Jitterbugging for Jesus

According to authorities, the two men walked into the Walmart on Highway 49 around 8 p.m. Witnesses said the man holding the shotgun was actively loading and racking the firearm. Walmart does not have a policy about guns inside its stores.

“If I were in a situation where I’m in the store shopping with my family and I see an individual loading a 12 gauge, and racking it, I’m not coming to the conclusion this is good,” said Papania. “While the actions of these two men are sanctioned by state laws, what they did negatively impacted our community. . . .

“Gun laws should be such that it provides us security. As we look at this fact pattern, do you feel safer?”

— Mississippi’s Leonard Papania, on the disturbance that two men with firearms caused in Gulfport, where Papania is the Chief of Police

Gulfport’s police chief is not happy at all with Mississippi’s gun laws after incidents drained his resources at Walmarts and other businesses in the wonderful Gulf city. Of course, Gulfport got nothing on Texas Our Texas.

Thanks to Texas Gov. Abbott and other Texas leaders who are bought and paid for by the National Rifle Association and owe the NRA so much in return–and the liberal gun laws Abbott just signed off on–the kind of threat and drain on local tax dollars and law-enforcement resources cited above in Gulfport may well be coming to your Texas town and your favorite Texas restaurant, college classroom or keg party, your favorite pub or dance hall, movie theater or quite possibly your church.

And of course, your friendly, down-home Walmart.

Thanks to even fewer restrictions on guns, we Texans now have more of these incidents to look forward to before some catastrophic incident erupts from it all. (Don’t forget–a lot of the weapons compensated in the Waco massacre, a sure preview of catastrophes to come, were under legal permits.)

During the recent Texas legislative session, gun-toting militants weren’t altogether subtle in moseying into the state capitol and making less than subtle threats on the lives of lawmakers to, uh, “secure” the votes of those lawmakers.

Talk about a pressure group–Texas gun militants don’t fool around.

But Texas got nothing on Ol’ Mississippi over yonder, another state mecca of Christianity (they do love God and guns, not necessarily in that order in Texas and the South and other parts) and Enlightenment.

Then again, as it turns out, even Mississippi has enlightened, plainspoken people, like the Gulfport police chief, who refuses to be intimidated. Something tells me that if he were a sheriff, the NRA-backed lawmakers in the state would bury this sensible man.

And oh yeah–this wasn’t the first such incident in the chief’s city! Read here for a scare earlier in this year there.

Where will it all end?

FROM TV STATION WLOX in Gulport:

Gulfport Police Chief Leonard Papania held a press conference Monday afternoon to discuss a situation that had many Walmart shoppers terrified Sunday evening.

“That’s not normal.”

That’s what Papania said about two men who went into Walmart, Winn Dixie and Krispy Kreme armed with a shotgun.

While openly carrying a firearm in Mississippi is legal, Papania said this situation could have turned into “a very violent misunderstanding.”

According to authorities, the two men walked into the Walmart on Highway 49 around 8 p.m. Witnesses said the man holding the shotgun was actively loading and racking the firearm. Walmart does not have a policy about guns inside its stores.

“If I were in a situation where I’m in the store shopping with my family and I see an individual loading a 12 gauge, and racking it, I’m not coming to the conclusion this is good,” said Papania. “While the actions of these two men are sanctioned by state laws, what they did negatively impacted our community.”

Papania said his department’s resources were stretched thin while officers and the SWAT team responded to this situation.

According to Papania, no one was threatened, no weapons were discharged, no one was shot and police officials and civilians responded to the situation appropriately.

Gulfport police will not release the names of the men, because they did not violate the law.

“If there was something I could have arrested these people for, I would,” said Papania.

Papania pointed out a question he thinks people should ask themselves as we move forward with the gun laws conversation.

“Gun laws should be such that it provides us security. As we look at this fact pattern, do you feel safer?”

(Link to WLOX here.)