Robert Bakke, a popular minister and motivational speaker whose books have included “Prayer at Full Throttle,” says America needs to learn from the Texas church shooting that congregations need to be armed.
Also theaters, schools and other businesses that promote themselves as being “gun-free” should be protected, he said.
“Mass killers are still sane enough to seek unarmed targets,” he said in a statement Thursday.
Armed resistance – a member of the congregation shooting back at an attacker for example – would quickly convince an attacker he had made a mistake.
“I take my call to overcome evil very seriously,” he said. “Perhaps this horrible tragedy in Texas will fortify our churches, ultimately prompting the church to lead the way to a safer America.”
The idea of shooting back was discussed only days earlier in a WND report about the 1993Â incident in which missionary Charl Van Wyk responded to a church shooting by firing back.
His experience was documented in the book and movie “Shooting Back.”
The comments are in response to the shooting at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, by a now-dead suspect, Devin Kelly, 26, who killed 26 people and injured another 20.
Bakke, a jet captain, aerobatic flight instructor, black belt, Amazon best-selling author, race car driver and ski instructor, was running a multi-million dollar company by the age of 24.
He said churches no longer have the option to be defenseless.
“This is not about gun control, rental trucks or fertilizer bombs. It is about evil, and you will never stop evil because it is in the world,” he said. “But you can deter a coward by letting him know you have plenty of firepower on the premises.
“I’ve never understood why so many pastors teach being passive as the way of Christianity,” he said. “Our God is almighty and all-powerful, and we are made in that all-powerful nature … it is time for the people who target churches to get a taste of that reality.”
He recalled once seeing a retail store with a sign “We do not allow guns on the premises.”
He promptly went to the manager and suggested a change to: “Rob this store. We’re unable to defend ourselves.”
Members of Congress are responding to the Texas church attack by proposing changes in the law.  According to Washington Times, members of both parties Thursday struck a deal to push federal agencies to report domestic violence records to the background check system.
The Texas suspect had engaged in domestic violence, yet that information, which might have prevented him from acquiring guns, was not reported.
The new bill would punish agencies that don’t report their records on domestic violence to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Van Wyk’s conclude the problem lies with the shooter, not the hardware.
“Some Christians appear to have adopted the pagan fallacy of animism (extremely prominent here in Africa) – that evil lurks in things (guns), rather than people,” said Van Wyk.
“Demonizing inanimate objects (guns) makes no sense! Guns can be used for good or evil. The heart of the handler is what makes the difference,” Van Wyk, a Christian missionary, author and activist in Africa, told WND.
Democrats have been going to extremes to control those “inanimate objects.”
The Blaze reported Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., walked out of a moment of silence in the U.S. House to honor victims of the Texas church shooting and demanded “gun safety legislation now.”
“My colleagues right now are doing a moment of silence in the House of Representatives’ chambers,” he said on a publicity video he recorded instead of participating in the moment of silence. “I respect their right to do that and I myself have participated in many of them. But I can’t do this again, I’ve been to too many moments of silence. In just my short period in Congress, three of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history have occurred. I will not be silent.”
He insisted Congress “act now” on his demands for weapons bans and such.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., took a more traditional path.
USA Today said he “blasted lawmakers for failing to pass laws that could prevent tragedies like Sunday’s Texas rampage.”
He didn’t specify the laws. And House Speaker Paul Ryan pointed out that the existing laws already prohibited Kelley, a man involved in domestic abuse, from having a weapon.
More evidence of Kelley’s instability was a reported by the Washington Post, which said that in 2012, had fled a mental health facility after “he was caught sneaking guns onto an Air Force base.
It happened about the same time he faced a court-martial, and police officers were told then Kelley “was a danger to himself and others.”
It was July 25, 1993 – a cold winter’s night in Cape Town. Van Wyk was attending the Sunday evening service in St. James Church, which held about 1,500 people, making it one of the larger churches in South Africa.
Because of the cold and the pouring rain outside, there were only about 1,000 worshippers present.
Suddenly, four men entered, and Van Wyk immediately thought it was part of a play. He had heard the youth were planning a show in which people acting as police would barge through the door and kidnap some of the youth for the purpose of having a discussion about what would happen if they were no longer allowed to practice their faith in South Africa.
However, Van Wyk soon realized it was not a play. The men, terrorists from the Azanian People’s Liberation Army, opened fire with automatic rifles, and the panicked churchgoers all hit the floor.
The attackers also carried hand grenades, to which they had affixed small nails to maximize the damage. One 21-year-old worshipper fell on top of a grenade to save the people around him.
Van Wyk hit the floor, too, but he happened to be carrying his revolver in an ankle holster. He pulled it out and knelt behind a bench.
Aiming as best he could, he fired two shots toward the attackers. However, the attackers were at the front of the church, and Van Wyk was four rows from the back. His little revolver, with its two-inch barrel, was designed for close-range self-defense.
So Van Wyk got down on all fours and crawled to an aisle. He discreetly slipped out the back of the church, planning to circle around to the front of the building and shoot the terrorists at close range from behind.
However, as he ran around the corner of the building, he saw the terrorists were already at their getaway car. Van Wyk didn’t know at the time that one of the two shots he fired at long distance inside the church had hit one of the terrorists, and they were already in fast retreat.
One of the terrorists was standing just outside the back left door of the car, staring at the church door through which he and his fellow attackers had just fled. Looking back on the incident later, Van Wyk realized the terrorist was probably waiting for him to come through that door, at which point he would have blown Van Wyk away with his automatic rifle.
But thankfully, Van Wyk was behind the terrorists. He fired another three shots at them with his revolver, and they all jumped into their car and sped away. One of Van Wyk’s bullets was embedded in a car door, which later helped police identify the car. Also, blood from the man Van Wyk had hit was on a car seat, which would later help forensics experts identify the terrorist.
In all, the terrorists killed 11 people and wounded 58.
Van Wyk said the Bible’s instructions on defending oneself and others are clear.
“Those who reject self-defense play into the hands of the law breakers. They encourage the wicked to take advantage of them by creating a safe environment for the attackers,” he said.
“Our Christian duty is to make the working environment of the bad guy as dangerous as possible. The only person who can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun – unarmed victims are pretty helpless,” he said.
“Christians are not called to be doormats for the wicked. In fact the Bible teaches us: ‘Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.’ (Prov 25:26) Surely, we are ‘giving way before the wicked’ if we choose to be unarmed and unable to protect our family, friends and churches,” he said.
