Joe Biden called Texas law allowing guns in churches 'irrational' earlier this year

After lives were saved when a legal gun owner took down a man who opened fire in a North Texas church on Sunday, it's worth noting the reaction former vice president and Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden had to the law making that possible.

Senate Bill 535 took effect Sept. 1, allowing licensed gun owners to carry weapons in places of worship in Texas. State Sen. Donna Campbell, who co-sponsored the bill, said at the time that "it makes no sense to disarm the good guys and leave law-abiding citizens defenseless where violent offenders break the law to do great harm."

Biden had a different take on the law.

"Dealing with firearms, it is irrational, with all due respect to the governor of Texas, irrational what they are doing," Biden said the day after the law took effect. "On the very day you see a mass shooting, and we're talking about loosening access to have guns, to be able to take them into places of worship, it's just absolutely irrational. It's totally irrational."

Biden also said after a 2017 church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, that the man who killed the gunman should not have been able to carry the weapon he used to stop the massacre.

The 43-year-old man who opened fire at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement on Sunday had a criminal record in three states, including aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, theft, and possession of an illegal weapon charges in Texas, New Jersey, and Oklahoma.

Without legal gun owners in the church ready to address the threat of a man opening fire with a shotgun during a packed Sunday service, there may have been many more than the two tragic deaths that occurred.

Video from inside the church shows that within seconds of the gunman opening fire, several people in the church pulled their weapons on the attacker as other congregants ducked in their pews for cover. The gunman was ultimately killed by 71-year-old Jack Wilson, a former deputy sheriff who used to own a firearms training academy and who is now running for county commissioner.