Further details on the suspect in Sunday’s shooting at Houston’s Lakewood Church have finally been made public by the police. Genesse Ivonne Moreno, 36, who was also known as Jeffrey Moreno Carranza as recently as 2021–2022, is the attacker’s identified identity. The suspect had several arrests over the previous 20 years, according to the authorities, and at least one mental health examination in 2016, yet none of these stopped Moreno/Carranza from legitimately getting a handgun.
The attacker’s seven-year-old kid was identified by authorities during a news conference on Monday afternoon. He is still classified in serious condition. A.22 caliber handgun in a rucksack and an AR-15 with a “Palestine” sticker, both legitimately purchased, were found with the suspect. The gunman reportedly fired up to thirty bullets, according to unidentified law enforcement authorities, before off-duty cops shot and killed the suspect in self-defense. Only two people were injured, Moreno/Carranza’s kid and a guy who was treated and discharged for a leg injury.
Despite the lack of information provided by the police on the shooting at Lakewood Church in downtown Houston, which resulted in the death of the female suspect and two injuries, Texas Democrats have not abated in their criticism of the state’s “reckless” gun laws. Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa called the shooting “yet another example of the danger and trauma that reckless gun laws have bestowed upon our communities” in a press release released on Sunday afternoon, just a few hours after the news broke. He also stated that “no place of worship, shopping center, classroom, or shared public space is safe under the leadership of those that place the gun lobby over Texans’ safety.”
What kind of gun control legislation would have stopped the mother carrying a long gun and a five-year-old child into the Houston megachurch? Hinojosa remains silent. In fact, the leader of the Texas Democrats hardly cared to emphasize the one thing that ended the danger almost immediately—that is, the person who shot and killed the gunman: law enforcement officers who were not on duty providing the church with armed security.
Just before 2:00 p.m. CT, the lady, who was leading the kid and was dressed in a trench coat, entered Osteen’s Lakewood church between services. Without warning, she started shooting a long gun, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
“Once she entered, at some point she began to fire,” stated Finner. He further mentioned that according to the cops there, the woman, whose age was put at 30-35, claimed to be carrying an explosive device.
Finner added that a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officer and a Houston Police Department officer were the two cops that fired shots and hit the victim. Sadly, the 5-year-old was struck. The chief stated that a 57-year-old man who, I don’t believe, had anything to do with it, had been shot in the leg.
Despite Hinojosa’s claim that the state’s gun laws are to blame for the shooting, there have been instances of similar violence at places of worship in some of the states with the strictest gun laws in the nation. One such instance occurred in 2022 when a man opened fire at a Laguna Hills, California, church, killing one person and injuring five more.
Although the reason for the attack on Sunday at Lakewood Church is unknown, it is reprehensible for Democrats such as Hinojosa to attempt to attribute the attack to the state’s gun laws while downplaying the importance of the armed presence in the sanctuary that stopped the attacker from causing more harm, especially in light of the fact that his fellow Democrats across the nation are working hard to designate places of worship as “sensitive places” where lawful carry is prohibited.
Although the Second Circuit Court of Appeals happily suspended that provision, New York’s post-Bruen carry regulations prohibited all places of worship from permitting concealed carry on the property, even in cases where pastors, rabbis, and other religious leaders desired that their congregants carry weapons. Democrats in California followed suit, adding places of worship and churches to the long list of “gun-free zones” created by SB 2. However, the federal courts have once again blocked their attempts to disarm the populace, if only momentarily.
The only churches and places of worship that armed guards could defend, if Democrats like Hinojosa had their way, would be the ones that could afford to hire security specifically for that purpose. We are aware of the devastation that would result from that, and Hinojosa should be made aware of the fact that armed residents volunteer as security at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. These individuals were present when a shooter opened fire in the packed sanctuary in December 2019 using a shotgun.
A person who is motivated to murder as many people as possible in a “sensitive place” where lawful carry is prohibited won’t be deterred by any gun control legislation. More lives will be saved if force is used to counter force as quickly as possible. In spite of Hinojosa’s delusions, Texas’s gun control legislation had nothing to do with the massacre at Lakewood Church on Sunday. It demonstrated the significance of having an instantaneous armed reaction when lives are in danger, regardless of whether those responding are off-duty law enforcement officers or armed individuals acting as community security.