“Willeford is fully aware why he’s so popular among a certain segment of society. He knows that he’s become a symbol; his actions that day make the perfect story for gun rights advocates to tell. Not only did he use his personal firearm to stop an active shooter, he did it with an AR-15, the same type of gun used in many mass shootings, including this one … And he agrees with many of the arguments strangers are making when they cite his name. If AR-15s were banned, he would have been less well equipped to defend himself and his friends … But he didn’t ask to be a citation in someone else’s debate. His experience is more than a data point. Those seven minutes ravaged his community.” Michael J Mooney in Texas Monthly: The Hero of the Sutherland Springs Shooting Is Still Reckoning with What Happened that Day.

+ When the American College of Physicians published a paper on Reducing Firearm Injuries and Deaths in the United States, the NRA told doctors “to stay in their lane.” Doctor’s responded. “Do you have any idea how many bullets I pull out of corpses weekly? This isn’t just my lane. It’s my f*cking highway.”