Texas Department of Safety (DPS) director Joeff Williams praised the armed citizens who responded immediately when a gunman began shooting in their White Settlement, Texas, church.

The Associated Press reports that White Settlement Police Chief J.P. Bevering said the gunman allegedly pulled out a shotgun and shot one congregant. Bevering said the church’s security team of armed congregants then “eliminated the threat.”

DPS director Williams praised the fast response time of law enforcement officers but noted that it was the citizens who were there during the attack that really saved the day.

ABC News reported Williams saying, “The citizens who were inside that church undoubtedly saved 242 other parishioners. That might get swept aside in this whole conversation about active shooter response, and God know law enforcement has done a whole bunch of work to make our response better.”

He then praised law enforcement’s response to Sunday’s attack, suggesting their response was so perfect that “it’s never going to get there faster.”

Williams mentioned that “over half of these [shootings] are over before [police] get there,” and he praised “the people who were sitting in the pews,” whom he called “immediate responders” who saved their fellow parishioners.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.