‘Good Guy With Gun’ Receives Texas’ Highest Honor

Remember Jack Wilson, the armed citizen who ended a mass killing inside a Texas church, proving that a good guy with a gun is the best defense about bad guys with guns? If not, you can read about him by clicking here. In short, when a man fatally shot two churchgoers with a shotgun on December 29, 2019, Jack Wilson — head of church security as well as a deacon — drew his pistol and fired on the murderer as soon as he could safely do so. He hit the bad guy in the head, immediately ending the crime seconds after it began.

Turns out, the governor of Texas Greg Abbott thinks Mr. Wilson did a great thing, so on January 13, 2020 he awarded Jack the Governor’s Medal of Courage, “the state’s highest civilian honor.”

During the ceremony, Wilson reportedly said this:

When events arise, you’re going to do one of two things. You’re either going to step up and do what’s right or walk away. And I’m not one to walk away.

The reason he got the medal? It is Texas’s way of recognizing and honoring when someone performs “great acts of heroism by risking their own safety to save another’s life.”

Gov. Abbott was quoted as saying he “thanks God” for Wilson, adding “You are a hero to the people of Texas.”

I agree with the governor on that. Mr. Wilson, however, reportedly said. “I feel more as a protector than I do as a hero.”

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.