My church has been Columbined.

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Note: Some of the information in this post is sensitive and could conceivably be used to track me down. No perverts.

I am a member of two churches: one Catholic (because I'm Catholic) and one Unitarian (because all my friends go there). I didn't go to either this morning because I had visitation with my father. Last night we went bowling with his new girlfriend. The TVUU was staging a version of the musical 'Annie'. My friend was in it. My mother had wanted to take me, but it would have been too much trouble to end the visitation early. So no Broadway church for me.

As it turns out, just as the kids started singing a guy walked in and shot up the place.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/27/chu ... storyviewS

Because my father is in the news business and I am in the church community, I know more about this story than most people. My friend's foster father, G., by all accounts a great guy though I only met him once, is dead. My mom's boss got a good look at the shooter and is therefore being held for questioning. Nobody else I know well was hurt. And thankfully, the guy aimed away from the children. He only shot seven adults before a UT professor tackled him and wrestled the gun out of his hands, pinning him there until the police arrived.

The assailant had a fanny pack full of extra shotgun shells with him. He really meant business. They were able to capture him alive. We don't know the motive yet, but the fact that he chose a Unitarian church that is active in the local gay rights movement may indicate that this was a hate crime.

You know, when you see this kind of thing on the news (Columbine, Virginia Tech, those poor Amish kids) you invariably respond with a confident It-Can't-Happen-Here, a perfectly natural human coping mechanism. If we didn't have It-Can't-Happen-Here, we would be nervous wrecks all the time. Unfortunately, no matter how psychologically useful, the ICHH assumption is completely wrong. It happened to my church. It happened here. People I know are dead.

Oh my God.

Yeah, when horrible things actually happen, the normal initial reaction is "Did that really just happen?".

Despite the extra shells, he doesn't sound like he was that well prepared. Meant to kill people, yes, but you could do a lot more damage than he did very quickly with a shotgun.

The guy that tackled him deserves a medal.

Holy crap! That's awful!

Wow, this is horrible. It sounds like the guy was psycho. I'm really glad they jumped him and got him down before any more people could get hurt.

Greg McKendry (they've released his name) died a hero. He jumped into the line of fire and took bullets that were headed for other people.

The guy who tackled the shooter was a professor at the state college right down the road from the church, and I can say that petulantly to people who tell me that all academics are sissies for the rest of my life.

A small amount of information about the shooter has been released. He has long blond hair and was wearing a "patriotic" T-shirt. According to witnesses, he shouted "hateful" things while firing.

I disagree.

That is truly sad news, that guy who got shot, is a true christian, giving your life to save others is such a noble act, these christian extremest are true evil, are no better then other extremists who blow people up.
Not that I am a christian but I was raise as one, and still live by some of those values, knowing right from wrong.
My heart and thoughts are with them.

The guy who fired the gun was not acting like a Christian. The guy who died taking bullets for his congregation was.

What is less Christian than killing, and what is more Christian than martyrdom?

I think you got it wrong, do you know what a christian extremest is, they are the one's going into places like this a murdering people, under the false pretense that their version of christianity is right, anyhow I gave my condolences and it get thrown back in my face, thanks

Are extremists (of any religion) evil or are they just misguided?

Extremism is an attitude that can definitely lead to evil acts.

OMG! I am just listening to all the details on CNN! How terrible! I just don't get it. And this poor church usher who got shot. So sad. His family must be a mess.

Hang in there, hope things get better soon!

1. The man was wearing a red, white, and blue T-shirt. He was yelling slurs. The church had received some anonymous, homophobic, threatening hate mail a few days before the attack. Plus, what could the Unitarians have done to anyone? They are docile and accommodating to an annoying degree. Everybody's 90% sure there was a hate crime.

2. With that, I don't like where the politics of this thread are going. It is in good taste to wait at least 24 hours before playing political badminton with a tragedy.