Jeanne Assam is a modern hero. She is a former police officer who “hit rock bottom” three years ago and dedicated her life to Christ. She was in the third day of a fast on Sunday morning and was feeling sick, so she skipped her assignment at the first worship service at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. By the time of the second service, she was feeling better and reported for duty as a volunteer security officer.

During her rounds, she heard explosive gunfire and without regard to her own safety, ran toward the melee. She shouted at fleeing church members, “Where is he?” They told her the killer was coming through the front doors of the church. She drew her weapon, identified herself and ordered him to drop his weapon, a high-caliber rifle. Unknown to her, he was also carrying two handguns and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition. He refused and she calmly committed her actions to the Lord. “Holy Spirit, be with me,” she said as she pulled the trigger. Her hands were steady and her aim was true. She discharged her weapon several times, then approached him to assure that, “he was down.”

The killer, Matthew Murray, was a psychopath. Twelve hours earlier he had killed two missionaries at the Youth With a Mission center in Arvada, Colorado, a training ministry that he had attended, but was kicked out of years ago. Between the rampages, he calmly visited an anti-Christian blog site and wrote, “You Christians brought this on yourselves. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world.”

What can we conclude from this and other recent tragedies? Certainly there will an outcry for greater gun control. There will be some who question Miss Assam’s invoking God’s help as she took down the assailant. It may seem incongruous to some that a believer can react with violence when Christ commanded that we turn the other cheek and to be in the world, but not of it.

I’m not a theologian, but I don’t think it’s unbiblical for the church to have armed guards on watch. In analyzing the tragedy at New Life, it may be appropriate to apply Joseph’s logic in his response to his remorseful, yet panic-stricken siblings, who feared retribution from the second-most powerful man in the Egyptian empire: “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, for the saving of many lives (Gen. 45:5-7).” Guns may have been invented for evil, but Miss Assam used hers as an instrument of justice, and saved many lives.

If Miss Assam had not been carrying a firearm, she would not have had a chance against the heavily-armed assassin. She is a petite woman, and was weakened from her fast. Her weapon was the equalizer. If we place tighter restrictions on guns, then church security guards may be prohibited from responding as she did. One thing we can be sure of, however. The Michael Murrays of the world will always have contempt for the mores of society – including gun control laws. With tighter restrictions, Sunday’s encounter would have certainly been a one-way fight and a bloodbath would have ensued.

Here’s a video clip of the news conference where Miss Assam was interviewed (if you are reading this via an email, Click Here):

Liam Roberts

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