Sheep or Warrior
Just as sheep are a little afraid of the sheepdogs that protect them, society is a little afraid of its warriors. Sheep need not be afraid of sheepdogs because sheepdogs will not harm them; it is not in their nature. However, sheep see a little of the wolf in the sheepdog and it reminds them that there are wolves out to get them, and they do not like being reminded of this because it interferes with their idyllic concept of life. They would rather spend their days in ignorant bless, living in comfort, while being protected by the sheepdogs to which they show distain. As Edmund Burke once said, "There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men." Then the wolves come! The sheep run around in circles, crying out in vain, begging for protection. However, they have little to fear, the sheepdogs they loathed during so much during their peaceful times are still there—willing and ready to protect them.
On September 16, 1999, Larry Gene Ashbrook, armed with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and a .380-caliber handgun, and shouting anti-Baptist rhetoric, opened fire in Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, killing seven and wounding seven others before killing himself. In his article, On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs, Lt. Col. (Ret) Dave Grossman, author of the book, On Killing, writes about an off-duty police officer who was attending the church on this day with his family. The officer’s son was shot and all the officer could do was throw himself on his son's body and wait for him to die. Grossman says the officer believed he could have saved every life that day if he had been allowed to carry his gun into the church.
Before the massacre occurred, some church members would have been horrified if they knew any member was carrying a weapon in church. They would have called him paranoid and demanded he either leave the church or not carry the weapon in church. During the same month of the massacre, Vice President Al Gore was attacking George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas, for signing legislation that permitted guns to be carried into Texas churches as concealed weapons. Throughout his presidential campaign, Gore constantly asked, ''How can we allow guns in churches?''