From VA-ALERT
First, if you are an anti-gunner, I suggest you step away from the
computer and get yourself a good, stiff drink.
A concealed handgun permit holder in Colorado has stopped a violent
attack by a vicious criminal! She volunteered to work security at her
church after a violent attack at another Colorado church earlier that
day. Thankfully she did so, as she shot and killed a criminal who had
opened fire in the church.
This is exactly what VCDL has been saying would happen if we get rid
of gun free zones.
Had that permit holder not been armed because she was in a gun-free
zone, how many innocent, irreplaceable lives would have been lost?
THIS is why we want to get rid of university gun bans.
THIS is why we want to get rid of the restaurant concealed carry ban.
THIS is why we want to get rid of the gun ban in the non-sterile area
of airport terminals.
THIS is why we want to get rid of the gun ban for concealed handgun
permit holders on K-12 school property.
Notice in the links below how the media, especially CNN, desperately
want to make the CHP holder an "authority" figure. (Heaven forbid
that a regular citizen with a gun would save any lives.) The media
did this by emphasizing that she was a "security guard" and saying
that she has a "law enforcement background."
The pastor said in other interviews that she is a CHP holder and
volunteered to guard the church.
The criminal had a gun, smoke grenade, and over 500 rounds of
ammunition on him. He meant business and meant to slaughter as many
people as he could.
--
[url=http://tinyurl.com/3yasdm]http://tinyurl.com/3yasdm[/url]
Pastor tells of horrific day
The New Life Church attacker refused a guard's order to drop his
weapon and fired before he was shot to death.
By Jean Torkelson
Originally published 02:22 p.m., December 10, 2007
Updated 06:23 p.m., December 10, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS — The gunman who killed two at a Colorado Springs
church Sunday refused a guard's order to drop his weapon and fired
before the guard shot him to death and ended the attack.
The guard, a member of the New Life Church who provides security as a
volunteer, was called a hero by church officials today.
"She's the hero," Senior Pastor Brady Boyd said. "She saved 100 lives
yesterday."
Michael Ware, pastor of Victory Church in Westminster and a New Life
overseer, said the security guard is a small woman, "110 pounds
dripping wet."
Relating the account he had been told, Ware said the woman ordered
Matthew Murray to drop his weapon and they exchanged shots. The
attacker shot at the guard, missed, and kept walking into the church,
Ware said. The woman fired again, taking down the gunman.
Boyd is meeting today with members of the family who lost two teenage
girls in the shooting.
Stephanie and Rachael Works, 18 and 16, died in the attack. Their
father, David Works, 51, is in fair condition at Penrose hospital in
Colorado Springs with gunshot wounds in his groin area and abdomen.
Boyd said this morning that he believes the New Life Church's high
profile may have attracted the gunman there. Boyd doesn't believe the
attacker knew anyone at the church or singled out the church because
of personal animosity.
"We know (his name) but no one on the staff ever heard of him," Boyd
said Monday, as paused in the foyer where shattered glass and bullet
holes still spoke to the shootout between the woman parishioner — who
worked as a volunteer security guard — and the gunman.
In an exclusive interview after the press conference Boyd told the
Rocky Mountain News that he was calm in the wake of the shootings.
"Right now I'm in survival mode. I don't have time to think of the
scope of this. but I have a sense of calm that God is in control," he
said.
Boyd also seemed to indicate, but didn't elaborate, that violence
follows churches that preach the gospel.
"Any New Testament church is under attack and duress. It's unique to
us as westerners to think that when we come under attack there's
something wrong with the church," which isn't true, he said.
Ware said the Works family used to be members of his church. He said
they were loving, exuberant family who would rush up to him to give
him hugs at church.
"A precious, precious family," Ware said. "If you wanted an example of
a model family you would look to them."
Ware was among many somber-face church leaders converging on New Life
for the second time in a year.
One year ago, the church was engulfed in its first national crisis,
when pastor Ted Haggard resigned from the pulpit after admitting to a
sex scandal.
Overseer Larry Stockstill, who flew in from Louisiana, said he was at
the hospital praying with the Works family when the second Works girl
died.
Stockstill said because of Haggard's high profile the church had put
in a security plan long ago. Ware said that his church, too — as well
as many churches — have plainclothes worshipers who are armed and
ready to step in.
"They worship and watch," Ware said.
Boyd, who was hired to succeed Haggard, is getting high marks from
overseers for the way he's handling his second major crisis in a year.
"He stepped up to that microphone like a president," Ware said,
referring to Boyd's first news conference today on the shooting.
In the interview today, Boyd said he was having lunch with another
overseer, Jack Hayford, when they heard the shots. He did not see the
shooting.
"We didn't know if he (Hayford) was the target or I was," Boyd said.
Boyd's immediate thought was whether his wife and children had left
the church after the service — they had. Next, he thought, "Who's
being hurt in my church?"
As prescribed by the security plan, the two men stayed in the office,
a floor above the shooting.
--
[url=http://thebronzeblog.blogspot.com/]http://thebronzeblog.blogspot.com/[/url]
Vet lauds female guard who felled gunman
By Kieran Nicholson
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 12/10/2007 04:32:06 PM MST
Authorities say 18-year-old Stephanie Works and 16-year-old
Rachael Works died from their injuries after a gunman opened fire
outside New Life Church on Sunday. Larry Bourbonnais, a combat-tested
Vietnam veteran, said it was the bravest thing he's ever seen.
Bourbonnais, who was among those shot by a gunman Sunday at New
Life Church, watched as a security guard, a woman later identified as
Jeanne Assam, calmly returned fire and killed the shooter.
"She just started walking toward the gunman firing the whole
way," said Bourbonnais, who was shot in the arm. "She was just yelling
'Surrender,' walking and shooting the whole time."
Bourbonnais, 59, had just finished up a hamburger in the
cafeteria on the sprawling church campus when he heard gunfire, he
recalled.
He headed in the direction of the shots as frightened people ran
past him looking to escape to safety.
"Where's the shooter? Where's the shooter?" Bourbonnais kept
yelling, he recalled.
Near an entryway in the church, Bourbonnais came upon the gunman
and an armed male church security guard who was there with his gun
drawn but not firing, he said.
Bourbonnais said he pleaded with the armed guard to give him his
weapon.
"Give me your handgun. I've been in combat, and I'm going to take
this guy out," Bourbonnais recalled telling the guard. "He kept
yelling, 'Get behind me! Get behind me!' He wouldn't hand me his
weapon, but he wouldn't do anything."
There was an additional armed security guard there, another man,
who also didn't fire, Bourbonnais said.
Bourbonnais yelled at the gunman to draw his attention, he said.
"First, I called him 'Coward' then I called him 'S---head' "
Bourbonnais said. "I probably shouldn't have been saying that in
church."
That's when the shooter pointed one of his guns at Bourbonnais
and fired, he said.
Bourbonnais ducked behind a hollow, decorative pillar and was hit
in the arm by a bullet and fragments of the pillar.
At about that moment, Assam, 42, turned a corner with a drawn
handgun, walked toward the gunman and yelled "Surrender!" Bourbonnais
said.
The gunman pointed a handgun at Assam and fired three shots,
Bourbonnais said. She returned fire and just kept walking toward the
gunman pressing off round after round.
After the gunman went down, Bourbonnais asked the Assam, a
volunteer security guard with the church, how she remained so calm and
focused.
Bourbonnais said she replied:
"I was asking the Holy Spirit to guide me the entire time."
--
This CNN link includes some video of permit holder:
[url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/10/colorado.shootings/index.html]http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/10/colorado.shootings/index.html[/url]
Security guard who stopped shooter credits God
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) -- "It seemed like it was me, the
gunman, and God," said Jeanne Assam, describing her feelings as she
confronted a man who charged into her Colorado Springs church Sunday
firing a weapon.
Assam, a church security guard with **law enforcement experience,**
fired her own weapon at the invader and stopped his attack, police say.
Police on Monday identified the gunman as Matthew Murray and said he
was also responsible for an attack earlier Sunday at a missionary
center some 80 miles away.
The two incidents left four people dead, in addition to the gunman,
and five wounded.
Police said forensic evidence showed a positive match between a
handgun found at the church and shell casings found at the missionary
center in Arvada, a suburb of Denver.
Officials from the Colorado Springs and Arvada police departments
appeared at a joint news conference to brief reporters on what they
had pieced together about Sunday's events.
The first incident took place Sunday at about 12:30 a.m. at Youth With
a Mission in Arvada.
Police said a man with a beard, wearing a dark jacket, glasses, and
skullcap, entered the facility, got into a dispute with a staff member
about whether he could stay there for the night, and then opened fire.
Two staff members, Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24, died
later Sunday from their injuries, Youth With a Mission co-founder
Peter Warren said. Two other staff members were injured, and one was
in critical condition.
Investigators tried to track the gunman through fresh snow with the
help of dogs, but lost his trail in a heavily walked area, Deputy
Chief Gary Creager of Arvada police said.
About 12 hours later, police say, Murray showed up at New Life Church
as a service was letting out.
Police said Monday he had an assault rifle and two handguns, and may
have had as many as 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
He fired on a family who were in or near their car. Two sisters,
identified by police as Rachael Works, 16, and Stephanie Works, 18,
were killed, and their father, David Works, 51, was also shot and is
hospitalized in fair condition with two gunshot wounds.
Murray then entered the church, police say, where Assam was one of
several volunteer security guards on duty.
"I saw him coming through the doors," she told reporters on Monday. "I
took cover, and I waited for him to get closer, and I came out of
cover and identified myself, and engaged him, and took him down. And
that's pretty much it." Video Watch Assam tell how she stopped Murray »
Police said they were still investigating whether Assam's weapon
killed Murray, or whether he might have died of a self-inflicted
gunshot.
Assam extended her sympathy to the families of the victims "and of the
gunman -- and I mean that very sincerely."
Phil Abeyta, who identified himself as Murray's uncle, appeared at
another news conference and read a statement from the family asking
for forgiveness.
"Our family cannot express the magnitude of our grief for the victims
and families of this tragedy," he said. "On behalf of our family and
our son, we ask for forgiveness. We cannot understand why this has
happened."
Abeyta appeared with spokesmen from the Youth With A Mission center,
who confirmed that Murray had been part of a training program five
years ago.
Peter Warren, director of Youth With A Mission, said Murray did not go
on the mission he was training for in 2002 because managers thought
that "issues relating to his health made it unsafe for him to do so."
But a man who served at the center with Murray told CNN Monday that
Murray was kicked out of the mission program for strange behavior.
Video Watch more about Matthew Murray's background »
A source -- a long-time member of New Life Church -- said Murray had a
falling out with Youth With A Mission after working with the
organization a couple of years ago. The source said Murray sent
antagonistic and threatening correspondence afterward.
Earlier Monday, Boyd said the gunman was unknown to parishioners there.
"He simply showed up on our property yesterday with a gun, with the
intention of hurting people, and he did," Boyd said.
Boyd said the megachurch instituted security precautions after the
shootings at the Denver area mission center.
Boyd said Assam was a hero in preventing further bloodshed, rushing to
confront the gunman just inside the church. "She probably saved over a
hundred lives," Boyd said. Video Watch pastor tell how guard saved
lives »
"I give the credit to God. And I say that very humbly. God was with me
and the whole time I was behind cover -- this has got to be God,
because of the firepower that [the gunman] had vs. what I had," Assam
said.
"I did not run away and I didn't think for a minute to run away, I
just knew that I was given the assignment to end this before it got
too much worse. I just prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide me."
She told reporters she had not slept since the shooting, "as I'm sure
you can tell."
She said she was on the third day of a three-day regimen of fasting
and prayer, wanting to know God's will for what to do with her life,
when the shooting took place.
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"I was weak, and where I was weak, God made me strong," she said. "He
filled me and he guided me and protected me and many other people. And
I'm honored that God chose me."
Assam was one of about a dozen volunteer security guards at the
church, half of whom are armed, Boyd said. The guards are licensed,
trained and screened, and are church members, not "mercenaries," he
said.
--
Fox news isn't afraid to say she had a CHP:
[url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316378,00.html]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316378,00.html[/url]
Colorado Shooting Highlights Churches' New Emphasis on Security
Monday , December 10, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. —
When a black-clad gunman walked into New Life Church on Sunday and
started shooting, he was met with the church's first line of defense:
a congregant with a ***concealed weapons permit*** and a law
enforcement background.
The woman, ***an armed volunteer***, shot and killed the gunman. New
Life's pastor credited her with saving 100 lives.
Churches want to present an open and welcoming image, but in an era of
mass-casualty shootings and terrorism threats, the violence at New
Life highlights a new emphasis on security. Some of the nation's
estimated 1,200 megachurches — places where more than 2,000
worshippers gather each week — have been quietly beefing up security
in recent years, even using armed guards to protect the faithful.
Meanwhile, many more, often smaller congregations typically don't have
detailed security plans either because they don't have the money or
don't want to risk turning people away.
At Potter's House, a Dallas megachurch led by superstar pastor T.D.
Jakes, a private security company employs a team of armed, unarmed,
uniformed and plainclothes guards that keeps watch over crowds in the
thousands. Under a new Texas law, all nonprofits must use licensed
security guards, and the church hired Classic Security in response,
said Sean Smith, who formerly headed the church's security detail and
now works for the company.
For the past three years, Potter's House has hosted a church security
conference, drawing more than 400 people earlier this year to sessions
on surveillance, background checks and other issues. Although
precautions can be costly, money spent on security can end up being
far less than liability and lawsuit risks if no action is taken, the
church says.
"You see (security) anywhere but churches," Smith said. "You see it in
malls, at banks, at concerts. Somehow, at churches we feel immune to
violence. But it's been proven not to be the case."
Even without a security department, churches can train volunteers to
keep watch for suspicious behavior, like a visitor dressed in a long
coat in summer or not making eye contact with anyone, Smith said.
The security plan at New Life Church may seem extraordinary. The
church's volunteer security force is stocked with people with military
or law enforcement experience, they carry radios and weapons, and
there are evacuation plan calls for hustling worshippers into "secure
zones" in the case of emergencies.
But charismatic New Life, Colorado's largest church with about 10,000
members, is no ordinary church.
Even before the founding pastor, the now-disgraced Ted Haggard, became
a player on the national political stage, the church endured death
threats against him. There were bomb scares and vandalism, including
animal blood being splashed on the walls, said Patton Dodd of Colorado
Springs, a former New Life Church staff member and editor with the Web
site Beliefnet.
"Even back then we had people undercover in the congregation who were
armed," Dodd said. "It was a big church at the time, it was Christian,
and some people really hate that stuff.
"Not only do we have military and ex-military all over, we have this
sort of frontier mentality. People around here are serious about
protecting their own."
Haggard was fired last year after a male prostitute alleged a
relationship with him.
His successor, Brady Boyd, said at a news conference Monday that his
security chief recommended heightened security early Sunday after a
shooting in a Denver suburb at a missionary training center dormitory.
Boyd agreed.
The volunteer security guard hailed as a hero had attended the
church's early worship service at 9 a.m., then stood watch in the
rotunda of the busy church lobby as the second service was letting out.
There, she confronted the gunman, who managed to two slay two sisters
and wound three others before he was killed. One witness told a
television station the guard described praying to the Holy Spirit as
she squeezed off rounds.
Speaking of the church's security plan, Boyd said: "That's the reality
of our world."
On Sept. 15, 1999, a deranged man burst into a Wednesday night teen
prayer rally at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, killing
four teenagers and three adults.
In the immediate aftermath, there was talk at the church of posting
armed guards at every door. But the pastor, the Rev. Al Meredith, took
a different approach: he didn't change much at all.
The 2,500-member church urges police who attend the church to wear
their uniforms and arranges for squad cars for big events, but those
steps are more to ease the minds of congregants than stop an attack,
Meredith said Monday.
American Jews have long emphasized the need for safeguarding their
community organizations, schools and synagogues. Many groups formed
security committees.
"There have been security concerns generally for many years, but they
have certainly been heightened since 9-11," said Nathan Diament,
public policy director for the Orthodox Union, which represents
Orthodox synagogues in North America.
The Homeland Security Department created a grant program of nearly $50
million to improve security for religious and secular nonprofits
considered at risk of terrorist attack.
Several Jewish groups have received individual grants, according to
the Orthodox Union.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also distributes a detailed
security checklist, urging groups to build relations with local law
enforcement and elected officials, report suspicious activity and hold
community meetings to raise awareness of potential threats.
The Fellowship of the Woodlands megachurch in Texas employs a former
FBI agent as a full-time security director, overseeing volunteers and
paid staff, said pastor Kerry Shook. Those who are armed in the
congregation are police officers, he said.
"It's something you just have to do today," said Shook, whose
congregation draws 15,600 people per weekend. "We want everyone to
feel safe. At the same time, we want to be open and accepting of
everyone. An incident like this one in Colorado Springs just
reinforces what the church is — we have to be a light in a dark world."
