In this on-going debate whether churches should have an armed security presence, I would like to bring up a different side of the issue for you to ponder.

First, for those of you who may not be aware of the position of the Christian Security Network and topic of having armed security personnel in a church or ministry, it is important that you understand the following:

• we know the risk is very real that someone may enter a church or ministry at any given time with a weapon for the purpose of killing one or more people; there have been too many incidents to not accept this as a possibility for any Christian organization
• the fact of the matter is the only thing that will stop a person firing a weapon with the intent to kill, is usually another person firing a weapon at the offender; force is defeated with equal or greater force
• we support everyone's Second Amendment right to own and carry a firearm
• statistically speaking, someone is more likely to die of a heart attack in your church than from a gunshot, so we don't believe in over-focusing on the "violent person/active shooter" as the greatest risk your church may face
• we do not advocate just anyone carrying a firearm in a security capacity in a church; it is a crowded, dynamic environment that even a skilled person with a firearm would have a difficult time - so the 8 hour concealed carry training is not adequate
• you always have to think about the liability if something goes wrong when an armed security personnel uses their weapon, because they all don't turn out "heroically"

The last point brings me to the case which was recently written up in many news medias and security blogs about an incident in a Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania church on May 23rd...note the following headlines:

"Mt. Washington man charged after attack in church" - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

"Man Walks Into Mount Oliver Church With Gun" - KDKA 2 News

"Armed Man Tackled In Mount Oliver Church" - WTAE TV

"Security Guards Subdue Man Brandishing Gun Inside Pennsylvania Church" - BCNN1.com

When I first read this I thought 'Wow, talk about a crisis averted...man with a gun in a church...we have seen the sad outcome of this scenario before, but this is great!'...then I read later news reports:

"Guards Subdue Man Brandishing BB Gun Inside Church" - The Associated Press

Oh, oh....BB gun? I had instant flashbacks.

Twice during my police tenure I had situations where I came across someone with a weapon and almost shot them, only later to find out that the weapon was a BB gun.

Once I was patrolling in the rear of a motel, in a not-to-great area, when I saw a male subject wearing a ball-cap, sunglasses, and carrying something, while looking into windows. As I exited my patrol car and called out to him, he turned and I realized he had a rifle in his hands, to which I drew my weapon, ordered him to drop his, and called for back-up. If he had raised his gun I would have shot him. It turned out to be a teenager with a BB gun. I still have no idea what he was doing, other than peeping into windows, but he almost got himself killed (and he was arrested).

And then there was another incident in the middle of the night where two teens were caught approaching an all-night restaurant, both carrying BB handguns and had masks. We pretty much figured out they were probably going to do an armed robbery. They were also nearly shot when they were confronted, told to raise their hands, and it was noticed they had guns tucked into their waistbands. Again, if they had made any movement towards the guns, they would have been shot by multiple officers.

If you are familiar with BB guns, some look exactly like real weapons, be it handguns, rifles or shotguns...they look real.

I have no direct knowledge of this incident in the Pennsylvania church, so I have to make some assumptions, but I don't mean to second-guess anyone here.

But, if the security personnel were armed, and this guy was waving around a gun, why wasn't he shot? Now, in hindsight you can only imagine how this would have turned out if they had shot a young guy with a BB gun; there would have been a lot of "Monday-morning quarterbacks" coming out.

I also have to wonder if this young man knew there were armed security in the church, maybe this was a "suicide by cop" scenario, where he wanted to be shot and killed in church...I mean, why else would you brandish a BB gun in a church stating (according to news reports) that he was going to shoot his mother?

But I hope you see my point here.

When we have discussions about "active shooters" in churches, there is always an assumption that the person walking in is a real threat. And we talk a lot about tactical shooting, firearm skills, etc. but I don't hear too much talk about the "don't shoot" scenario, because I believe in most people's mind, an "active shooter" situation in a church is pretty "cut and dry"...man has gun, shoot man.

I don't know who these security guards were in this church in Mount Oliver. I don't know if they were former, retired, or active law enforcement officers. I know when I was on the police department we spent as much time going over "shoot/don't shoot" training, as much as we did tactical shooting, because police know pulling the trigger is not always the best or needed option...it is a split second decision that sometimes works in the officer's favor and sometimes does not.

But, as a police officer, I went through hundreds of hours of training before I could even carry a gun. Would someone carrying a firearm in a church, after just receiving 8-hours of concealed carry training, be able to make the same split-second decisions?

If you are that security person in your church, do you think you would have shot the guy in Mount Oliver scenario?

Every incident has lessons to be learned and this is definitely one to think about.

In Christ,
Jeff Hawkins
Executive Director