack on the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs yesterday. He started shooting from outside the church, then moved inside to continue the mass murder. But as numerous media reports and the so-far official account provided yesterday make clear, a neighbor got his own gun and challenged Kelley as he exited the building.
Stephen Willeford, who lives near the Texas church targeted yesterday, grabbed his own rifle and rushed to confront Devin Kelley after his daughter told him an attack was underway.
As the 55-year-old arrived outside the church he came face-to-face with Kelley.
At which point Willeford — a lawful firearm owner, exactly the type of good guy with a gun that Wayne LaPierre referred to after Newtown — pulled the trigger.
Willeford, a local plumber with no military experience, is however an excellent shot according to the resident, and when he came face to face with Kelley, he shot in between his body armor, hitting him in his side.
The 26-year-old dropped his Ruger assault rifle and climbed in an SUV to flee the scene.
As an aside, it’s probably worth noting that in virtually every previous case of a shooter reportedly wearing “body armor” (think James Holmes in Aurora) subsequent reports made it clear that it wasn’t in fact, body armor. It was load-bearing equipment. We’ll see if that holds true in this case. But back to our story . . .
As is usually the case, Willeford, an average citizen, was the first responder.
No one knows what else Kelley many have planned to do after he left the church. Or how many more people he might have killed. Thanks to Willeford and another local, Johnnie Langendorff, we never will. You can be sure, however, that Kelley wasn’t planning to melt quietly back into the local terrain.
After the wounded Kelley took off in his SUV, Willeford and Langendorff followed him at high speed while talking to a 911 operator.
Mr Langendorff said the gunman eventually lost control of his vehicle and crashed. He said the other civilian walked up to the vehicle with his gun drawn and the suspect did not move. He stood guard over the gunman until police arrived 5 to 7 minutes later.
According to Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt, Kelley killed himself after running off the road.
The action of an ordinary armed American will likely get precious little play in the mainstream media in the days and weeks ahead, as all the usual suspects jump on their well-worn soap boxes to proclaim that the Sutherland Springs massacre demonstrates the need for more gun control laws gun violence prevention efforts.
Never mind that Kelley was a prohibited person who couldn’t legally own the firearm he used to commit mass murder.
Seems the threat of an AR15 ban would both send a collective shutter through the gun community to behave, but also boost gun sales and values especially those of the black variety.
“shudder” not shutter.
There’s never a cop around when you need one, and yet, the self-appointed spelling police always seem to be johhny-on-the-spot. Curious, that.
Too bad yesterday’s killer didn’t deliver instead an enfilade of menacing, albeit misspelled, missives to the churchgoers. We really could’ve used you.
No, I meant shutter. Think about it.
I guess my puns are a little too deep for some.
What “community” are you saying should behave? And what do you mean by behave?
In light of yesterday’s events, I’d like to have more weaponry in my midst. I’m sure glad a couple of brave citizens did yesterday.
Was the church a gun free zone?
Churches in Texas are no longer designated by law by default as gun-free zones. However, as with any other private property owner, they may prohibit firearm on their own.
I’ve looked up the church’s By Law document on their website. It primarily addresses the organization as a whole and doesn’t mention weapons. It does refer to a separate and more detailed “Policies and Procedures” document, but that is only available via hard copy, in person, and only to chuch members.
I would guess it was probably not a gun-free zone officially. As a practical matter, it’s a reasonable assumption on the killer’s part that worshipers would be unarmed.
I am in are U
Mad respect for both Mr. Willeford and Mr. Langendorff.
“The citizen clearly explained the situation”….Holy Crap, Mr. Willeford must be one cool cucumber.
Both of these guys just dispelled so many myths, and, I must say, added to the legend of Texas.
“President Obama Prays for Fewer Guns” – Does that include his bodyguards?
Bless you Mr Willeford and Mr Langendorff.
Just go away and play some golf on us the tax payers. Half of us want no part of you and don’t care what you have to say or think.
Mr. Willeford looks like Brian Dennehy, definitely good guy with a gun.
‘Reduce the weaponry?’
Pardon me while I got build a freaking assembly line of ghost guns. Hey, the real serious criminals in the world have been doing this for decades. Why shouldn’t the people exercise their rights in building their own arms?
The man continues to just spit out words to hear them splatter.
All he needs to do is step out of his Chicago abode and demand that local prosecutors,who by definition are last responders, charge, prosecute and incarcerate armed drug dealers for illegal possession of a firearm. Of course when your goal is to disarm and weaken the general population their is no point in following existing laws that keep us strong and safe.
If they did that, they would have one one to vote democrat in the elections. They criminals are caught and released, usually within a few days. They get charges dropped or plea barganed down to a nothing misdemeanor and get a couple months probation. Violate the rules of probation? No problem. Get picked up on a felony charge while on probation? The cycle starts over and they are back on the streets in a few days.
Welcome to Chiraq…. Why anyone would visit or live in that hellhole is beyond me.
Kelly was a ‘prohibited person’ twice over. Dishonorable discharge, and domestic violence conviction. Kelly illegally obtained firearms to carry out this attack, demonstrating once again that gun laws are meaningless to criminals and don’t deter crime.
Thank god Mr. Willeford, a lawfully armed citizen, responded to the scene and took decisive action to end the threat.
Gun free zone or not, most would believe they would not need to be armed in the house of the Lord. Sadly this is no longer the case.
I believe many members of the church that day, reached for their pistols, then realizing, they had left them at home.
Never again! I canhear them say, will I go out unarmed.
It is difficult to be armed, sometimes uncomfortable. So many things to consider, where you are going, you must prevent anyone from knowing you are armed. Many places, if you go to, you must disarm. If you don’t disarm you will be in trouble if you are discovered.
“As is usually the case,”
Got any data to back that up? It seems regular citizens are rarely the first on the scene or make a major impact on the outcomes of mass shootings. Most cases I can recall ended with them taking their own life or committing suicide by cop once confronted by law enforcement.
I wish more armed citizens were stopping these guys sooner, but claiming this kind of response is “usually the case” is no-less “spin” than the kind of thing most news organizations put on these kind of things that TTAG is always complaining about.
“regular citizens” (I don’t know if they are irregular or not, and I don’t want to know) are almost always the first on the scene. A shootout just between law enforcement and a criminal, without any victim prior to or during that shootout, is very rare.
Well, atheism is a form of narcissism… A sane man can admit that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Militant atheists are so far up their own fourth point of contact that they believe that their own personal experience is sufficient to disprove the combined life experience of billions of people.
I would call it a form of “nihilism.”
It’s important for societal integrity to have useful productive purpose in your life. Nihilism will take that away, turn people into lazy oafs and drug addicts, and the occasional mass murderer, when conditions are right.
And the the f*cking evangelicons show up and tried to blame it all on lack of religion.
Yeah how about you go pound sand son. We’ve already god significant amounts of data that points to this guy a violent wife and child beating POS and general violent scum bag. Him being militant atheist is at best window dressing on already just a waste of skin. Kind of like a childhood friend of mine that was being banged by his pastor at a Boy Scout camp up in Western NC decades years ago. No on suspected a thing about him for decades until all of these kids came forward when said pastor found a kid that wouldn’t take it. Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes you can see them outright. Sometimes they hide behind a veneer of righteousness.
“Well, atheism is a form of narcissism”
I have to disagree with that. I (and most of the other voices) have been narcissistic most of our lives, but only rarely have any of them been atheists. I know because most of the voices ARE GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL WHEN I DIE! So, therefore, since we (or most of us) believe there is a hell, conversely there has to be a heaven, which couldn’t exist without there being God. And they are going without me. Soon. As soon as I find the shotgun they’ve hidden from me. Talk about a hostile takeover! I just wish they would shut up sometimes, but no! Jibber-jabber constantly, signifying nothing!
I could probably cut them out of my head, but I think they’ve hidden all the knives.
Did you know that foam rubber feels good on your forehead? The all white motif is boring, though.
If I had a car, it would have to have white walls.
Excuse me, but they are acting up again. I can’t hear a word Alice is saying!
WILL ALL OF YOU JUST STFU!?
Churches are targets these days. They should not be gun free zones.
I saw Pastor Robert Jeffress, from Dallas Baptist Church, on Fox today. He commented that this could not have happened at his church since about 20% of the congregation are legal concealed carriers. He has the right take on this.
It could have started to happen but it would have ended sooner.
This is, I think, a point we need to be careful about. Good guys with guns don’t – can’t – stop this from happening. They can reduce the toll when it begins.
It’s a good thing we had Willeford and Langendorff, who knows where he was going next. Don’t expect the liberals to make heroes of them, that’s not part of their agenda.
“Hunting Conservation Group Objects To Arby’s Venison”
My local Super Stop and Shop sells venison. It’s farm raised, which means that it won’t taste like real venison.
Arby’s venison is farm raised and grass-fed in New Zealand, which shows that the “hunting conservation group” is either stupid, full of shit or a Trojan horse.
And the Liberals and Democrats will call for more gun control.
From what I have read, he lied on the 4473 and PASSED NICS.
Which means the AF did not report him as a prohibited person and the domestic violence charge was NOT REPORTED to NICS either.
Guys, this is on the front page of CNN. I realize we all have our little persecution hard-on most of the time, but this time the mainstream media is actually reporting on this.
Coward offed himself after killing multiple victims , typical. Here’s a thought, if you feel the need to kill people, start with yourself first
Millennials are making jsut as bad buying decisions as those in the past. It doesn’t matter though. Just like the folks in days gone by, they come into the store knowing what they want to buy. They aren’t wrong, even if they are wrong, so sell them what they want and make the experience positive.
If they chose wrong, you will probably get to sell them the right thing later if they had a good experience. Bonus.
Er blieb in Uppsala zur Kursus in
allgemeiner Chirurgie zusammen mit den Professoren
Gunnar Nyström und Olle Hultén; beide hatten
besonderes Interesse zu Händen Rekonstruktive
Chirurgie. 1945 ging Skoog entsprechend Finnland
um Chip 3-D Chirurgische Heilverfahren
Kriegsverletzter nebst jener Leitfaden welcher
Professoren Richard Faltin obendrein Atso Soivio zu
(sich mit etwas) auseinandersetzen. Im anschließend folgendem Anno erhielt
er eine ‚British Council Scholarship‘ einschließlich Sir
Harold Gillies obendrein Sir Archibald McIndoe in
England. Je nach dieser ‚Scholarship‘ kehrte er
nach hinten je nach Schweden, wo er der/die/das ihm gehörende
Thesis
via Chip Dupuytrensche Kontraktur schrieb.
Wehrend des Korea-Krieges, erhielt er seitens
den ‚United Nations Forces‘ Chip Anlass
zu einem Visite als ‚Observer‘ inbegriffen Hinstellen
eines Berichtes via Chip Medizinische Versorgung von
Verletzten die bestehend Verbrennungen erlitten
hatten. Skoog wurde 1948 zum ‚appointed
director of plastic surgery of the University
Hospital of Uppsala‘ ernannt. Er erhielt
(sich) betten in der Ressort zu Gunsten von Hals-Nasen-Ohrenheilkunde,
entwickelte rasch der/die/das Seinige eigene
Gerät für Schwerbrandverletzte u. a. wurde
zum ersten Hochschulprofessor z. Hd. Plastische Chirurgie
in Skandinavien ernannt. Er war ‚Honorary
Fellow of the American College of Surgeons‘
ebenso wurde zum ‚Commodore, Giebel Class of
the Finnish Order‘ von dem Präsidenten ernannt.
Crawl back under your rock & into obscurity & take your “God” with you!
When the system fails the liberals feel the only answer is more government intervention. More gun control laws that won’t stop the next mass shooting. The only logical conclusion of this mind set is first universal background checks, followed by gun registration, voluntary by back, government confiscation. Semi-Auto weapons first then pistols. That’s the play book.
All indications are than he received a court martial for a domestic violence. That is what precluded him from gun possession, the domestic violence conviction. His sentence was 30 days in the cooler and the bad conduct discharge.
He was legally able to buy firearms. So much for the background check system. It would be interesting to know if he was cleared to buy, or the system timed out and the sale was allowed to proceed. Inquiring minds want to know.
Note: Under the UCMJ (uniform code of military justice) a ” bad conduct discharge” or “Other than Honorable” is a punitive sentence and does not equate to what would be a felony in civilian courts.
A “Dishonorable discharge” would be much like a felony to a civilian court and preclude an individual from firearms purchases and ownership.
If the main stream media actually wanted to report real news, they could have discovered this information in about 2 minutes on the internet.
“So Senator Manchin, Senator Toomey, Gabby Giffords, Shannon Watts and Ladd Everitt, please explain to us exactly how universal background checks will change…anything.”
As we all know, their ‘solutions’ aren’t designed to inconvenience criminals. They are designed to inconvenience and harass lawful, peaceful gun owners and deter as many people as possible from owning guns. That’s why the MSM never asks them such questions and why they never offer to answer them anyway. Honestly, it’s really all just a bunch of kabuki…everybody knows they want guns banned anyway….the only mystery is why they keep up this ‘common sense’ facade .
So the NICS check didn’t do its job this time. But how many times has it worked? No one writes news stories about crimes that never happen.
Enforcement failures are not an argument against the law per se. There are reasons to do away with NICS. This is not one of them.
How about a Glock® brand glock in .45?
The antis always say that a good guy with a gun never stops these mass shooting where many many people are killed. Of course they ignore those events where they stop the shooter after only one or two people are shot. Now they have an example of the former and most of the commentary online is, “a good guy only stopped him after 26 people were killed, how useless is the good guy.”
This means they’re essentially insatiable and not arguing in good faith. Which isn’t news, but it’s rarely this blatant.
It is with reluctance that I comment, here, and now. Did not want to “politicize” such a tragedy as in Texas. As it is, it seems the “gun rights” cabal is doing the “politicization”, quite well. Without even having all the facts (did the former soldier have an actual bullet-proof vest?), the usual “shall not be infringed” silliness is rampant on gun blogs.
Americans have a queer viewpoint on implementation of “common sense” gun laws. It is quite useless to drop into your mental bunker, clap your eyes shut and cover your ears while stomping around shouting “RTKBA” and such rubbish. Your rights are not now, and never will be absolute. Should they be? Irrelevant question. They are, and if you wish to call oneself “law-abiding”, you must abide the laws. But about that queer viewpoint: a good poorly implemented is a bad idea.
Whilst I will agree that poorly implementing a bad idea is itself a bad idea, that is not the point. Many good ideas were begun badly, but with a vision of an improved condition. Many good ideas were disastrously implemented, such as hydrogen gas fueled airships. However, the idea of making air travel smooth and comfortable eventually led to business class airline service (with much tragedy between). So it is with implementing systems that can properly deal with “prohibited persons” attempting to buy firearms. It is all electronics and software, is it not? Every bureaucracy in the country (military and civilian) has computers. Every computer in the nation can be made to communicate with one another (America put a man on the moon, don’t tell me about cost and inconvenience). The difficult part is knowing how to separate the truly incurable psychotics from the merely impaired, but fully functional. It is this last part that gun owners want no part of; someone else should take responsibility, eh?
There is a common thread amongst the “pro-gun” gallery, and that is the total and absolute disinterest in having any participation in how a better means of protecting innocents can be produced. You run around claiming that every idea about protecting the public from people you cannot deny should not have guns available, is merely a cover story for full gun confiscation. While at the same time you thump your chests about how that is impossible. Seems a bit crazy, doesn’t it? Fear of confiscation, while simultaneously proclaiming it cannot physically be done?
If you fear the law, then participate in crafting the law. Do what you demand of us….change the laws or “get stuffed”. If you do not trust your favorite politician to legislate properly, that about puts paid to the notion that a representative democracy (or “representative Republic, if you like) actually works.
Petition your lawmakers to create workable law that can put a damper on these crazed shooter events, while allowing freedom for your precious guns. If the so-called “gun grabbers” can find a way to make laws to restrict unlimited “gun rights”, what is wrong with you that you cannot find politicians to properly work out a means to have both reasonable controls, and freedom to exercise what is clearly a constrained right to firearms:? Laws that do not lead to the mangled concept of gun confiscation that violates your rights, but that cannot actually be implemented?
If I’m up, I’m armed. Damn seldom I go anywhere they won’t allow me to carry. The one exception hereabouts is family get togethers at the local Indian casinos, still makes me very nervous.
So now we know that the background check does NOT check military records.
It does not matter if you were armed or not because you would have no chance against a guy with a bullet proof vest and armed with an assault rifle while you were only armed with a pop gun pistol. He has all the advantage in accuracy as well. He would not miss with a rifle while you would be hard pressed to aim for his face and actually hit him. He would also have the advantage of surprise as well. Everything would be on his side and none on yours. Your idea of fighting back and winning is nothing more than pure fantasy.
Here in Georgia if you are caught carrying a weapon in a church that does not allow carry, you will be ticketed and fined up to $100. You will also be subject to losing your GWL for up to 5 years. Currently my church doesn’t allow it. Tough.
I’ll risk being caught, so I’ll be able to protect myself and others.
Our church has asked us not to, excepting of course those carrying in official capacity. I thought about it a lot and was planning on it for someday, but I currently don’t have the means, and I’ll not be going against church policy now that I know.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion around here, but it’s where I’m at. I completely support those who can and do, though. It goes without saying that people should be legally allowed to defend themselves wherever they are.
I am an atheist, but I do go to church twice a year for my mom’s sake (the anniversary of my grandma’s death, and once on Christmas) Church carry is prohibited where I live…..but concealed is concealed.
I don’t go to any type of services but I’ve heard this said.
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
— Luke 22:36, NIV
Right. Which totally explains why he chose to attack the family of his former in-laws in a church, instead of, oh, I don’t know… at a grocery store, ballgame, or in their home.
Chip,
I believe the most likely explanation for why the attacker went to the church: the church gathered all of the attacker’s “enemies” in one place, at a predictable time, in a small confined space, with virtually no cover, no exits, unlocked doors, and no ability to see his approach. In other words it was the perfect venue to ambush and decimate his enemies.
Where else would the attacker find all of his enemies in one place, at a predictable time, in a confined space with no cover and no locked doors, and no ability to see his approach?
“Again, because of Kelley’s conviction on domestic violence charges and his incarceration while in the Air Force, he was a “prohibited person.” He couldn’t legally own or purchase a firearm. Yet he’d bought the Ruger AR-15 he used yesterday from an FFL, Academy Sports, and, while probably lying on the required form 4473, he somehow passed the NICS background check.”
Do we have any actual reports on this? What things was he actually convicted for, and are theydisqualifying conditions?
Poor Academy…
Too often folks don’t consider them a “real” gun store, and now they need to scramble to get this story off their backs and explain that they followed proper procedure to a “T”…
On the one hand that have deeper pockets than a small LGS to handle this, but it still sux for their corporate-trained employees.
Academy screwed over gun owners last year. Don’t support them.
If I’m in church for any reason, even to clean it, I’m armed. Done this since I got my first carry permit 32 years ago.
I do wish EVERYONE would learn what an assault rifle is. It IS a weapon that has a select rate of fire, safe-semi-full auto. No unmodified AR is an assault weapon. To be very clear AR doesn’t stand for assault rifle. Every time someone uses the assault rifle reference it make it sound like they (the shooter) has a military weapon. This in turn leads to the fear of such rifles. GET A CLUE or don’t talk about what you know nothing of!
get that man a job at thetruthaboutguns.com as an opinion writer to replace the profoundly developmentally disabled johannes paulsen
this guy gets it
Yes, of course.
One of the few places I don’t carry is in my church. We attend a large congregation with a well-equipped security team. Plain clothes armed security take up strategic positions in the sanctuary, and if I were to pull out my concealed carry gun in the event of a shooting, I would most likely end up dead.
“Shanon Watts: “There’s Absolutely No Regulation of AR-15s in Texas. No Background Check Required.””
More lies from the anti-gun crowd…
June 8, 2014
Moms Demand Founder: Good Guy with Gun ‘Has Never’ Stopped Bad Guy with Gun
Watts responded: “This has never happened. Data shows it doesn’t happen.”
“Bring your pieces to church”…yep. If you can’t carry find another house of worship. Or have a home church…
LIBITARD wishful thinking period.
“Anti-democratic features of our government — including gerrymandering, the filibuster, and the overrepresentation of rural areas in the Senate — had thwarted the majority’s preferences.”“The gun lobby had fooled the reasonable majority into thinking that a 2008 Supreme Court decision had declared all gun regulation unconstitutional, even though it had not.”
I don’t believe Ive ever quoted anything written here before.
“Just like it does every night for Chicago. And New Orleans. And Baltimore. And Bridgeport.”
Those are not mass shootings…unless you are counting by neighborhoods.
Damn well done, Sir!
Also, a well done interview. A hat tip to Mr. Crowder on that. Full standing ovation for Mr. Willeford.
god, how stupid can these people be???? they just keep beating that dead horse.
Still, let them keep pushing their gun ban bills. It will hopefully kill their chances with voters.
But knowing how worthless most Americans are I’d say this will increase their popularity.
What the hell has happened to our country?