美国国家公共电台 NPR Santa Fe Church Community Reflects On Texas Shooting

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Santa Fe Church Community Reflects On Texas Shooting

DON GONYEA, HOST:

Residents in Santa Fe, Texas, are still grappling with the school shooting that left 10 people dead on Friday. Today, speaking on ABC's "This Week," Texas Lieutenant¹ Governor Dan Patrick laid the blame on American culture - not access to guns.

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DAN PATRICK: We have devalued life, whether it's through abortion², whether it's the breakup of families, through violent movies and particularly violent video games.

GONYEA: And during church services this morning, survivors³ and their families tried to find answers of their own. Houston Public Radio's Travis Bubenik joined them and has this report.

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ARCADIA FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH CHOIR⁴: (Singing) Lord, I need you, oh, I need you.

TRAVIS BUBENIK, BYLINE⁵: The choir at Arcadia First Baptist Church sings the refrain of many in Santa Fe who are turning to faith to deal with the grim reality that this familiar and tragic⁶ American routine has now come to their town. Pamela Pannell's grandson would have been in the art class where witnesses say the shooting started, but he was in another room that day for AP testing.

PAMELA PANNELL: And that's the hard part - to come that close to losing him and everything that's going on with the ones that were lost. My heart goes out to all of them.

BUBENIK: Texas Governor Greg Abbott attended the Arcadia First Baptist service and later talked about what he called obvious ideas to prevent future shootings - hardening school security, better control of who comes in and out of schools. He's pointed⁷ to one mental health program that intervenes with kids who show warning signs that they might become violent. But for Pannell and other church-goers here, the answer is simpler.

PANNELL: We need God back in our schools.

BUBENIK: Almost two decades ago, the U.S. Supreme⁸ Court told the Santa Fe school district it had to stop allowing student-led prayers at school events. Just down the road from Pannell's church, at Calvary Crossroads Church, pastor⁹ Del Toler tells his congregation to think about that the next time they get a chance to vote. He says there might be a number of ways to prevent future shootings, but...

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DEL TOLER: I think the church is the focal point, and I think we've gotten the cart before the horse, and we want the other things, but we don't want God.

BUBENIK: And Toler's thoughts about changing gun laws...

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TOLER: Guns helped shape America. Guns have ensured our freedom. It's the heart in a man that steers¹⁰ him to do wrong.

BUBENIK: Eighteen-year-old Santa Fe High student Megan Dunford is one of Toler's church members. She was friends with Sabika Sheikh, the Pakistani exchange student killed in the shooting.

MEGAN DUNFORD: It's been really different knowing that she's gone.

BUBENIK: I asked Dunford what she liked about her friend.

DUNFORD: I liked everything. I mean, she made me laugh and stuff. She was very helpful.

BUBENIK: As the national debate swirls¹¹ about how to prevent another school shooting, Dunford is just trying to deal with the loss of a friend, like so many others in this grieving community. For NPR News, I'm Travis Bubenik in Santa Fe, Texas.