As you would have predicted, the National Rifle Association's response to last week's deadly rifle attack inside a Florida high school is that we need more "good guys" with guns in schools. That was the NRA's response to the slaughter of 20 children - many of them first graders - in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. That's why it's not surprising that the deaths of 17 innocent people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas didn't change the NRA's message. Even now, on NRATV, the NRA is arguing for guns for good guys.
It just so happens, though, that on the same day an expelled student opened fired on his former high school in Florida, a person in Amarillo, Texas, took about 100 people hostage at a homeless shelter there and a good guy with a gun ended up getting shot by the police.
According to the Amarillo Globe-News, a 35-year-old regular at the Faith City Mission brought in a gun, entered the chapel and held the people there hostage. A Faith City Mission student bravely confronted the hostage-taker and successfully wrestled the gun out of his hand. Amarillo police - who had been alerted that a gunman was holding people at gunpoint -- then entered the chapel and opened fire on the hero, that is, the person they spotted holding the weapon.
Texas police shot a man after he disarmed a potential church shooter who had been holding more than 100 people hostage in at a congregation in Amarillo.
Joshua Len Jones, 35, barged into a church service at the Faith City Mission in Amarillo, on Valentine’s Day and pulled out a gun.
Churchgoer Tony Garces managed to disarm Jones during a scuffle, but when police arrived, they shot Mr Garces instead.
The incident took place during a morning service at the Faith City Mission, a Christian organisation which helps people in need in the community.
Jones, who had received help from the Faith City Mission in the past, held about 100 congregants and church staff hostage.
While waiting for police, church staff and attendees managed to overpower Jones, and during the fight, Mr Garces got hold of the gum
‘I said ‘hey, hey I got the gun,’ Mr Garces told ABC7 Amarillo.He described how officers ordered him to throw the gun to the floor, but that he hesitated as he was worried that the loaded gun would go off if he did so.
‘I didn’t want anyone else getting hurt. Then pop, pop they shot me.
‘I went down, then a puddle of blood. I thought I was a goner.’
Mr Garces, who credits the Faith City Mission with helping him turn his life around after a four-year-stint in prison, was hit in the neck, but was rushed to hospital and survived.
He is now calling for police to receive more and improved training in use of deadly violence, telling ABC7 that the officer who shot him ‘didn’t know what he was doing’.
Jones was arrested at the scene, and has been charged with six first-degree felony aggravated kidnapping.
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