Gun-Toting Church Safety Enthusiasts Say Regular Training Is Essential
Chief range safety officer Edward Johnson demonstrates the proper firing stance to students who recently took his class on pistol safety. Photo by Michael Ray Smith.
Firearms trainer Ed Johnson grew up using a .22 Winchester rifle to reduce the foraging pigeon and rabbit populations. When he retired from the Raleigh, N.C., area and relocated to the Omaha, Neb. area in 2014, he visited churches with the idea of helping them with their church security needs.
Johnson is part of the growing church security movement and new category of “life safety teams” at churches that was documented in a special Religion Unplugged mini-documentary and an in-depth report at Religion Unplugged on June 8 and republished at Newsweek and Ministry Watch. Johnson and others in the movement have learned that regular, focused training is a vital element for any church starting a life safety team.
Some churches showed interest in developing a defensive plan for the church but few of the flock wanted to visit a gun range or practice pulling a weapon. Johnson also joined the Midwest Church Security Coalition. He said many people in these organizations help churches begin security teams and create a security plan. But he says they treat the training as an afterthought.
Johnson regularly studies tactical weapons and learned to repair pistols. He refers to himself as chief range safety officer and is certified by the Nebraska State Patrol and other organizations such as International Defensive Pistol Association. His website highlights his goal to help churches with security plans and the NRA’s notion “Refuse to be a victim.” It also touts his credentials as an ordained Baptist deacon, a former chair of the safety committee at a Baptist church in Buies Creek, N.C, and a member of Wildewood Christian Church outside Omaha where he is one of about 30 members, including two women, who are on the security team.
Wildewood Christian Church security team member Edward Johnson, left, shows student David Fields how to rack the slide in a pistol to show it is clear. Photo by Michael Ray Smith.
Rev. Ron Wymer, pastor of Wildewood for 15 years, said the security team is active. “Training is important,” Wymer said, adding that the church security team plans to meet for training with nearby churches in the days ahead.
Similarly, after the shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ, the Christian security movement was quickly discussing how drifter Thomas Kinnunen managed to shoot Anton “Tony” Wallace, 64, of Fort Worth, and Richard White, 67, a member of the church’s security team before deacon Jack Wilson shot Kinnunen dead. Many church security enthusiasts observed the recording of the shooting and noted that White fumbled for his pistol, allowing Kinnunen a precious extra second of advantage.
According to Johnson, the finely tuned muscle memory of White could have saved another life during that late December worship service near Fort Worth, Texas. “Church security is on the radar,” Johnson said, “but the follow-through on training and practicing isn’t there.”
Johnson’s colleague in the church security world is Mike Martin, who helped organize the Midwest Security Coalition in 2014 and later merged his group with Carl Chinn’s Faith Based Security Network. The groups, like Mountain Spring Church in Colorado, are using the recording of the West Freeway Church of Christ shooting as an educational tool. “We are breaking it down, frame by frame, to take away from it what we can,” Martin said.
Chinn, founder and president of the Faith Based Security Network, is based in Colorado Springs, Colo., and he serves as a guru of the church security movement. Chinn and others insist regular training is essential to stop threats such as Kinnunen, a man with a criminal past and a history of emotional instability. They suggest White could have stopped Kinnunen if White had practiced with consistent determination.
“Practice doesn’t make perfect, nor is there a perfect practice that makes perfect,” Chinn says. “I would say rather that determined practice makes one better prepared.”
Carl Chinn, founder and president of the Faith Based Security Network, is based in Colorado Springs, Colo., and serves as a guru of the church security movement. Photo by Paul Glader.
Nonetheless, Chinn said the number one lesson to be gleaned from watching the recording of the White Settlement church is that the church created an intentional team. Chinn praised West Freeway Church of Christ for its planning. “They did it,” Chinn said. “They prepared; they put together a team.”
Chinn says it’s easy to criticize the West Freeway’s response. “It never goes down as it is written and it is easy to say it should have been done this way or that, but this team was intentional,” he said. “The number one thing to tell every church out there is to have an intentional team.”
Michael Ray Smith is a journalism professor and journalist now based in Pennsylvania. He taught journalism at Lee University in Tennessee, Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, Campbell University in North Carolina and, most recently, LCC International University in Lithuania.
Earlier in this Collection
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A gunman opened fire during the Lord’s Supper at a Church of Christ in Texas Dec. 29, killing two worshipers. Armed members immediately returned fire and killed the shooter at the West Freeway Church of Christ in the Fort Worth suburb of White Settlement.
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The congregation of West Freeway Church of Christ, about 280 people, came together a day after a gunman killed two of their flock and an armed member fatally shot him.
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Preacher Britt Farmer lost his best friend in the Sunday shooting at a Church of Christ near Fort Worth. At the same time, the close-knit congregation 10 miles west of Fort Worth had beefed up its security team and trained members for a real-life nightmare such as this.
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Hundreds of mourners, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, paid tribute to volunteer security team member Richard White, who died Sunday in a shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ near Fort Worth, Texas.
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Locked and loaded parishioners acting like John Wayne of the church pews may be a new chapter in church history. Historically, Christians were hesitant to deploy violence for self-protection. While the Bible and church history illustrate tension around violence, armed resistance isn’t completely foreign to Christendom.
Up Next in this Collection
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A growing Christian security movement focuses on training churches and ministries how to protect their congregations in case of gun violence.
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JB isn’t alone. Americans from the ideological left, right and middle – and every stop in between – are increasingly trying and buying guns. Their fear is multi-fold: a Coronavirus pandemic, an uptick in unemployment and violent crimes in major cities, public unrest related to racial injustice, ideology-driven street battles between ideological foes and a presidential election that already has tones of conspiracy theories, recounts and allegations of fraud. What’s the evidence that this trend is true, beyond JB’s interest?
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After a shooting in 2019 that claimed the lives of two congregants, the West Freeway Church of Christ in Texas rebuilt their worship center. They have now returned to worship after the COVID-19 lockdown and completion of construction.