by Xinhua writer Gao Shan
SAN ANTONIO, United States, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- People gathered Monday night at the Cowboy Fellowship of Wilson County to grieve the victims of Sunday's mass shooting in Sutherland Springs in the U.S. state of Texas.
The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in the history of modern Texas that left 26 people dead and 20 more wounded.
"Right now, it's a feeling of shock. This is a little town of 640 people. This is the kind of thing you think happened on TV," the local pastor Chris Kirkham told Xinhua.
"People brought children in and said 'Can I have a few minutes quiet time and would you please pray with me,'" said Kirkham, noting that people should help each other in the aftermath of mass shooting that happened roughly 4 km away.
Sutherland Springs is an unincorporated community located on the old Spanish land grant of Manuel Tarin in northern Wilson County.
Local residents were pulling themselves together from the shock of the mass shooting. Many people volunteered to help, from bringing free food and water to providing psychological counseling service.
"We are with the Veteran Center in San Antonio and we do counseling for war zone veterans. But at time of crisis like this with the community, we come here and we can counsel the people that are suffering right now...We counsel anybody who needs counseling," said Pedro G. Esquivel, a retired navy veteran and also the staff of San Antonio Veteran Center.
According to Esquivel, people usually are more in need of counseling one or two weeks later when they begin to relax and start thinking of what happened.
"We will stay here as long as we have to," Esquivel added.
A law enforcement official told reporters Tuesday that the death toll of 26 could rise as 10 people are still in critical conditions in hospitals.
However, many Texans still believe that guns should not be subject to control unlike those who possess them.
"I think a gun is the necessary thing for the right people. Wrong people get a hold of guns and that's when these incidents happen," said Johnnie Langendorff, who is being hailed a hero by local residents and U.S. media after he chased the gunman on Sunday.
"It was just a natural instinct. I just did what I thought was right," said Langendorff.
Langendorff was driving his truck near the church on Sunday while another local resident was exchanging fire with the gunman. The alleged gunman was identified as Devin Kelley from New Braunfels, a city about 50 km north of Sutherland Springs.
Langendorff and the resident chased the gunman until he lost control of his vehicle.
"We are sad. It's a small friendly community. Everybody knows everybody," said a local woman, who gave her name only as Aurora, in front of the the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
"There are too many guns and a lot of people maybe shouldn't have guns," Aurora added.
America is home to 1.5 percent of the world's population but owns 357 million guns -- more than half the world's total, according to a Washington Post analysis in 2015.
"Guns are deeply woven into the tapestry of the United States," said Seattle-based lawyer David Richardson, a gun control advocate.
"Gun control is a very bipartisan issue," Richardson said, "Republicans oppose it, and most Democrats support it."
"There is so much money involved that there are no rules of decency," He said.
