Alabama State Auditor: Churches need a defense plan, parishioners should arm themselves

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June 21, 2015

Just days after a gunman killed nine churchgoers participating in a prayer service at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in a racially-motived attack, Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler took to Facebook to make a plea to people of faith in Alabama: Arm yourselves.

“Church attendees should pack,” said the first-term auditor. “Calling 911 and waiting for government defense will not work.”

Zeigler added that churches should not only allow parishioners to be armed, but should also have a plan in place for what to do if an attack takes place during a service.

“Each church should have a vigilance committee of individuals who pack and who develop their own plans for defense from an attack,” he said.

Gunmen attacking churches is a rare — but unfortunately not new — occurrence in the United States.

According to SBC Life, a journal of the Southern Baptist Convention, the first “mass murder by shooting in an American church” took place in 1980.

“Members of First Baptist Church in Daingerfield, Texas, were singing ‘More About Jesus’ in the morning worship service when a gunman entered and yelled, ‘This is war!’ Then he opened fire, shooting fifteen people and killing five”

One of the most deadly shootings since then occurred at Fort Worth’s Wedgwood Baptist Church in 1999. Seven people were killed and seven more injured when a gunman entered the church’s sanctuary and opened fire on a “See You at the Pole” student rally.

Other attacks include a 2007 shooting at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where two were killed, and a 2009 shooting at First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois, where the church’s pastor was shot and killed.

“Though some people may bristle or be concerned when they hear something about a safety and security ministry or safety and security team in a church, frankly security is visible everywhere we go—whether it be to the ballgame or a theme park or whatever,” one security expert told SBC Life. “So a visible, friendly, ministry-minded team is something that can help make visitors as well as members feel welcome and safe.”

Zeigler appears to agree.

“Without armed citizens in the church congregation,” he said, “they are sitting ducks for criminals and terrorists.”