Don’t Assume Your Church Is Prepared To Stop Threats Like Active Shooters And Left-Wing Mobs; SWAT Team Members Train Churches to Deal with Active Shooters; One Active Shooter Too Many: Why a Church Active Shooter Plan is Imperative

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Don’t Assume Your Church Is Prepared To Stop Threats Like Active Shooters And Left-Wing Mobs

Christians and churches are under attack. Here’s how they can best protect their flocks against rising threats of violence.

Over the last 25 years, gunmen and gunwomen have launched around two dozen fatal attacks at Christian churches across the nation. As demonstrated by the invasion of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota last month, even congregations that haven’t encountered an armed threat still face mounting hostility against their faith and parishioners.

There’s no denying houses of worship are targets for violence. There’s also no denying that death tolls in church shootings were kept at a minimum thanks to the heroic actions of good guys with guns like Jack Wilson, Caleb Engle, and Jeanne Assam.

Yet, select churches still don’t have a solid security preparedness plan in place beyond relying on 911. In some cases, congregations actively hamper a threat response by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from carrying self-defense weapons on their campuses.

According to Ben Fries, a 15-year law enforcement officer and owner of a professional safety and firearms coaching and training organization focused on equipping churches to handle threats, solely relying on police forces to protect your flock is not enough.

“The biggest thing worth correcting right off the bat is the mindset that ‘it can’t happen here. It won’t happen here,’” Fries told The Federalist.

It’s due to repeated violence against faith-based organizations that Fries and his team at Fries Consulting and The Fries Foundation travel all over the U.S. to help churches, faith-based or private organizations, and others handle threats by exercising their Second Amendment right to self-defense.

“We fully believe in an armed society is a polite society,” Fries said.

These training simulations, designed to “increase preparedness against protesters, conflicts, and violent encounters,” are not your Daddy’s active shooter drills. In fact, Fries rejects the term “active shooter drill” entirely.

“The narrative and the language that you use to formulate your thoughts makes your reality, so I want to be careful that we don’t say active shooter training, because I don’t agree with that. We deter active threats,” Fries clarified.

Fries’ course starts with evaluating the building’s strengths and weaknesses and ends with a realistic run-through, sometimes featuring blank gunfire, of the church teams’ response to a potential security breach in a sanctuary, foyer, and other worship spaces. --->READ MORE HERE 

shieldtheflock.com

SWAT team members train churches to deal with active shooters:

Two SWAT team members from a local law enforcement agency have started a firm called Shield the Flock to provide security training for synagogues, churches and other houses of worship.

They evaluate the layout, lighting and access points at the church and make recommendations about how to strengthen their protection.

They also provide core seminar training that includes active shooter response, situational awareness, emergency casualty care and scenario-based drills.

"My goal is to make sure that they're trained properly to recognize a problem and be able to handle it as discreetly as possible. We're again, we're not trying to make the churches this giant fortress with gun turrets everywhere. We just want everybody, when they come in to feel safe because it has to be a welcoming environment, otherwise nobody's going to show up," said Steve Hearn, Shield the Flock co-owner.

They also do firearms training.

Their website says: "We are the only training system designed from the ground up specifically for houses of worship. Our mission is to empower your team to take ownership of their safety through education, readiness and structure."

They also look at past shootings at houses of worship in other parts of the U.S. so church security teams in south Florida can learn from other incidents that've happened nationwide.

"I worry greatly. We're already seeing it all over the country, so I'd rather be proactive about it than reactive and wait for something to happen. Let's be ahead of the ball game," said Timothy Baltes, Shield the Flock co-owner. --->READ MORE HERE

Follow link below to a relevant story:

+++++One Active Shooter Too Many: Why a Church Active Shooter Plan is Imperative+++++

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