What you likely won't see get very much coverage in the mainstream media are the following. Even though it happened in Texas, under law the victims most likely would not have been allowed to be armed, because they were in church. In Texas churches (and businesses) can forbid guns on the premises, and that carries the weight of law. I don't know if this particular church allowed guns on the premises or not, but given that nobody was able to defend themselves or their children, I'm guessing no. I can't imagined an armed person watching children get mowed down and not trying to return fire.
Secondly, the slaughter was stopped by a citizen with a gun, before law enforcement was able to get there. How high would the death toll be if this happened in New Jersey or California, where people can't have guns outside their homes? The killer would have had a much longer time to kill his helpless victims. How much lower would the death toll have been if the victims in the church had been able to return fire?
I already see people calling for more gun control. Truth is there isn't a law that could be passed to stop this. The killer was dishonorably discharged, and so under law was not permitted to own or handle a gun. The church (presumably) forbid guns on the premises, by law, and yet the killer brought a gun into the church. Lastly, murder is illegal, and yet the killer murdered helpless people.
All another anti-gun law could possibly do is prevent the hero of this story from being able to stop the killer and chase him away. Rather than using this as an excuse to weaken the defense of Americans, why not actually address the problem and arm more good people? If there is a better argument for concealed carry reciprocity, I don't know it.
The laws... which forbid to wear arms, disarm those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance? Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator; and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack armed than unarmed persons.⚓
- Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, "An Essay on Crimes and Punishments" [1764]
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