What do you think?

I bumped into this interesting post on another blog today and thought it might make for an interesting topic. By no means do I encourage or discourage anyone to carry a firearm anywhere let alone in a church, mosque, synagogue, temple, sanctuary, or other house of worship. That decision is not for me to make for others, but it does bring up something worth discussing.

What if you specifically (passionately or not) believe that firearms should not be carried in church - let's not worry about the rest of civilization just yet - what can you possibly do to combat an armed aggressor? Can you? Should you? Should anyone? Just how can the survival of as many people be helped? To answer this let's start with a short path analysis of what it takes to accomplish this. First let me just add that simply arming everyone is not the first answer that should be sought. Sadly, it may be necessary to have armed individuals present but if this is the only solution chosen then it implies a willingness to allow the violence to begin in the first place. Remember the pillars of security - Deter, Detect, Delay, Deny. We need to have layers of features in place for the greatest opportunity to mitigate such an event.

Back to the path analysis (a very simplified version)... The assailant must come onto the property, enter the facility, locate their target or choose the moment to initiate the attack. Now there probably isn't too much opportunity to keep this person off of the grounds since most people aren't challenged at this point, however it is often common to challenge people before entering the facility. What is that you say? Challenge, greet - same thing! There is no reason that you cannot use the greeting as an opportunity to make an evaluation - we do it naturally anyway. If a person seems out of sorts isn't just being a good neighbor to inquire to their need? Offer assistance? Find them counseling? I am not trying to say that any of these incidents could necessarily have been prevented, but we do know that there weren't any controls in place to be tested. So the greeter can be an important asset in detecting potential problems. They should be trained to ask how worshippers are and attempt to carry on a short conversation. What not enough greeters? Then seek more volunteers. What if the individual isn't seeking to harm anyone but is disturbed - a well trained greeter could be the first friendly voice that is heard and the first person to offer to guide them to help. Think about it. The plan cannot just be to catch shooters - it must be able to identify various sorts of problems. They are all people in need, right?

So the person has entered the facility, now what? Once it all "drops in the pot" there isn't too much that you can do, but react. If shooting starts, for any reason, the goal must be to get as many people out as quickly as possible. Subduing the attacker comes second, unless there persons prepared to engage in a force-on-force engagement - and that is what it is at that point. The winner is the one with the means to employ force more effectively. But let's not forget this is still in a church - so explore opportunities to 'cut' the path and avoid being too focused on just one sort of incident.

According to an old say, "Your mind is your primary weapon." Take a minute and employ yours to seek ways to detect and prevent violence rather than simply responding to it. Someone has to decide to commit violence, maybe we can convince them ahead of time that it's the wrong choice.

Rob
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