Mr. Sanford, the authorities said, drove a truck into the church meetinghouse during a worship service on Sunday and opened fire with an assault-style weapon, shooting victims as young as 6. He was shot dead by the police, and a fire then consumed the church.
So far, the fund to benefit Mr. Sanford’s family has collected more than $200,000.
The idea to help the shooter’s family was spurred by the religious convictions of the Utah-based writer Dave Butler, 53, also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mr. Butler said he became concerned about who, if anyone, was supporting Mr. Sanford’s wife and child — “two more victims,” as he called them.
Mr. Butler, who is married with three children and knows members of the Grand Blanc congregation, thought of the long road to recovery that Mr. Sanford’s family now faced.
“It seemed very cruel,” he said, that support for people suffering from the attack “would overlook the other family that was left without a father.”
Mormons are a lot of things, but they seem to always put their money where their mouth is. Unlike say white Evangelicals, who are just utterly full of shit at all times.
These days money seems to be going into new temples or making more money. As an outsider it’s hard to say what the priority is. They are chipping in a little to save the lake, so that’s good I guess.
When Mark Twain came through here he didn’t have much positive to say. He was kind of a dick and pretty bigoted in his youth though. Still, I have to agree with him the Book of Mormon is “chloroform in print.” I could never make much headway into it.
When so many mass shootings seem to be plagued by missed opportunities for communication, this incident seems pretty impressive in how quickly and seamlessly it was addressed. (Maybe this should be the norm and not the outlier).
Family actually has the initiative to do something and not waive it off when they see a threat. Info and pictures have to get passed from one police department to another. Yet from the initial call from the family to police making contact at the airport was just 10 mins.
