Public security

Church shooting heightens security questions

The Sunday attack that left 26 dead in Texas prompted the state’s attorney general to say “we need … professional security or … arming … parishioners or the congregation …” to protect worshippers.

Jeff Laster, who was shot when a gunman killed seven and wounded seven more at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth in 1999, said some churches had already implemented the suggestion that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton gave in a Fox News interview.

“I think some people in Texas are going ‘duh,’” said Laster, who is now a Wedgwood Baptist associate minister. “‘It’s Texas: I carry every Sunday.’”

Yet, while the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, southeast of San Antonio, re-opened a discussion of church security, the prospect of armed worshippers shooting it out with a gunman prompts a negative response in many cases from security professionals and religious leaders.

“If law enforcement has the ability to respond in an active shooter situation, they will not be able to distinguish between friend or foe,” said Doron Horowitz, senior national security advisor for the Security Community Network, the official homeland security initiative for the Jewish community. “They will neutralize anyone with a weapon.”