Who’s right on guns, Jack Wilson or Mike Bloomberg? Hero of church shooting speaks out
Church shooting hero Jack Wilson is still a grieving survivor, and now he’s also in the middle of the gun-rights debate.
On “Fox and Friends” last week, the sharpshooting gun instructor and former Hood County reserve deputy said New York Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is mistaken about whether church worshipers should be armed, or should wait for police to handle a shooting.
“Mr. Bloomberg — had we operated by his standards or his wishes, the carnage would have been significantly greater,” said Wilson, 71, of rural Hood County.
He’s the security volunteer who brought an armed Keith Kinnunen down with one shot from across the church, ending the Dec. 29 attack that killed Rich White, 67, of Westworth Village, and Tony Wallace, 64, of Fort Worth.
This is Texas, where some of our elected officials think God gave us guns and wrote the Second Amendment.
So the shooting has renewed the debate over gun laws.
It didn’t help the argument for stricter gun laws after Bloomberg told an Alabama audience the very next day after the shooting, “It’s the job of law enforcement to have guns. ... You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”
Wilson is not the average citizen.
Now, Bloomberg’s supporters in the various Moms Demand Action groups are left to explain that distinction.
“(Wilson) has a law enforcement background, he’s taught courses on the range — what he did was fantastic,” said Amanda Johnson of Dallas, a Moms Demand Action volunteer doing interviews on behalf of the Bloomberg campaign.
“In no way does (Bloomberg) object to qualified citizens carrying ... (But) for the average Joe to think they’re going to whip out their gun and do what that man did is not realistic.”
Bloomberg has spent $18 million on TV time in Texas, where he hopes to pick up a chunk of Democratic presidential delegates in the Super Tuesday primary March 3.
But he hasn’t said anything else about Wilson, other than campaign manager Kevin Sheekey’s comment Thursday to Fox News that “Mike Bloomberg supports his right to own a gun with a background check. We salute him, I salute him.”
On “Fox and Friends,” the network’s morning entertainment show, Wilson said: “I don’t consider myself an average guy. The team and I practice. We train. It’s not something (where) we’re just walking around with a gun on our hip.”
Kinnunen had seven live rounds in his gun and three in his pocket, Wlson said.
“You prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Wilson said — “If you don’t do that, you will possibly end up not surviving.”
Pressed by a host about what he would tell Bloomberg, Wilson said. “They are trying to take away all of our rights to own firearms and they are chipping away at that all of the time. ... If Mr. Bloomberg would have his security detail turn their arms in and not guard him, he would be in the same situation as many Americans every day.”
Amanda Johnson of Moms Demand lost a sister to suicide.
“I just want people to have permits — I want people to have background checks,” she said
Kinnunen was not a convicted felon. It is unclear whether he could legally buy a gun. He was under a 2012 Oklahoma protective order.
Bloomberg’s gun proposals call for a better system to check eligibility.
“Nine times out of 10,” Johnson said, “if we can have a conversation we will discover we are all on the same side of the fence.
“Yes, we need better gun laws. Do people object to background checks? No. Do people want domestic abusers having access to guns? No.”
That’s not as clear as Wilson’s message.
This story was originally published January 25, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
