Unfortunately, this feeling is simply not factual. Crime often occurs in places of worship due to many reasons, one of which is the very feeling that people believe they are safe places. People tend to let their guard down, relax their vigilance and go unarmed when they go to worship. Crime can range from simple purse-snatching to more violent crimes such as murder and assault.
I personally know a priest who was a victim of a burglary where he came home during the crime and tackled on of the criminals...not something I recommend doing. I myself have experienced several incidents at church where things could have turned bad. I have been a parishioner at a church which was repeatedly vandalized and even had a fire intentionally set which did hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.
Places of worship are no safer than any other public place and actually are often targets of violence such as the 2012 murders at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin and many other less-reported incidents.
This past weekend as my family and I were sitting in church on Father’s Day, a man entered the sanctuary carrying a small metal box. I had never seen him before. He quickly went and sat in the first seat of the first pew in front of the altar. He was a middle-aged man, thin and dressed in clothing I would deem as out-of-the-ordinary for church especially for a man his age. He immediately grabbed my attention. His demeanor was very agitated and as the Mass began I could tell he was disturbed either emotionally or mentally or both.
I began altering my previously planned-out response to a critical-incident at the church. I checked with my wife to ensure she also had her gun with her so there would be at least one other firearm, in addition to the Glock 19 and Glock 26 I was carrying. To my relief she responded in the affirmative and also followed-up with, “I would take the kids and exit through the door behind us.” “That’s my girl,” I thought to myself with a relief, realizing that I would have to worry less about her and the kids, should I have to deal with a threat. As I often tell her, "My job is to protect you, your job is to protect the kids."
Due to it being Father’s Day, there were slightly more people in the sanctuary than normal. The man's position in the front pew meant that there were at least a dozen people behind him from my vantage point. Meaning there would be a lot to many people beyond him should I need to take a shot at him...including a toddler who was perhaps 1-2 years old who was almost directly the right and behind the man. His thin build and light clothing meant that over-penetration would be a concern. I repositioned myself slightly to get a better vantage point and made sure I was keeping track of where his hands were and what he was doing with them...but I knew I didn’t have a clean shot with a good backstop. I needed to think of something else and choose at least two courses of action that would quickly give me a good clean shot, should I need to take it.
Throughout the Mass, he would often cry silently and look upward. People often cry due to things that have happened in the past…but they often cry about things that they will do in the future as well. The latter is what concerned me, especially if it was the very near future and would result in putting my family in danger. Realizing that I didn’t have a good, immediate shot, I pulled the canister of Mace pepper-spray out of my pocket and kept it concealed in my hands. Although most, if not all, my fellow parishioners would be contaminated by the spray, it would be less risky than me taking a shot and would hopefully buy me time to take more direct action against him.
As the Mass proceeded it was obvious that he had mental issues. Several times he spoke out during the service. Although at many churches, speaking-out loudly is common…our church is not one of them. And although the timing of his speech was not completely inappropriate, it was concerning to me...and to others, that his made the statements.
Halfway through the Mass, it appeared less-likely that he would be a threat. He seemed to be following along with the service, saying the correct prayers and generally following along and not causing much of a ruckus. Although I was more relaxed and confident that I would not be forced to take action, I still kept my eyes on him and was prepared to act. When we got up to go to Communion, I passed where he was sitting. The metal box was sitting next to him in the pew. I looked at it and noticed it was brass-colored with a cross on it. It appeared unlikely that it would contain anything of concern and I went back to my seat a little more relaxed.
At the end of Mass, the visiting priest called the man up to the altar with him. As it turns out, the man had grown up in the parish and had recently lost his mother, which accounted for his agitated demeanor. The metal box was an urn with his mother’s cremated remains in it which he brought to be blessed. I put the pepper-spray back into my pocket, relieved that I didn’t have to use it.
You may think that I felt ridiculous that I had reacted this way to an innocent man with no intention on harming anyone in the church that day. However, this would be in incorrect assumption. I am actually grateful that it happened and allowed me to exercise and adjust the plan I had formulated for a critical-incident at church. As we say in our Defensive series of classes, I used this “false alarm” as a way to evaluate my plan and to think of new alternatives and challenges to use in my self-debrief.
I encourage everyone to plan for an incident at your place of worship just as you do at your home, place of work, places of recreation and every other place you visit.
As Tom Givens of Rangemaster said in the Rangemaster Instructor’s training I recently took:
You don’t get to choose the time or place when you will need a gun to defend yourself. The criminal who wants to kill, maim and rape you does and they will give you only a moment’s notice that you will need your gun. You will have the opportunity to go back home and get it, or go across the room and get it or run to the bedroom and get it.
If you don’t have it immediately at hand, YOU DON’T HAVE IT.
Be prepared, have a plan and go armed!
Be A Bighorn
