Should You Bring Your Gun To Church For Protection?

Texas Church Mass Shooting

A Rabbi urges his congregation to carry guns at synagogue after contemplating the Pittsburgh attack on worshipers last year.

All too often these days we hear of people shooting up places of worship, which apparently begs the question: Should you bring your gun to church or whatever your worshiping body calls the building you worship in?

News this morning brings me the story of a Rabbi who is now urging his congregation to carry in Synagogue. Rabbi Rodkin had this to say:

I know it sounds horrible, but I think it's a very logical approach for the situation we're in. I don't want people to have guns. But I think to protect our families, it's a necessity now.

I applaud his decision to ask his congregants to be armed.

I think this is a no brainer, personally, just as long as you can legally bring your gun with you. What I mean, is that not all states allow a gun owner to carry in a place of worship–though I think that is reckless and extremely stupid on any state who says you cannot carry in a place of worship.

Why? Because they cannot guarantee your safety.

South Carolina for example doesn't allow citizens to carry in church or other designated places of worship without prior permission. I knew that, by the way, because I have our Concealed Carry App downloaded on my phone that tells me such things. If you don't have the app, you should download it.

It is very useful, free, and loaded with knowledge. You can find it here.

Anyway …

If you can legally carry in your place of worship and feel comfortable doing so, then you should carry in your place of worship. Period. If not, then don't. I won't try to make you.

But if you do decide to carry in church, I do urge you to get trained up a bit more on the use of your gun to make sure you are as ready as possible.

I'd even go one step further and try to put together some sort of team who train more regularly that is made up of people who are always carrying. I've visited churches in Pennsylvania with armed security, and appreciated the fact that they were there.

But, here's the thing, it doesn't matter how many active shooter drills you do or even how many security guards you have in your place of worship — chances are good that nothing will go according to plan and the security guard may get taken out.

Training for as many different scenarios as you can is a good idea, and make sure you're comfortable shooting your gun.

As someone who is a practicing Christian, meaning that I go to church on a regular basis, I believe it is important to protect my family. That is something I've been charged with and I take it seriously. I carry when I'm at church and refuse to let any other person take on the role of protecting my children and wife.

Should you carry a gun to church, synagogue, or mosque? Absolutely. Why wouldn't you?

Again, here is the link to our app. It's totally worth the download as it has reciprocity maps built in, all the gun laws for all the states, every podcast episode for all of our shows, all of our articles, and more. It can't hurt.

Find out more about carrying in church, here.

About Joshua Gillem

Josh is a lifelong practitioner and student of the gun. He grew up shooting/hunting with his dad, and was given his first gun, a 12 gauge shotgun, when just a small boy. After high school, he joined the Marines where his love for firearms blossomed as he qualified with an M16A2, an M9, and a 240G. Josh has been writing about firearms and tactics for several years, owns the blog Gunners Den, is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, and believes that each individual person has the right to self-defense by any means necessary. Currently residing in gun-friendly NC, he carries a concealed gun on a daily basis, even in his own house.

4 Comments

  1. DEFENDER88 on July 2, 2019 at 1:09 pm

    Should you carry a gun to church, synagogue, or mosque? Absolutely. Why wouldn’t you?

    Key word “Training”.
    Not “Range” Shooting – that is Not “Training”.

    Because “Most” people don’t have a clue what it will be like.
    And what it takes to do this – ie how much practice it takes to be able to respond
    when the shooting starts.
    It will be WAY harder than anything you have tried to do with a gun.

    Because you have not Trained in shooting in a Terrifying, Total Chaos Setting,
    with Blood, people screaming, running, darting everywhere.

    And Real Gun Fire – scaring the Hell out of “you”.

    And there is a good chance YOU will be shot – have you ever been in that situation?
    At least Practiced for it?

    How much practice have you done shooting with one hand while moving & Off Hand?
    While Innocent people are in the way or behind the shooter?

    If you don’t practice a lot(Defensive Shooting), and have no experience shooting under stress, I would prefer you not even Try to Pull your gun in Church or anywhere in Public.

  2. Scott K on July 2, 2019 at 5:42 pm

    Great article. Im a retired Law Enforcement officer, and am a member of our churches safety team. We provide security for church during services. We are fine with people carrying in our church as long as they do it responsibly. Any thing can happen in an emergency and if i am injured and unable to continue to fight there will be another person to help defend the congregation. Also if someone’s church does not have a plan to stop an active shooter other than calling 911 then they dont take their churches safety seriously. It always a sensitive subject for a church but it needs to be talked about.

  3. Bud vanderlaan on July 2, 2019 at 7:08 pm

    I have been able to witness and help various local church security members in special once a month ID PA matches. Of all the security members only two were anywhere close to being proficient with their weapons in the beginning . I would hate to see the innocence that would be killed or wounded by their own church security. These groups finally after six months are starting to become proficient.

  4. Darrell Morgan on July 2, 2019 at 7:21 pm

    I’m the pastor of the church here in Apopka and I carry every Sunday morning and so does all of our security team

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