I’ve Moved!
November 20, 2008
So I’m sure that most people have noticed that the site has been offline for a few days. There’s a reason for that, which I will get to shortly. But first, let me just say this:
In fact, I am blogging at a new site I have just finished setting up: kennethhynek.net. A full explanation for the reasons behind the move can be found here
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That said, this is not the end of Time Immortal. My wife Grace has expressed interest in taking over blogging at this domain, and I am working to make sure that she gets set up here as soon as possible.
Also, my profound apologies for the modification to the site face; the move was not as seamless as I would have hoped, and many of the image files for this theme, and in the gallery, were corrupted during the course of their evacuation from my previous web host’s servers. Until such time as I have repaired them, I’ve put a clean-looking template in place of the previous one.
Update: for the purposes of further traffic shaping, new posts from kennethhynek.net will be excerpted below. Full articles can be read at the new blog.
Church security officer returns fire during shooting
December 10, 2007
One gun-related tragedy after another seems to be happening south of the border, and my heart and prayers go out to those Americans who are in mourning over the senseless shootings at a two Christian religious centres. That Christians were the intended targets is kind of a no-brainer…the only real question left unanswered at present is what they were being target for.
Five people, including a gunman, died in the attacks Sunday at a megachurch in Colorado Springs and at the Youth With a Mission missionary center in the Denver suburb of Arvada. Five others were wounded.
“Violent crimes of any sort are tragic enough, but when innocent people are killed in a religious facility or a place of worship, we must voice a collective sense of outrage and demonstrate a renewed commitment to keeping our communities safe,” said Gov. Bill Ritter.
Senseless. Pray for them, O Reader.
One thing that I note, though, is the interesting compare/contrast between this shooting — which was deadly enough — and the recent massacre at an Omaha mall in which eight people died. The mall was a declared “gun free zone” (not unlike Virginia Tech, by the way), and that more or less served to enable the shooter to do a tremendous amount of damage in a relatively short span of time — and his killing spree was only stopped when he used his last bullet on himself.
The security staff at the mall, because it is a gun-free zone, were powerless to do anything to stop the shooter. At the church, however, the all-volunteer security staff have carry permits for firearms…and that made all the difference:
The gunman was killed by a member of the church’s armed security staff before police arrived, Myers said. Officers also found several smoke-generating devices on the church campus; their intended purpose wasn’t clear.
A female security officer with police training managed to bring the shooter down before he had time to complete his mission of murder. He was heavily armed and standing in the middle of a megachurch — there were probably thousands of people present. Who knows how many more people he might have killed, but for one little bit of foresight on the part of the church’s administration and whoever co-ordinated its security volunteers?
Update: the shooter apparently hated Christians, although he was also apparently brought up in a religious household. An angry adolescent who perhaps ditched his faith in favour of something a tad more…ah…secular?
