Guns come to God's house

By Bob Smietana, The Tennessean

Duane McGray takes his Bible to church on Sunday mornings.

He also takes his gun.

McGray, a former chief of public safety at Nashville International Airport, is a volunteer in the security ministry at First Baptist Church Hendersonville. He carries a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun to worship services to keep members and visitors safe.

"I have no problem in carrying a firearm in church,'' he said. "I just know that it is necessary to protect God's people.''

Safety has been on the minds of many local congregations recently, after a Southern Baptist pastor was gunned down in an Illinois pulpit during church services on March 8. Some local churches already rely on armed volunteers and off-duty police officers, while others say recent church shootings have made them realize they should be prepared, in case the unthinkable happens.

On the same day of the Illinois shooting, police arrested a man with a gun at Del Oro Hills Church in Oceanside, Calif. And, just last month, 58-year-old Jim David Adkisson pleaded guilty to killing two people and wounding six others, in a July 27 shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church in Knoxville.

Churches try to be welcoming

Chris Davis, minister of missions at First Baptist Church Hendersonville, was living in Texas in 1999 when a shooter entered Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, killing seven people with firearms and pipe bombs before committing suicide. One of the victims was Davis acquaintance Sydney Browning.

"A church shooting was a rarity back then. Now it seems to be happening more often,'' said Davis, who first began working on the church's security in 2007. He now oversees the program.

The church has a group of security volunteers, mostly off-duty law enforcement officers, as well as a group of medical volunteers. The teams are coordinated from a dispatch center, in an undisclosed location in the church.

Davis, like other leaders, is reluctant to share too many details about the church's security.

"The less people know about it, the more secure we are,'' he said.

But he said the church works hard to balance security needs with its mission of reaching out to strangers. Unlike a school or businesses, which limits access to students or employees, churches want to be open to everyone. That means metal detectors are not an option.

"If we were standing around with flak jackets and shotguns, I don't think anyone would feel welcome at our church,'' Davis said.

Several other large local congregations rely on the presence of off-duty police to help keep worshippers safe.

For example, Christ Community Church in Franklin hires off-duty officers to handle traffic duty during worship service.

Once traffic has thinned out, the officers stay around on the church campus.

"We think that having two squad cars parked by the front door is a great deterrent,'' said Susan Shafer, director of communications at Christ Community Church.

Sheriff trains church members

After the shooting at the Unitarian church in Knoxville, leaders at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville decided to hire off-duty police on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. The Nashville church feared a copycat attack on their congregation.

After two weeks, however, the church felt that the immediate danger had passed and that the need for armed officers had passed. The church did put together an emergency plan but didn't want to live in constant fear of an attack.

"I think the best analogy would be to observe that we could die every time we get into a car,'' John Mott, president of First Unitarian Universalist, said in an e-mail. "While you do make an effort to be safe ... you can't really prevent a tragedy. The nature of a healthy and welcoming church is to be open, to engage with the world and with strangers.''

Jeffrey Hawkins, director of Christian Security Network, believes every congregation should do a security assessment, usually with the help of local police. From there they should put a plan in place for everything from fires and tornadoes to a live shooter in a service. By planning ahead, they can help minimize the loss of life.

"These shooting are like a plane crash," he said. "They don't happen very often, but it's devastating when they do."

The church shooting in Knoxville prompted at least one sheriff to start a program to arm church members. Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble launched the "Special Deputy Church Protection Program'' in January. So far, 11 church members have signed up for 80 hours of training.

Gobble believes that having trained, armed security is the best way to deal with a shooter in a church. If someone opens fire, he said, there's often a delay of five to seven minutes before police can arrive.

"The more time goes by, the more people will die,'' he said.