“It is critical for everyone on the security team to understand that church members are the first responders. If someone gets through security and starts attacking, you cannot wait for the police to show up.”
(Jeff Sanders – PJ Media) Sadly, America has experienced yet another maniac shooting up innocent people at a house of worship. On Saturday, a man armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle (which is NOT an “assault rifle” since it cannot fire automatically as only a true assault rifle can) and three semi-automatic pistols murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue and wounded several others (including four police officers). This kind of attack on houses of worship is no longer unheard of.
Last year, the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, was attacked, with 26 killed and 20 wounded. In 2015 Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., was attacked and nine were murdered in cold blood. Christians and Jews are not the only ones targeted. Last year, a gunman invaded a mosque in Quebec City, Canada,and murdered six people. In 2012, a killer entered the Sikh temple in Wisconsin and gunned down six innocent people.
When people gather to worship, unless there are some well-thought-out security measures in place, the worshipers are going to be sitting ducks for any nut case out there who wants to come in with guns blazing. What are some specific things you and your people can do right now to harden your house of worship from an active shooter?