The 14th Annual National Organization of Church Security and Safety Management National Church Security Conference is a wrap. Three of the four members of our church security collaborative inquiry team attended the conference at Grace Church in Frisco, Texas.
I was invited into this project because of my long history of work in the sociology of religion, and my more recent work in the sociology of guns and familiarity with gun culture. At this conference, much of the content was familiar to me from my immersion in the world of self-defense gun training.
We heard about Van Horne and Riley’s “Left of Bang,” about situational awareness and responses to life-threatening events, about mindset and other “tools of the trade” (baton, taser, OC spray, lights, optics, handguns). We even rehashed various debates over ballistics like 9mm vs. .45, +P loads, handguns vs. rifles, and wound cavities.
Many of the presenters, as in gun training more generally, came from military backgrounds. Although there is nothing wrong with that per se, models of engagement in civilian contexts can be quite different than in other “theaters of operation.”
But when you are forming “security teams” to “harden your perimeter” and protect important “assets” (children, congregants, the “package,” i.e., pastor), it is easy to see why a paramilitary orientation can slide in quite easily. (This is similar to what Harel Shapria found when studying the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps patrolling for undocumented migrants on the Southern Arizona border, as reported in his book, Waiting for Jose: The Minutemen’s Pursuit of America.)
After the conference, I asked the social media hive mind about the origins of a phrase I was surprised to hear invoked a couple of times at this church security conference. I had heard this before in gun settings before, but it seemed somewhat out of place in talking about church security:
“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
Turns out this was originally spoken/written by Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis to Marines deploying overseas.
I could help but wonder whether this sentiment is also applicable when houses of worship are your primary “theater of engagement”?
In fact, I often found myself wondering what, if anything, was different about church security than other forms of armed self-defense? There was (surprisingly?) very little theology at the conference, and only one speaker really set his comments in the (unique?) context of religious organizations.
Further reflections on this point are forthcoming.
[…] The 14th Annual National Organization of Church Security and Safety Management National Church Security Conference is a wrap. Three of the four members of our church security collaborative inquiry team attended the conference at Grace Church in Frisco, Texas. I was invited into this project because of my long history of work in the sociology… — Read on gunculture2point0.wordpress.com/2018/08/05/first-reflections-on-national-church-security-conference/ […]
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I suppose if one is talking about stopping a mass shooter, religion is somewhat off the subject unless one suggests turning the other cheek to a bullet. But what was the span of denominations present?
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This link is about a book on Christian pacifism https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/time-kill-myth-christian-pacifism/
I just downloaded the book so have yet to read much of it. To me the idea of defending people in a church is no different than any other setting other than people thinking just like schools we should not need to have to protect them. The slogan “what is the world coming to?” says what I m gettong at. The world is not working the way people think it should.
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Any body know if it is possible to change a post like you can in Facebook? 😂
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Not sure if you can, but I think I can if there is something in particular you want me to change.
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PANKR003, “The world isn’t working the way people think it should” pretty much sums up the whole 21st Century.
Starting with 9/11 and “I didn’t think that could happen here!” Continuing through school and church/house-of-worship attacks straight through to crime in their neighborhoods, people are shocked – Shocked! – to discover they live in the Real World. And they are dismayed to discover that the universe hasn’t been arranged according to their dictates. (That perfect world everyone is talking about must be in a different time zone.)
Mr. Yamane, I’m not sure there should be a difference between protecting a church and protecting any other site that some (thankfully small number of) people are meaning to attack. In the instant they attack, what can you do aside from defend yourself, and the people behind you? There is no time for dialog at that point. As much as I hate to quote Schlock Mercenary, once the dance as begun, there is only “open fire, and I need to reload.”
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