Opinion
by Sean Maloney
The tragedy at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis serves as a devastating and painful reminder of a simple, unassailable truth: evil cannot be stopped by a sign on a door or a law on a book.
While the immediate aftermath saw the predictable chorus of calls for more gun control—for more “gun-free zones,” “assault weapon” bans, and magazine capacity limits—the circumstances of the attack prove that these measures are not just ineffective, but dangerously counterproductive.
The very concept of a “gun-free zone” is a lie.
These areas are not free of guns; they are free of the guns of law-abiding citizens. To a murderer, a “gun-free zone” is not a deterrent—it is a target. It is an advertisement announcing that every person inside is completely disarmed and unable to fight back. In the horrifying minutes of the Annunciation Church shooting, the victims were left utterly defenseless. Their reliance on a promise of safety that the law could not deliver left them as helpless targets.
The shooter, Robin Westman, was a textbook case of a violent individual who would not be deterred by any legislation. Westman, with a twisted ideology and a documented obsession with mass murderers, chose this location specifically for its “gun-free” status. This was not a random act of violence; it was a deliberate act of evil against a defenseless population. Westman’s manifesto and online postings explicitly revealed a desire to target a place where a mass of people would be unable to defend themselves.
The attack was over in a matter of minutes. The shooter fired 116 rounds, killing two children and wounding 21 others, including 18 children and three elderly adults.
In less than 240 seconds, two young lives were viciously taken, and a score of others were changed forever. This is the horrifying reality of a “gun-free zone”: in a crisis, every second counts. On average, a mass shooting can result in a new casualty every 2-3 seconds. In the Annunciation Church attack, the rate of carnage was even faster. There was no time for law enforcement to arrive and stop the killing. The only thing that could have stopped the killing was an immediate, effective, and armed response from a good person within the church itself.
Furthermore, the notion that magazine limits or bans on certain firearms would have prevented this tragedy is a fantasy. A determined killer is not going to be stopped by a 10-round magazine limit. They will simply carry more magazines, and the pauses to reload will be measured in seconds—not enough time for victims to flee or for police to arrive. These measures do not stop evil; they merely inconvenience the good. They are a form of virtue signaling that accomplishes nothing but making it more difficult for a person to defend themselves when confronted with a violent threat.
The reality is that gun control laws, by their very nature, punish the innocent and ignore the criminal.
The shooter in this attack had no regard for the law, and no new law would have changed that. A person who is willing to murder children in a place of worship is not going to be stopped by a magazine limit or a background check. The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
The Annunciation Church shooting is a clear and unambiguous argument for armed self-defense. It teaches us that relying on the government to protect us from evil is a fatal mistake. It is an act of personal choice, one of profound self-respect and responsibility for an individual to arm themselves, not out of a desire for violence, but out of a commitment to the preservation of their own life and the lives of those they love. The Second Amendment exists for exactly this reason: not for hunting or sport, but for the fundamental right to self-preservation.
The victims of this tragedy were denied that right, and the result was devastating. We must learn from this pain and embrace the truth that the most effective deterrent to violence is a prepared and armed citizenry.
About Sean Maloney.
Sean Maloney is a criminal defense attorney, co-founder of Second Call Defense, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is a nationally recognized speaker on critical topics including the Second Amendment, self-defense, the use of lethal force, and concealed carry. Sean has worked on numerous use-of-force and self-defense cases and has personally trained hundreds of civilians to respond safely and legally to life-threatening situations. He is a passionate advocate for restoring the cultural legitimacy of the Second Amendment and promoting personal responsibility in self-defense.
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