“I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never
be silent day or night.” (Isaiah 62:6)
The debate over firearms in our country has gone on for quite some time,
and even exists within
As harsh as this may sound, I agree with such a stand. But there are caveats
in my opinion. Guns should be allowed on
qualified members of a team only as long as:
1) It is within a legal jurisdiction.
2) The ministry leadership endorses it.
3) There is a carefully planned training and qualifications program. It doesn’t have to be an expensive or even
cost centered course. But if team
members are armed, they should be practicing together and evaluating the
environment together.
4) I urge every church to get an attorney to serve (as a team volunteer
if possible) on security plan development. If the church has no attorney, this issue of
armed defenders is too important to trust to chance. If you have an incident, you will be forced to
have an attorney. That shouldn’t be the
first time you meet. Present this
article to him or her for discussion as you develop your own policies.
These days, our houses of worship need protection where a firearm is the
only protection capable of stopping an attack. In those cases, more people will die if the attack
is not stopped. In some cases, if your
community discovers you use armed defenders in your ministry the firearms
debate may take on the characteristics of a prairie fire on a windy day. Be certain you are ready to address a news
conference if you make that decision. Ministries
are responsible for the actions of their appointed representatives.
If an incident occurs at a ministry where an appointed security individual
was instrumental in mitigating a threat by using force, count on extreme
scrutiny from media, attorneys for the offender, the general public and
potentially even from the congregation. Whether it was justified or not doesn’t change
the fact that public scrutiny can be expected following use of lethal force.
Of course armed defenders with military, law enforcement or security
credentialed experience are excellent considerations for the carrying members
of a security team. Be careful however
of considering only people from these backgrounds. Conversations about credentials are often
driven by pride, competition or exclusivity. If there are those who feel called to serve in
this capacity, don’t rule them out just because of a lack of related employment
history or credentials. While they should meet moral qualifications and exhibit
relative aptitude, the best team members may have never operated in an official
security or uniformed protection capacity before.
It is wrong for uniformed professionals to advocate they are the only ones
qualified to carry a firearm for protection of others. It is true that some can be entrusted with
carrying a firearm in a protective manner, while others cannot. However, many of those ready to become trained
defenders have no law enforcement credentials. While it is often best to draw from
credentialed pools for armed defenders, remember that decisions of whether
to call the qualified or qualify the called are
above our pay-scale.
There is a grey line of distinction between an intentional team and CCW
members in the congregation. CCW members
that are not part of an intentional team are a reality for any team to be aware
of, they are out there. In some states the
conceal carry laws exclude the ability to carry a firearm in a place of
worship. In states where it is legal
(and realistically even in those where it isn’t) the truth of the matter is
that there will always be a certain number of congregants in the audience who
will be carrying deadly force. To just
know that and quietly rely on them to “spring to action if needed” is as
reckless as burying our head in the sand denying that they are in our
congregation.
I am certainly not opposed to the freedom to carry. I am against posting signs declaring a
gun-free zone. If anyone obeys it, it
sure won’t be the bad guys with guns. But
good guys with guns are a reality every team needs to be aware of. There will be a certain percentage according
to the size of the church that are licensed to carry. In a church of 20 congregants, those CCW
members may be “the team.” If so they
know each other and should train together. If the church has 20,000 in the worship
service with an intentional team that has trained together there may be some
unknown CCW holders eager to get involved if a scenario goes down.
It is best to have a designated team authorized and trained to be armed
defenders if your laws allow such. When
the aggressor comes to your organization, those trained individuals will manage
the attack until they can effectively transition the incident to responding law
enforcement agencies. If you do not have the trained and equipped members, you
may have off-duty plain-clothes officers who do not know each other, mixed with
untrained defenders, all shooting at bad people, each other, and innocent
bystanders with panicking crowds diving to avoid the skirmish. And the reality remains, that even with
trained operators some of those people may come into the mix. You will want to talk about how your team
might handle that scenario.
In a live fire situation, there is plenty of confusion to go around even
among team members who know each other and have trained together. I don’t care if the crowd is 20 or 20,000,
there will be some measure of chaos. I
have been a hunter all my life, and I don’t even hunt with people whom I know
little about. I only hunt with people I
trust around a firearm. It is that much
more important to have a team who has trained together be responsible when an
incident is occurring. Untrained extremists or unknown and non-uniformed
professionals joining the mix is more likely to happen in a larger church. But as much as is realistic, your congregation
should know that there is a designated and specific team of defenders should an
incident occur. In just about every
major shooting, the possibility of multiple shooters must quickly be
considered.
At a shooting many years ago there was a report of a second shooter developing
even as the primary shooter was entering the area. Within seconds of hearing that there may be a
second shooter, and while taking a position of readiness for the gun battle, I
had a total stranger show up behind me yelling in anger. After quickly checking his hands for a weapon
(due to the second shooter alert), I told him he needed to get behind me and
out of the area. I simply had to make a
judgment call he was not the second shooter quickly based upon his demeanor and
apparent lack of a weapon. I use my
experience to emphasize the value of having trained, armed defenders who know
each other and are working as a team, but being ready for those who throw
themselves into the mix. Had the
responses to the gunman been left to a loose knit group of responders, the potential
for increased injury would have been much greater.
I hope your authorized armed defenders will never need to reveal their
firearm. It is truly the very last option,
and even if drawn it should be their primary hope that they can hold the
aggressor at bay until law enforcement arrives, guide those tactical first
responders into effective positions, and quickly turn the situation over to
them. However, if the speed of the
attack is moving too fast to allow for any of this, there may only be one
realistic way to resolve it.
Think About this:
1) Tunnel vision works for both victims and attackers. If an active shooter comes into your crowd,
and sees you coming towards him with a firearm as other innocent people are
fleeing, you have captured his attention and aim. That is the first moment of intervention and
protection, even if there is no shooting at that moment.
2) Protection of the offering (theft) is Not an appropriate use of
deadly force. Make sure any team members
who are armed understand that use of lethal force is only applied when loss of
life of others appears certain.
3) Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the Columbine School shooters)
intentionally used solid jacketed bullets for maximum carnage. They purposely wanted each bullet to penetrate
as far as it could, inflicting a far-reaching field of injury. One of the training sessions your team should
do is discussing bullet types to carry. Maximum
stopping ability with minimum ricochet and wall penetration (exactly the
opposite of the Harris / Klebold model) should be a priority.
4) Train on recognizing elements of the deadly triangle (opportunity,
intention, and capacity) as team preparation for using deadly force. In order to be considered justifiable the
attacker must clearly exhibit the opportunity, intention and capacity all
at once to kill victims. Drill
on active scenarios.
5) Consider verbal de-escalation techniques and non-lethal weapons as a training
priority. Seek out training in your area
if possible. Some violent crimes can be
avoided with such tactics, others cannot. If an incident goes down, you want to exhibit to
authorities that you have emphasized less than lethal response training,
leaving deadly force intervention as a last resort.
6) You need to be certain of your own rules of engagement, preferably
detailed in a clearly understood policies and procedures manual. Learn and practice use of the force continuum.
If a situation goes down, whoever used a
firearm to stop the attack will be whisked away by investigators soon after. Count on them being grilled on the rules, and
they had better know them off the top of their head. They won’t get time for a refresher course on
the way to the station. How much is your
defender going to remember and maintain that “I can’t speak until my attorney
is present” model? It is a good model,
as long as it is within reason. Be
reasonable with sharing known information that could benefit the safety of
responding officers or congregants still in harm’s way. Aside from that, get that attorney who helps
your team in there with you.
7) Like federal agents or plain-clothes officers, church security
operators rarely wear uniforms. So like those plain-clothes first responders,
they need some kind of identification that can be quickly deployed when a
peaceful environment deteriorates rapidly into a violent crime scene.
8) Of over 336,000 congregations in the U.S., nearly 60% of them have fewer
than 99 people in their membership. The
vast majority of these do not have the budget to hire off-duty officers. There are rarely law-enforcement members in
their pews on any given Sunday. Even if
there are, many law enforcement agencies forbid off-duty officers from
volunteering in security roles. There is nothing wrong with having non-law
enforcement trained and ready to protect, and allowing them to be ready with
the proper tools. The smaller the
church, the easier the training can be, but there must be some level of
training if you are serious about protection.
9) Any business gears up with the proper amount of staff at busier times. Electric utilities have more people in the
middle of a hot day, and law enforcement has more officers on duty on Friday
and Saturday night than any other time. Agencies
typically have fewer officers on duty on Sunday morning than any other time of
the week. So if you choose to “just let
law enforcement deal with any threats,” your standard wait of 8 minutes might
be longer if the wolf is at the door on Sunday morning.
In states where it is not legal for citizens to carry a firearm in church,
there are often laws allowing properly qualified security professionals to do
so. The professional
training of those who will are armed is a good option for
training volunteers to become state level certified armed defenders in states
where such certification is needed and if your church can budget for it.
Whether you allow guns in your church or not isn’t something to take
lightly. Pray about it, consider it with your elders, look to Scripture for
direction, consult subject matter experts, do the research on the law of the
land, and make a decision. Pastor, whatever you decide, you must do this:
Communicate your church’s policy. If you allow guns, you need to talk to your
parishioners about what is permissible and what is not. If you do not allow
guns, you need to make this clear. Please do not let lack of communication put your congregation in jeopardy.
Be safe!
Russ Sharrock
Russ Sharrock
I have developed and made available to anyone interested, for FREE, a series of Security &
safety forms that can be printed for your use:
1) A Safety & Security Risk Assessment Form
2) Church Security Plan Template
3) Church Emergency Plan Template
4) A General Fire Safety Checklist
5) A Bomb Threat Checklist
6) A Bomb Threat Distance Chart: Includes various types of
explosive devises and to be referred to in an event of a bomb threat
evacuation. These are minimum distances to evacuate away from the area of
explosion.
These MS Word documents can be adapted as necessary to fit your
church size and needs. I will be adding new forms as time allows.
For a copy of any of these FREE forms, or if you have any questions, you can contact me at:
Integrity
Security Consulting
Russ Sharrock
Russ Sharrock
405-762-2471
| integrityseccon@hotmail.com
Or
message me on my personal FB account
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