Being Asked to Conceal Carry at Church

A friend called this morning and asked if I would be willing to talk to the ladies of her church about concealed carry. Rose explained that her church gathered yesterday in the wake of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting to discuss security. They agreed they didn’t want uniformed security guards at the doors. That’s pretty off-putting to members and visitors alike and the uniforms make a great target. They decided that they preferred members to conceal carry, but the discussion revealed that their congregation does not have a culture of that. Many of the members carry guns for hunting, but they just aren’t into going forth armed.

Rose knows I conceal carry occasionally. I’ve taken concealed carry courses. Though Alaska does not require a permit for CC and I have chosen not to end up on a federal list, I wanted the skills offered by a professional instructor. Rose hoped I would come to her church and encourage other women to take the courses and start carrying at church.

I haven’t carried at church since we changed churches about four years ago. Our old church was right next to a community drunk housing project and in a neighborhood with a high drug population, so CC seemed like a good idea and church members regularly carried. Our new-ish church is in a better location and we have a couple of former soldiers who act as entry monitors who I assume are CC, so I haven’t felt the need, but the events in South Carolina has given me pause.

That guy was in a Bible Study for an hour before he opened fire on the people he had been interacting with. What would I have done in that situation? I’ve never drawn my gun on another human being, but my mom did once to keep rapists out of our house (I’ve discussed that on this blog before). Nobody can be sure how they will react when the fecal matter hits the fan, but I have trained for it, so I suspect I’d unload my clip into the shooter.

Would that save some lives? Yeah. We know it has in the past.

For the record, although I haven’t carried in church for several years, I regularly carry at the movie theater and certain community events. I am a small woman, so actual concealed carry is not always an option, but I want to share something that occurred last summer in a second blog post.