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Four words from the 1979 movie-war-classic ‘Apocalypse Now’ are ringing out for real from south-central Texas: “The horror! The horror!”
On a typically beautiful, peaceful Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs a lone gunman — dressed all in black — parked his car across from the First Baptist Church as services were in progress and approached the church. He started firing his assault rifle through the front door claiming 26 lives ranging in age from five to 72, including the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter, and wounding 20 more in what is now the worst mass shooting in Texas history.
News reports say the shooter is identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, who dropped his assault rifle and fled the scene after a local hero citizen armed with a rifle shot at Kelley and pursed him relentlessly for several miles until the shooter’s vehicle ran off the road. The shooter was found dead in his vehicle. Police say they don’t yet know if the shooter killed himself or was shot dead by the armed citizen. This event remains under active investigation. The motive of the shooter is unknown.
“This isn’t a guns situation … This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It’s a very, very sad event,” said President Donald Trump from Japan reacting to a reporter’s question during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “Fortunately another man had a gun and shot back or it would have been much worse.”
The president’s words are sure to further ignite the gun-control issue again in America as they should. Just last month in Las Vegas another deranged shooter opened fire with an assault rifle from high atop the Mandalay Hotel and shot dead 58 people attending a country music festival and wounded more than 500 others in what is the U.S.’ deadliest mass shooting in modern history. The motive for this shooting also remains elusive.
In between the Las Vegas and Texas shootings a radical Islamic sympathizer using a rented truck ran over and killed eight pedestrians and cyclists near the new World Trade Center in New York City in what has been described as New York’s worst terrorist attack since Sept. 11, 2001 — when 3,000 people died as hijacked commercial jetliners struck and collapsed both World Trade Towers. These three violent incidents follow a long series of violent acts – mass shootings and terrorist attacks — committed in the U.S.
There is no making sense of this horror being inflicted upon the U.S. from domestic terrorists or radical Islam. The mainstream media has already begun politicizing the Texas shooting as the result of a lack of any progress toward meaningful gun control in America. Estimates of the sheer numbers of guns now in private hands are in the half-a-billion range including 5 million military-type assault rifles owned by the public.
In the Texas shooting, police say Kelley – a former U.S. Air Force veteran – had purchased his assault rifle legally even after being discharged from the military for “bad conduct” involving violent assaults against his wife and child.
President Trump and the U.S. Congress are facing their greatest challenge in keeping America safe from its own armed citizens many of whom have serious, untreated mental health problems. All the rest of America’s problems with the political hatred being expressed toward President Trump and all the political investigations in progress pale in comparison to the gun and mental health issues plaguing the U.S. Cold statistics show on average 90 people die from gun violence across America every day.
“All of America is praying to God to help the victims,” President Trump commented from Japan as he is following the unfolding Texas tragedy as he travels Asian counties promoting better free-trade agreements and dealing with the mounting problems of the rogue nation North Korea. There is a good chance the president may stop by Sutherland Springs, Texas – a small town of only 400 residents located about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio — on his way back to Washington from the Orient.
The sad truth is guns are so out of control in America they will never be in control. The criminals, the crazies and the radical extremists all have guns. On Sunday, eight members of one family were murdered in their church along with life-long friends. These shootings are not in God’s plan, but faith and prayer will sustain these Christian survivors in that little town in Texas.
But what will save America from itself? President Trump? The U.S. Congress? What can they do? It’s too late! “The horror! The horror!”
About the Author
Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.
Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.
