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Friday, July 22, 2022

US houses of worship increase security after shootings

LOS ANGELES — The Rev. Steven Marsh never thought he would see the day his church in Laguna Woods, California — a town of 16,500 populated largely by retirees — would be spending $20,000 a month for security.

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My in-laws attend services at a church in Portland TN that I won't name for obvious reasons, and after a church shooting in Antioch a couple years ago the pastor and deacons decided it wasn't going to happen at their church.
Not only are firearms perfectly welcome there, they've gone so far as to have a group of armed volunteers to protect the church during services with seating in strategic positions assigned to them, along with somebody in the foyer and a guy in the parking lot keeping an eye on the overall picture.
All the parishioners are well aware of that and have received instructions on what to do in case of an attack such as hitting the floor if they are able and staying down to keep from becoming an unintended casualty.

9 comments:

  1. I am old enough to remember when churches kept their doors open 24/7/365, in case anyone was in need. And I made use of that open-door policy more than once during my darkest hours. I lit candles at 3 am, and I spoke to the Lord on my knees in our local church at all hours with none but the church mice in attendance. And now we have to pass through metal detectors on the way to midnight mass Christmas eve? Jesus weeps.

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  2. I carry, and many others do too. Our church has been active in the anti-abortion fight and I figure it's as likely a target as any other. We have "security" stationed at each entrance, but there's likely to be more than several dozen armed men on any Sunday service.

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  3. As someone else said:

    Purchase a weapon,
    Learn to use it,
    Carry it always,
    Shoot to kill!

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  4. I tried discussing security with the previous pastor at my church, we had an elementary school as well. He loudly stated "there will be no guns in my church or school". Yeh, no legal ones anyway. He went on about how secure the school was with their locked doors and how people had to be buzzed in, then in passing he commented about the receptionist who sat outside the secure area; "Well, I guess Stacy is just screwed". It was such an insensitive, asshole, thing to say and I'm pretty sure he knew Stacy is my wife's step daughter. He got transferred shortly after that so there was no further interaction.

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  5. 20K a month for security? Sounds like the pastor is in on a scam. Bet his brother in law, or cousin, owns a security company. Some people I know at a church near Dallas provided pistol training for their members. Most of them pack at church. Actually know of 2 churches that did that.

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  6. After a couple of weird circumstances where I used to attend church, we increased security awareness. At least one of the members of our very small group was carrying concealed every service. We were also very careful of people who just showed up with no previous contact with any of the members. A couple of those turned out to be likely mental cases or possibly casing the meeting hall we rented.

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  7. I attend a small independent non-denominational church in a large city in Florida. We have maybe 150-200 in attendance on a good day. There are at least 6-8 (maybe more) of us that have CCWs and carry for every service, including the pastor. We also have other security measures in place. In return for providing our services, the church pays our annual $300 membership fee for USCCA. A win-win situation for everyone. Why doesn't every church follow this model?

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  8. Same here, we have only 40 people with at least 15 licensed to engage and kill. Every male and 4 of women are military trained and have saw combat.

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  9. Our church did the same thing as your in-laws' church a couple of years ago. Our pastor was a former LAPD policeman, and his dad was a LAPD policeman for 30 years, and the Chief of Police for Culver City, CA for quite a while. Our pastor is a firm believer in the right to self-defense, and in Missouri, it's the pastor's call as to whether carry is allowed.

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