A church security seminar sponsored by the California Rifle and Pistol Association stressed faith and firearms together as integral to keeping congregants safe on Sundays.
The seminar was held in Huntington Beach.
The Los Angeles Times reports the seminar was conducted by Jimmy Meeks, a “pastor and retired Texas police officer.” He urged those security team members to keep their heads up during prayer, to be surveilling the congregation, watching for signs of trouble.
Meeks prayed, “Wherever we are, Father, should the wolf cross our path, give us the wisdom to know what to do with that moment, and give us the power and the courage to act to stop the wolf and protect our sons and daughters.”
The California Rifle and Pistol Association hoped the seminar communicated a clear message — “Faith alone will not protect you in a house of God.” There needs to be preparedness, there must be a plan.
West Hollywood’s Rabbi Yossi Eilfort said, “People need to be prepared, rationally, practically thinking, how do we keep our people safe even though we’re trying to open the doors to everybody? We don’t want to turn people away. The homeless need the help the most. But at the same time, we can’t rely solely on faith to say things are going to be OK. That’d be like shutting off the fire sprinkler systems.”
And Meeks stressed that part of the plan should include firearms. He said, “If you do not have an armed presence in your church, you are simply not ready.”
A retired Huntington Beach officer who did not want to identify himself described how he and 17 others provide armed security in his church. He indicated that “they sit in strategic locations throughout the sanctuary.” He noted that people laughed at the idea of armed security in a church when they first began, but now — following attacks like the one in Antioch, Tennessee, (September 24, 2017) and Sutherland Springs, Texas (November 5, 2017) — his fellow congregants are glad security is present.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.