The latest incident occurred on July 14 at the Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky. The 34-year-old gunman entered the church and began firing. Two church members were killed and two were wounded. Police officers shot the suspect, who died at the scene.
He came to the church to attack a woman with whom he had three children. However, after asking for her, he was told she was not there. He stated, “Someone’s going to die.” He then shot and killed the woman’s mother and sister and shot and severely wounded their husbands.
This latest incident followed on the heels of a church shooting on June 22 in Wayne, Mich. Fortunately, no church attendees were killed thanks to the quick response of a volunteer member of the church’s security team who fatally wounded the shooter. One staff member was shot in the leg, but his injury was not life-threatening.
Both the Michigan and Kentucky churches were small churches. That is typical of many church shootings. Mega churches are not often chosen for this kind of mayhem. One big reason is that mega churches have large, paid security teams — off-duty police officers and/or professional security personnel.
The number of violent incidents at houses of worship has been rising for some time. Over an 18-year span (1991-2017), the percentage of violent church incidents increased by over 2000%. That trend has not slowed and seems likely to continue, largely due to the coarsening of our culture and increasing hostility toward religion.
At the Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council (AFEC), we have been providing advice and guidance to churches for many years to help them protect themselves more effectively. As an attorney and former prosecutor, Larry Page can speak to these issues and help churches develop better plans.
There is one important thing to note about the assistance that AFEC can provide in this context. We do not recommend that churches establish armed security with either paid staff or volunteers. However, neither do we dissuade churches from having armed security. Our objective is that if a church chooses to use armed security, it should be aware of the prevailing law, follow its mandates to the best of its ability and adhere to best-practice standards.
There are policies, procedures and facility upgrades that can be implemented, whether armed security is part of the church’s mix or not. We can provide guidance in adopting these measures as well.
If your church’s security policies and practices seem inadequate to meet potential threats and incidents, do your due diligence to ensure they are adequately covered. We are not the only source of help in that area. Many organizations can provide guidance, technical assistance and training if that is desired. A simple internet search can find those organizations.
Let us know how we might be able to help you protect your church, be a good community member, and be a prime model of sensible and appropriate security policies. As the adage goes, “it’s better to be prepared and not need it than to need it and be unprepared.”
