Jeanne Assam appeared before the news media for the first time Monday and said she "did not think for a minute to run away" when a gunman entered the New Life Church in Colorado Springs and started shooting.
Mike Vanderboegh provides the following thoughts:
OK, my first comment is that Pastor Boyd had it right: "The security guards are members of the church who are screened and not 'mercenaries that we hire to walk around our campus to provide security.'" "Mercenaries that we hire" is an accurate description of the security guards who froze at the mall shooting. If you are a security guard and are offended, I am sorry.
Second, there is an old cavalry dictum which states, "When in doubt, ride to the sound of the guns." Jeanne Assam did not call for backup and wait. She did not set up a perimeter. She had no need of an "incident command post." She moved to the sound of the guns, although she says "There was chaos . . .I will never forget the gunshots. They were so loud." Through crowds of panicked people, SHE WENT FORWARD. She moved, in best cavalry fashion, toward the sound of the guns.
Third, Jeanne Assam's actions were informed by, indeed they were a logical extension of, her faith in God. She had to be scared. Anyone who's ever been shot at in circumstances that require you to do your job in spite of the fact that someone's trying to kill you knows what I mean. So yeah, she was scared. But she doesn't comment upon that. What does she say? "God was with me." "I didn't think for a minute to run away." She believed that "God gave her the strength to confront Murray, keeping her calm and focused even though he appeared to be twice her size and was more heavily armed." "It seemed" she said, " like it was me, the gunman and God." As indeed it was.
Fourth, Jeanne Assam was a volunteer. It wasn't her job, in the strictest sense of that word, to confront the gunman, it was her responsibility. It was a responsibility freely accepted and faithfully executed. It is the responsibility that all of us who are citizens and not serfs embrace along with the liberty that such a burden secures. Jeanne Assam and the other volunteers at the church were acting as a citizen's militia, in the classic American definition of that term. They were volunteer sheepdogs, watching over the flock. And they did their duty.
Finally, there is this: "Boyd said Assam was the one who suggested the church beef up its security Sunday following the Arvada shooting, which it did. The pastor credited the security plan and the extra security for preventing further bloodshed." Jeanne Assam, armed citizen and Christian sheepdog, apprehended the threat before it appeared. She planned for it, organized for it, and executed the plan when the danger did arrive, at the risk of her own life. That she gives all credit to God is correct, fitting and proper. But let us also give credit where credit is due to Jeanne Assam for living and acting in the finest traditions of the American armed citizenry. May we all measure up to the standard she has set.
Mike Vanderboegh
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Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776 AT AOL DOT com