Yesterday morning, 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire on the congregation at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, leaving 26 dead. As we learn more about what happened in the coming days, here are some things to keep in mind.
This year was marked by some of the most deadly shootings in modern U.S. history.
The shooting in Sutherland Springs comes just a month after the deadliest mass shooting in recent memory – the Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 at a country music festival. The Sutherland Springs shooting also is the deadliest in modern Texas history, a meaningful statement given that some of the worst mass shootings in the country have taken place in the Lone Star State, including a shooting in a Killeen Luby’s that left 23 dead in 1991 and a University of Texas shooting in 1966 that left 18 dead.
The last five years have been marked by increasingly violent mass shootings that are undeniably growing in frequency. Of the 10 most deadly shootings in the U.S., half have taken place since 2012.
I wrote last month about how mass shootings are becoming so commonplace that we are numb to events that would have appalled us in previous decades. This feels like a coping mechanism, and perhaps a reasonable one, considering that the shootings have no signs of stopping.
Domestic violence and mass shooters
As has been put well here, many mass shooters have histories of domestic violence. Reports of domestic abuse followed James T. Hodgkinson after shooting a congressional baseball practice, Omar Mateen after the Orlando Pulse club shooting and Robert Lewis Dear after a 2015 shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, to name a few.
Kelley is no exception. While serving in the Air Force five years ago, he was court-martialed for assault on his spouse and child and received a bad conduct discharge and a year in military prison. Authorities also mentioned a “domestic situation” between Kelley and his in-laws during events leading up to the church shooting. His mother-in-law attends First Baptist but wasn’t at the church service yesterday morning.
In addition, two of Kelley’s ex-girlfriends have said he stalked them, according to NBC News, and he was arrested on an animal cruelty charge two years ago, as well.
The “good guy with a gun”
Just as you can rely on liberals to rally for stronger gun control laws and better mental health care, you can expect conservatives to support the idea that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Last night, for instance, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested the solution to this kind of gun violence is to arm parishioners.
After Kelley left First Baptist, a man who lives next door to the church exchanged gunfire with him before chasing the suspect by car with another neighbor.
Kelley crashed his car, and although police haven’t named a definitive cause of death yet, investigators have said he may have committed suicide. So, despite intervention from the neighbors after the shooting inside the church, it’s not certain that they ultimately stopped Kelley from killing others.
In any case, an armed person successfully taking down a mass shooter is quite rare. And some law enforcement officials oppose putting armed civilians up against mass shooters, citing concerns that they could miss and harm bystanders or that first responders would not be able to tell the “good guy” and the “bad guy” apart.
Contact Mollie Bryant at bryant@bigiftrue.org or 405-990-0988. Follow Bryant on Facebook and Twitter.