A USA Today op-ed saying it was “terrifying” that several parishioners were armed when a gunman opened fire during a church service in Texas was roasted on social media, The Hill reports. The blowback came after parishioner Jack Wilson shot and killed the gunman at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Tx., on Sunday. Two other parishioners were killed in the attack. “Jack Wilson is exactly the type of person you want around with a gun because he’s a firearms instructor,” read a tweet from USA Today‘s Twitter account promoting the op-ed by Elvia Diaz. “But we know nothing about the at least six other parishioners who also appeared to draw their handguns. And that’s terrifying.”
“The real story here isn’t heroism,” Diaz wrote. “Have we really reached a point when each of us need to carry a firearm anywhere we go? Gun advocates certainly think so.” The criticism on social media that focused on Diaz’s use of “terrifying” was swift. One tweet said, “I think you’d find it a lot more ‘terrifying’ if nobody inside the church was armed. Everyone is lucky 6-7 people in that church used their right to carry at church. Had they not, everyone they loved at church might be dead right now. Gross and idiotic to attack their rights now.’ Wilson is running for commissioner in Hood County, Tx. On Facebook, Wilson said the incident “put me in a position that I would hope no one would have to be in, but evil exist [sic] and I had to take out an active shooter in church.”