A Texas pastor says he will now carry a handgun whenever he preaches after 26 people were massacred in a shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.
Pastor Jaime Chapa of El Faro Bible Church in Sullivan City, said he and some of his parisioners will now be armed when he preaches to his small congregation of 50.
'There will be three armed [licenced] persons at all times at every service,' Chapa local news site KRGV on Monday. 'Nobody needs to know who they are, but our church will be protected.'
'What happened in Sutherland will not ever happen in our church,' he added.'This was not supposed to happen.'
It comes after a number of church pastors responded to the attack by calling for an increase in church security.
The evangelical pastor and Donald Trump ally Robert Jeffress suggested that an armed attacker on his church would be stopped after one or two shots because his congregants carry guns 'and I don't think there's anything wrong with that'.
The pastor at the megachurch First Baptist Church, Dallas, told Fox News: 'I'd say a quarter to a half of our members are concealed carry, they have guns and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. They bring them into the church with them.'
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt interjected: 'That probably makes you feel safer.'
Jeffress responded: 'I think it does and I think, look, if somebody tries that in our church, they might get one shot off or two shots off, and that's the last thing they'll ever do in this life.'
The McAllen First Baptist Church, about four hours south of Sutherland Springs, said it would introduce new procedures for church members with concealed handgun licenses to make each other aware of who is carrying.
'We are putting that into place so our concealed-carry people know each other, but we are also setting things up to where they're located strategically throughout the auditorium in the services that we have,' the church's pastor, Shannon Talley, told KRGV earlier this week.
