Given the number of shooting incidents targeting Christians that have occurred in America this year alone, a gun range owner in Placerville, California is now offering training for church leaders who want to help keep their congregations safe.
Geof Peabody told CBS Sacramento that he has already trained over 500 ministers and church security teams. But in the past few months, he said demand for training has gone up.
His clients include members of the Green Valley Community Church. He said half of the church's security team are well-equipped men who are ready to respond to any shooting incident.
Peabody said mass shootings usually happen in gun-free zones, because shooters know it's a "target-rich environment." His goal now is to make the environment "less target-rich" for them.
"The last class that we just did, which was introductory handgun training for church security members, we had nine different churches that were represented with about 25 students who came," he shared.
Peabody stressed that being armed does not give gun-toting ministers and security teams the license to shoot anytime they want.
"As long as it can keep turning I can keep firing. But as soon as you can grab it all the way around and stop the cylinder from turning, all of a sudden the machinery becomes inoperable and you can put a stop to the execution. You don't need to have a gun," he said.
Dan Moore, one of the church's security team admitted that not everybody in the congregation agrees with the church's decision to allow firearms inside their place of worship, but he hopes they will come around eventually because they are only taking steps for their protection.
"The more of us there are, the better the chance of success is," he said.
