... “What happened in that church should show everybody that it’s not a gun problem, it’s a people problem,” said resident Mike Jordan, 50, whose grandson was nearly shot by Kelley. “A screwdriver in the hands of the wrong person can be a deadly weapon.”
Kevin Langdon doesn’t carry a screwdriver, but it’s not unusual to find the retired 62-year-old teacher carrying multiple guns - usually small arms he uses to kill rattlesnakes and copperheads.
It’s people, however - not snakes or wild hogs - that locals worry about most. Langdon’s neighbors, who have formed an unofficial watch program, all own rifles, he said. They use the scopes to monitor one another’s properties in case a stranger approaches - a constant concern because of the traffic that passes through town along Highway 87, bringing big-city strangers from nearby San Antonio, he said.
“If someone were to hit a woman at a gas station, there’d be 20 men on top of him beating a new lesson into him,” he said. “Everyone has everyone else’s back, and guns are how we keep one another safe.”