Going Ballistic

If a mass shooting erupts in the Bi-Stone County area, law enforcement will be betterprepared thanks to the advocacy of an outraged local mother.

Going Ballistic, an organization committed to outfitting rural Texas law enforcement agencies with rifleresistant ballistic shields, donated a protective shield to Limestone County Sheriff’s Department Nov. 6. Freestone County Sheriff’s Department received a shield in February, and the organization donated shields to Navarro County and the City of Corsicana for both the sheriff’s department and the police department in August.

Donna Carter, who lives near Lake Richland Chambers in Navarro County and has a fiveyear-old son attending a private school in Fairfield, launched her project after the May 2022 Uvalde school shooting that left 21 dead. Responding officers lacked access to a protective shield and had to wait for one to arrive, she learned from her brother-in-law who was a Texas Ranger.

“I was shocked and mortified,” Carter said. “No one had equipped the good guys.”

Carter said she continued to ponder what had happened in Uvalde and started asking local officials if law enforcement agencies were prepared for such an emergency. The answer was “no,” she said.

At that point the idea to form a 501C-3 nonprofit group to help rural law enforcement agencies across Texas counter gun violence was conceived, Carter said. The group’s nonprofit status was approved in December 2022.

“That’s the way God showed up,” said Carter, who is a member of Round Prairie Baptist Church in Fairfield. “Faith and probably some anger issues about the way people handled or the lack of handled some things inspired me.”

Carter said HighCom Armor, the Ohio-based distributor of the 24-pound shields that cost about $5,500, has assisted her in getting the group up and running. The company donated the shield the group gave to Freestone County, and it is giving discounted prices to the group for other donations.

“Their support for what we are trying to do speaks volumes,” Carter said.

Carter said Navarro County, the City of Corsicana and now Limestone County have also each bought an extra shield using funds from criminal activity seizures. Hopefully, that could become a model for other local governments to follow suit, she said.

The group had one fundraiser in July at Carter’s house, and it raised $30,000. “I hear that’s pretty good for the first time out,” she said.

The group is apolitical, Carter said. “No matter who you vote for, you should be able to get behind what we are trying to do,” she said.