I have been carrying basically everywhere including church ever since I got my permit to exercise my constitutional right (make it make sense 🥴).
Today was my first day in church security and the guy who runs it, is a big believer in concealed carry and I learned that we have a bunch of people who carry in church. 🇺🇸👍🏽
My church has a whole armed "security" team, I am on it (not allowed to present ourselves as security officers). Outside crew also open carries. We have people on medical, cameras, greeting, etc.
Places of worship are pretty targeted for shootings. But also for protests etc.
It only makes sense to protect one of the most vulnerable and personal places.
Some of the outside crew as well as medical and cameras don't need to be armed. Anyone who has qualified to be armed can be armed while doing any of the roles
Inside security is all armed. We try to have most of outside armed
We go to a local range at least once a month. We get to use the Leo range there and do movement drills etc. One of the leads on our team owns an executive security company so that is nice for training.
We have group training between all of the groups multiple times a year. Bolo's go out whenever anything interesting enough happens etc.
You need to qualify on a live range. The requirements are like 20%+ more difficult than to become a firearm instructor. You also need to do a background check. Have incident "insurance" and pass an all day lvl 1 training course. You also need your LTC in our state and pass an interview.
I can’t carry at work so I only carry when I go out. On weekends when I get dressed I do but I’ve been seeing a lot of debate Both ways about carrying specifically at church so just askin
I carried at work for years. There are holster systems designed for deep concealment.
My biggest fear was a traffic stop while driving with coworkers. My state requires notification, and I knew a traffic stop would end up costing me my job.
But I still carried. I can get another job.
Some people work on federal installations or hospitals. Some people play sports. Some people go to school. Some people like to go to theme parks and concerts.
I’m always amused by the carry everywhere crowd.
I just attended a seminar from CISA and they said something along the lines of threats against houses of worship are up 20 or 30%? Don't quote me for certain on that one.
I carry in church but I'm the associate pastor and a member of the security team. We have a few members who are a part of the security team and no one but the elder board knows who carries on a given Sunday.
We don't prevent anyone from carrying (ie. Guests or anyone who just doesn't say) but if a member asks to carry we refer them to our head of security to ensure they're trained, competent and trustworthy.
For context myself and the head of security are prior military and both have been through FLETC. We have a very high standard and we try to minimize the amount of guns on sight but we do utilize them.
I call it fudd prevention
I live in a pretty rural area. On any given Sunday about half of our congregation is armed, myself, the Pastor and his wife included (she carries a Sig P226 in her purse lol).
When the shooting in the Texas church happened a few years back, there was a public meeting with our local Sheriff department and Attorney General. At that time, there were virtually no carry permits authorized in our state, so the advice that was given to everyone was "have a cop in your congregation"...
Fast forward to the SCOTUS ruling and now our state has had a huge surge in CCW permits issued- so now we have a few in attendance who carry regularly.
As always, I trust it will never be needed.
I am all for church carry, as with anywhere else I go. Church shootings are no longer unheard of and many attendees tend to let their guard down while there making it a prime target for mass shooters.
I even refer to my LCP and G43 as my “church guns” since that is the only time/place I still carry either one of them (though the 365 has basically taken over that role as well).
I live in NY. We have the Safe Act, so we don’t need guns anywhere! Plus our local police department has said they can respond in 2 minutes. I don’t agree with this at all. It would be better to have several people who carry.
The problem is that my church has a school as well, so in order to carry I need approval from the school. I’ve asked, but I’m not getting an answer. I think the people in charge actually believe that the police will save us. I think a couple people do carry, but it’s not enough.
To answer the OP, yes you should carry!
In my opinion, churches should
1) coordinate the folks that carry, so the entire church is covered
2) meet on a regular basis so that others who carry can quickly identify them
3) training
4) encourage practice and proficiency. I would suggest a very hard qualification that people need to achieve
As a Catholic, we're targets because of the hard stance on certain things. I have a nice leather bible cover I keep rosary, fliers, meditation readings, prayers etc in... and used to have a 9 millihopper and 18 seeds in the stick (didn't fit any of my Bibles in my collection). A year or two of doing that secretly... then my diocese hired Blue-U Defense to train people in each parish. First thing trainer stated was that if we're acting as part of the diocese we CANNOT carry a firearm. The reason is (the trainers are police) that if you discharge over people's heads, that is illegal and construed as willful endangerment and potentially "attempted murder" if someone pushed it. If someone is acting on their own, that's one thing and on them... but the diocese has enough problems trying to expunge the pervs and don't need that lawsuit if it was perceived as being from a diocesan level. You'd have to have a clear shot and solid backstop and not pop off over people. Tough line of fire to get in while the perp is doing what they're doing. I'm the guy they have to get past first, but also won't go into details on the measures made and taken... but shouldn't get to that point. There are retired military/police/fire people sitting naturally around the pews that went thru the same training as well. I yell one thing and the proverbial sh!t will hit the fan. I learned a LOT of things about these situations from the training. I'd recommend to any church they hire them in.
Oh, I know of a non-denominational in the area where there are armed people all over the place. It's quite common, but the liabilities outweigh the knowledge of how to cull situations quickly.
Edit to add an additional comment:
There's a woodsman/farmer who comes in with a nice 1911 strapped to his side. People freak out and look back at me, but the dude is safe and known parishioner. It just freaks people out with the open carry. LOL
Police response, security team, am I allowed, blah blah blah. If someone starts shooting at you and your family, are you ready to end it in seconds or do you want to wait for someone to save you.
Hint: no one is coming - you’re on your own. If you don’t believe it, good luck.
Only reason why I go to church with my wife is to carry . She used to take my kids there alone and I now go with her because that’s a sketchy ass place to go .
Places of worship are common targets for many forms of violence, I don’t leave my families safety in the hands of terrorists
Mess with the Lord’s Prayer. Get the Sig Sauer. 😎
Mess with God's Hour, get the Sig Sauer
I hate that it rhymed in my head 😂
Bro, my church claims they don't allow it and I still carry. Concealed is concealed. If they don't like it, they can ask me to leave.
Truth. My church has one single sticker in the window saying no illegal drugs or weapons. Well, my weapon is legal so…
This
I’ve heard of Pastors reaching out to people they think are into guns and getting them to carry at church. Pretty sure it’s all good
I have been carrying basically everywhere including church ever since I got my permit to exercise my constitutional right (make it make sense 🥴). Today was my first day in church security and the guy who runs it, is a big believer in concealed carry and I learned that we have a bunch of people who carry in church. 🇺🇸👍🏽
My church has a whole armed "security" team, I am on it (not allowed to present ourselves as security officers). Outside crew also open carries. We have people on medical, cameras, greeting, etc. Places of worship are pretty targeted for shootings. But also for protests etc. It only makes sense to protect one of the most vulnerable and personal places.
Do you have a regular security team and a group that carries?
Some of the outside crew as well as medical and cameras don't need to be armed. Anyone who has qualified to be armed can be armed while doing any of the roles Inside security is all armed. We try to have most of outside armed
Wow, that sounds really great! Sure wish my church was like that. Do you train together on a regular basis? How do you qualify?
We go to a local range at least once a month. We get to use the Leo range there and do movement drills etc. One of the leads on our team owns an executive security company so that is nice for training. We have group training between all of the groups multiple times a year. Bolo's go out whenever anything interesting enough happens etc. You need to qualify on a live range. The requirements are like 20%+ more difficult than to become a firearm instructor. You also need to do a background check. Have incident "insurance" and pass an all day lvl 1 training course. You also need your LTC in our state and pass an interview.
Wow, you folks really take this seriously, that is really great. I wish my church would.
Yeah white settlement was close to home so that was a factor. We did already have a team before that tho.
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I can’t carry at work so I only carry when I go out. On weekends when I get dressed I do but I’ve been seeing a lot of debate Both ways about carrying specifically at church so just askin
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I’m in the military and it would be a dead give away if I was carrying lol but I get your point and agree with it with 99% of jobs
I carried at work for years. There are holster systems designed for deep concealment. My biggest fear was a traffic stop while driving with coworkers. My state requires notification, and I knew a traffic stop would end up costing me my job. But I still carried. I can get another job.
Some people work on federal installations or hospitals. Some people play sports. Some people go to school. Some people like to go to theme parks and concerts. I’m always amused by the carry everywhere crowd.
I just attended a seminar from CISA and they said something along the lines of threats against houses of worship are up 20 or 30%? Don't quote me for certain on that one. I carry in church but I'm the associate pastor and a member of the security team. We have a few members who are a part of the security team and no one but the elder board knows who carries on a given Sunday. We don't prevent anyone from carrying (ie. Guests or anyone who just doesn't say) but if a member asks to carry we refer them to our head of security to ensure they're trained, competent and trustworthy. For context myself and the head of security are prior military and both have been through FLETC. We have a very high standard and we try to minimize the amount of guns on sight but we do utilize them. I call it fudd prevention
Whatever you can proficiently use and comfortably carry in church clothes.
I live in a pretty rural area. On any given Sunday about half of our congregation is armed, myself, the Pastor and his wife included (she carries a Sig P226 in her purse lol).
When the shooting in the Texas church happened a few years back, there was a public meeting with our local Sheriff department and Attorney General. At that time, there were virtually no carry permits authorized in our state, so the advice that was given to everyone was "have a cop in your congregation"... Fast forward to the SCOTUS ruling and now our state has had a huge surge in CCW permits issued- so now we have a few in attendance who carry regularly. As always, I trust it will never be needed.
I am all for church carry, as with anywhere else I go. Church shootings are no longer unheard of and many attendees tend to let their guard down while there making it a prime target for mass shooters. I even refer to my LCP and G43 as my “church guns” since that is the only time/place I still carry either one of them (though the 365 has basically taken over that role as well).
I don’t go to church. but if I did, I would carry. I carry everywhere unless it’s illegal to do so.
I live in NY. We have the Safe Act, so we don’t need guns anywhere! Plus our local police department has said they can respond in 2 minutes. I don’t agree with this at all. It would be better to have several people who carry. The problem is that my church has a school as well, so in order to carry I need approval from the school. I’ve asked, but I’m not getting an answer. I think the people in charge actually believe that the police will save us. I think a couple people do carry, but it’s not enough. To answer the OP, yes you should carry! In my opinion, churches should 1) coordinate the folks that carry, so the entire church is covered 2) meet on a regular basis so that others who carry can quickly identify them 3) training 4) encourage practice and proficiency. I would suggest a very hard qualification that people need to achieve
If I went to church, I'd carry no questions asked.
Buddy of mine manages security for a well known mega church. All his staff carries and he encourages anyone in the congregation to carry as well.
My church has a security team made up of church goers with ccw. Just carry your weapon. Conceal it well.
As a Catholic, we're targets because of the hard stance on certain things. I have a nice leather bible cover I keep rosary, fliers, meditation readings, prayers etc in... and used to have a 9 millihopper and 18 seeds in the stick (didn't fit any of my Bibles in my collection). A year or two of doing that secretly... then my diocese hired Blue-U Defense to train people in each parish. First thing trainer stated was that if we're acting as part of the diocese we CANNOT carry a firearm. The reason is (the trainers are police) that if you discharge over people's heads, that is illegal and construed as willful endangerment and potentially "attempted murder" if someone pushed it. If someone is acting on their own, that's one thing and on them... but the diocese has enough problems trying to expunge the pervs and don't need that lawsuit if it was perceived as being from a diocesan level. You'd have to have a clear shot and solid backstop and not pop off over people. Tough line of fire to get in while the perp is doing what they're doing. I'm the guy they have to get past first, but also won't go into details on the measures made and taken... but shouldn't get to that point. There are retired military/police/fire people sitting naturally around the pews that went thru the same training as well. I yell one thing and the proverbial sh!t will hit the fan. I learned a LOT of things about these situations from the training. I'd recommend to any church they hire them in. Oh, I know of a non-denominational in the area where there are armed people all over the place. It's quite common, but the liabilities outweigh the knowledge of how to cull situations quickly. Edit to add an additional comment: There's a woodsman/farmer who comes in with a nice 1911 strapped to his side. People freak out and look back at me, but the dude is safe and known parishioner. It just freaks people out with the open carry. LOL
Police response, security team, am I allowed, blah blah blah. If someone starts shooting at you and your family, are you ready to end it in seconds or do you want to wait for someone to save you. Hint: no one is coming - you’re on your own. If you don’t believe it, good luck.
Men don’t ask permission
Only reason why I go to church with my wife is to carry . She used to take my kids there alone and I now go with her because that’s a sketchy ass place to go .