In the spring of 2003, a child who was suspended from the school at which I was teaching came to campus and pointed a gun into the window of a classroom that neighbored mine. The following day we developed a gun attack procedure, and life went on. After years of school shootings, we as a culture had come to accept that school could not be taken for granted as a sanctuary from gun violence.

I hope the murders at New Life Church and Youth With A Mission do not have the same effect on our houses of worship. I don't mean to say that I hope places of worship don't develop crisis plans. I just mean that I'd hate to see them lose their status as sanctuaries, to become yet another place where people feel like they have to watch their backs.

New Life has set up a donation page for their member family that lost two teenage daughters on Sunday morning.