Church Safety Team Instruction

On November 5th, 2017, the tranquility of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, was shattered by an Active Shooter. There was no organized or trained Church Safety Team at the small church and why should there have been? This congregation was a typical small-town USA community church with two rows of pews and a center aisle from the back of the church alter. However, there were forty-six casualties that morning as the tragedy was exacerbated when the shooter was able to reload his rifle and continue the assault. The gunman indiscriminately murdered twenty-six parishioners ranging from 77 years old to a pregnant woman’s unborn child. The tragedy, forever engrained in that community, only ended when a citizen brought the assailant under fire with a personally owned firearm which caused the attacker to flee.

A common expression in reference to Low Probability High Impact events like violence in Houses of Worship is that “your less likely than being struck by lightning.” This could be used in a discussion about Active Shooter Events in Houses of Worship across the United States. However, when data is further analyzed with variables to include percentage of the US population in a House of Worship versus that being outside when lightening is possible, or the complete unpredictability of violence versus predictable unstable weather conditions the data takes a darker turn.

Regardless, the families of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs and families of the 147 people whose lives have been shattered by mass shooters in God’s House since 2000 are less keen to argue statistics. For these families, its personal. For them, the question of “why it happened to their loved ones” could be better stated “what could they have done to mitigate the likelihood of the attack, or when once begun what could they have done to survive it?”

Parishioners come to a house of worship to pray and worship God with fellow believers. There can be no higher righteous responsibility than to provide for their protection through a thoroughly vetted and trained Church Safety Team. Dynamic Response Solutions offers training specifically designed to both deter an Active Shooter or Violent Actor from targeting your church and implement techniques designed at recognizing a potential threat to the flock before gaining access to the congregation. But once deterrence fails Church leadership must have a plan.

Church Safety Team Preparedness Options:

Consultation: Education of threats facing Houses of Worship across the nation. Tying together what church leadership is aware of to what they do not completely comprehend is something that we Dynamic Response Solutions excel at.

Active Shooter Event Response Lectures / Presentations:

• Case study analysis, lessons learned, national statistics and practical applications
• Countering Violent Actors by category: (Active Shooters, Mentally Unstable, Criminal Elements, Hecklers, and Disruptors)
• OODA Loop and Cooper’s Colors

Safety Team Organizational Structuring:

• Bottom-up task organization of the Church Safety Team
• Integrating Training to support existing church policies or standard operating procedures
• Strength-based Training Models
• Physical Security Activities

Firearms and Alternate Weapons Training and Certification:

• Conflict Avoidance and De-escalation Training
• Initial and recurring Defensive Accuracy Firearms training and evaluation
• Less than lethal, alternative weapons and unarmed defensive techniques
• Concealed Weapons Permit certification is included in this training program

Dynamic Response Solutions Contact Response Doctrine (RED3)

• Threat Recognition methodology
• Lethal Encounter Engagement Principles
• Disruption, Denial and Defeat Techniques
• Cognitive Decision Making
• Close Quarter Armed and Unarmed Combatives Tactics
• Learn More

Join the Dynamic response Solutions Church Safety Team training plan and receive unparalleled physical security and Active Shooter Recognition and Response Training.

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