I’ll bet money that this story is above-the-fold in most preparedness and gun blogs today:
There has been a trend in the last decade or so for members at some houses of worship to be armed to prevent this sort of thing. Unfortunately, some people do not take such steps. I refer you to this post from 2019.
Why attack a ‘house of worship’, which I am just going to blanketly refer to as ‘a church’? Thats where the people are. Small building, lots of quiet and presumably peaceful people, not a lot of police around…no one expects it. Same reason people shoot up schools. Its perceived as a soft target with a certain degree of societal impact when its reported on the news.
We sagely opine to “avoid crowds” but that isnt always possible. I stand on line at the post office, I stand on line at CostCo, I sit at a traffic light with 25 other cars…you can try to avoid crowds but you can’t avoid crowds. What you can do, however, as demonstrated here, is be prepared and vigilant against these sorts of events. Its a wild world, and it shows no sign of getting less wild, so why would you not have a firearm immediately available to you at all times? Throw a spare AR behind the seat, keep the pistol on your belt, and show some situational awareness. Its going to get worse before it gets better…and it may not get better. Best to be ready.
Zero
You are exactly right it’s not going to get noticeably better might get worse situational awareness is important
In traffic try to leave a car length in front of your car when you stop and pick a lane that allows you to get away if possible
Good advice. At the very least, if you cannot see the rear tires of the vehicle in front of you, you are too close. Never snug up to the car in front of you because someone behind you chose to block an intersection.
ALWAYS have a plan while driving. “Can I get over the curb in this vehicle?” “Is oncoming traffic too heavy for me to swerve around the car in front of me if the driver gets out and comes at me?” “Do I draw and engage the road-rager at the intersection or can I just run him over or crush him before he can fire?”
No gun that a mortal can lift has as much “stopping power” as an old beater pickup truck and a driver with the right mindset.
I’d add that it doesn’t hurt to learn some basic counter-measures, like J-turns (which don’t necessarily require locking the wheels as you spin around). You can find an empty mall parking lot on a Sunday to practice, but be realistic: the likelihood of needing such skills is low, and the probability that you’ll stay current on practice is even lower. Still, any preparedness beats none.
BOL lefty insurers threatening churches if they have members who are armed for security: it is coming.
Maybe good to invest in a defensive driving course and next something a bit more tactical. Playing Rockford Files at the mall promises high risk with low returns. As far as your lefty insurance BOL, sounds like needless fearmongering to me. Insurance companies are driven by bottom line. Greater risk. greater premiums. Too much risk no coverage. This is what an Actuary does. Probably soon to be taken over by AI. Ask United Healthcare how that is working 🙂
The cure for bad people with guns is good people with guns.
Wayne County is a high crime county. It’s where Detoilet is located. Hard to tell what this losers problem was. May be he was upset that the hard evidence was revealed about the 2020 election theft right here in the vote fraud capital of Michigan.
They just hate getting caught.
Daingerfield TX church shooting in 1980. Quiet town, very disturbed shooter. Every place has a certain number of psychos ready to pop at any given time. Commander’s advice is best, be ready to deal with danger wherever you are.
One of the first thoughts when I heard about this was it had to be a Muslim.
Michigan has the highest population of Muslims in the country with nearly 400, 000 in the eastern part alone. Dearbornistan and Hamtramicstan being the two areas where these people live. Most came here when Saddam Hussein was still in power and never returned. The city council of Hamtramicstan is majority muslim. They have built many minarets so the faithful can hear the call to prayer 5 times a day.
Yep. Thanks to successive Marxocrat Governors it feels just like home.
I am on as head usher at my church.Amoung various things I am tasked with primary in my mind is security . I am always armed and make sure to lock all doors 10 minutes after the worship service starts. We ushers once had 2 Milwaukee detectives give us a primer on all the church shootings which is on the rise as evidenced by this latest incident. They didn’t endorse us carrying but didn’t outright dissuade it either. My feeling is any soft target interloper will be in for a surprise if I’m working the service. God does not want his people to come to harm.
Commander:
I wonder how long it will be before the “Determinedly Offended” try to accuse these two upstanding citizens of murder –
Because the criminal is NEVER wrong.
We’ve seen it happen before…
I have details on what happened from an involved party. The church guard doesn’t look to be up against anything, and, if the details come out, should be praised on many levels. Not hearing the shooter was from the religion of peace, but had other issues. More to follow…. maybe
Commander:
How long will it be before the “Determinedly Offended” accuse these two upstanding citizens of murder?
Because the Attacker is NEVER wrong –
We’ve seen it happen before…
Ceejay
Bad guys can be stopped by good guys with guns – and a truck.
Apparently he was first run over by a Ford F150, which gave good guys with guns time to deploy.
Yes, for sure, situational awareness, and the wit to use the tools at hand.
Kurt
The thing that caught my attention was the video inside the church. Shooting starts and people just sat for seconds until a lady started waving them to get out in a hurry. Most took off but several stopped to gather their belongs and walked slowly out. Talk about a lack of common sense! Some people just cannot be helped.
Normality Bias, now if Fire Alatm went off the result may have been different
I bet, IF, information is released, you will find the perp was on psych meds, was an LBGT+ crossdresser, and was KNOWN by the local/federal policia.
A several years ago I was sounding out my pastor about security at church and the attached school. Before I started the conversation with him I had some suspicions he was a knucklehead, after talking to him for a couple of minutes, he confirmed it. He was talking about the schools ability to lock down, then casually commented about the receptionist being outside the secure area “ well I guess stacy is screwed” He knew she was my step daughter. Then, leftist little prick that he is, dramatically stated. “ there will be no guns in my church, over my dead body”. I told him, I hope you live just long enough to see what you’ve wrought. Since then he has left our Catholic church and now is pastor at our uber liberal Episcopalian church.
Great to cover all your bases safety wise, but it is statistically more likely your kid is going to be raped by your priest then gunned down by a nutjob in church. Safer to join a Pastafarian church.
Churches and synagogues are perceived as gun-free zones, too. Not mosques, for some reason. Huh.
Just did a Concealed Carry course for my church security team this past weekend and had many discussions about what to do if someone made it inside. The pastor is all about having us armed and ready. Unfortunately, most of them need some work on marksmanship, so we’ve got some more training coming up.
I’ve carried at church for a long time. My wife used to give me a hard time about it until she mentioned it to the pastor, and he told her he was glad I was armed. Coincidentally, about a month later, there was a shooting in a church in the adjoining county. We heard about it on the radio driving home from our service. My wife hasn’t troubled me about it since. At the church we now attend, we have an off duty officer in the lobby during services, and at least half a dozen members are armed as well. I like to think we are hard enough target to dissuade a potential shooter who doesn’t have a specific grudge against the church or one of our members.
You may want to review the concept of Opsec with your wife. Loose lips sink ships.
Family and close friends should be the ONLY people who know you are armed. And they should know that they don’t talk about it to ANYONE else. They need to know to keep quiet and get out of the way if something occurs that requires your weapon to be drawn and potentially used.
Children need a code word that means “Shut up and get behind something solid, right now, no questions asked.” And drilled on this until they do it without question, whining or backtalk.
A former coworker came very close to getting shot — and his family with him — because his idiot wife loudly demanded that he “Do something, you have a gun!” during a convenience store robbery. It was no surprise when they divorced not long after.
Introduce your wife to the concept of “Church Guns” and holsters…..