House of Worship Safety

Our church just started a Safety & Security Team in the past year. They’re doing a great job and are working on obtaining training in various areas for the people on the team. Some, but not all, have their Concealed Carry License and do carry in church. I think situational training would be a great thing for any security team to consistently do, especially to prevent causing more casualties by not being in position to shoot safely.

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That’s awesome, @Trmptr64! Let me know if you need any information for your church’s security team. We have some training videos and even a group rate if they’re interested in legal protection as well. :slight_smile:

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Our church formed a safety and security committee two years ago and they have done an intensive study of our church in relation to safety and security issues and came up with a Preparedness Plan. Part of that plan is forming a safety team that operates on Sunday mornings. Unfortunately at this point, our team cannot carry concealed while operating as a safety team. We are all getting CPR/First Aid/AED certified. Some of us have gone through the Red Cross Bleeding Control trauma class. People on the team who have their CCW and are not working that Sunday are allowed to carry concealed and the congregants who are not on the team who have their CCW per Colorado law are allowed to carry in the church.

We are working to get approval for team members to carry concealed and start training as a unit but that may be a year down the road. Our area has a Safety in Faith network that puts out alerts when other houses of worship have any issues and the local sheriff started a Safety in Faith coalition a few years ago that has quarterly training and an annual workshop. @Dawn, I’d love to get information on the group rate as well as access to the training videos that you mentioned. Two of us already have USCCA insurance.

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My church encourages cc, pastor is very 2A, although I have spike with him about training a security team he does not think that is needed. Kinda scary. Most are elderly few younger no idea about what everyone should do or where to go if time allowed it. All doors unlocked no security. I wish pastors would get it we need security instead of being sittn ducks.

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I would love to see the training videos

For the house of worship trainings, check out your dashboard under Education & Training / Guides & Videos / Videos - then check out the November 2018 Proving Ground.

And there is a great document here: https://cdn.assets.usconcealedcarry.com/pdf/guides/USCCA_ProtectingHousesOfWorship.pdf

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There are several house of worships that I know which has safety teams in place. Everybody in each one knows their role as a member of the team. They all take turns rotating so it’s not the same person everytime.

Do your houses of worship let the congregation know that there is a safety team? Is the congregation encouraged to carry - and if so, how does the safety team know who’s a good guy vs a bad guy when the poop hits the fan?

Yes, they do let them know there is safety team in place. They are encouraged but only if they feel comfortable in doing so. Usually the safety teams sits throughout the congregation while maintaining visual on the doors.

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Kevin just posted a new Into the Fray this week that you all might find interesting:

https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/the-first-step-in-protecting-your-church/

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Our church let people know we have a security team, but does not say who is on it.
As a team we train together so each know what to expect from each other. Our biggest concerns of our team is if the poop hits the fan and a visitor with a CCW we do not know jumps up to help. 1. That person will distract us from the real shooter, with the possibility of getting one of us shoot. 2. He will mistaken for a shooter and he will get shoot by one of us.
Our retired LE members, one has been in a shoot out, say he would assume the CCW is a shooter and shoot him. They say hesitation has gotten a lot of LE killed and they want to go home that night.
Some non-LE team members say they would not shoot until they could determine if the person is a shooter or not. The question is how they will make that determination and how long will it take.
The discussion on this has gotten very interesting.
I have my own opinion on this but will reserve it to see what others would do.

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