thatguyoverthere wrote:As most of us know, with the recent change in Texas law and with recent events in Texas, many churches (especially smaller ones) are getting more active in trying to provide some kind of volunteer security force.
The small church that I attend is no different. We do already have something currently in place that I am involved with now, but we're going to be getting it more formalized and more "official." The plan is still in the talking stages right now, so nothing finalized, yet.
Our pastor is getting our small town police chief involved, by having him look over our campus and helping to point out possible security weaknesses, and to get him to suggest ideas for improvement. The chief has also volunteered to come up with a basic training program to offer to our church members who volunteer for this effort. Sounds great so far.
But here's part of the rub for me. Since both the pastor and the police chief know that at least part of the volunteer security team will consist of LTC armed personnel, the chief has asked the pastor to put together a list of names and photos of the LTC carriers in the church and forward that to him (to the chief). The reasoning is that if something were to actually happen and require an emergency police response, the chief wants to have photos to help him recognize who the good guys are.
I do think the chief's intentions are good and honorable. And obviously he thinks this is a good idea. But, me - not so much. I don't really think that having a fistful of photos would be too useful to him if it actually came down to crunch time.
But the main problem for me is, I'm just not really wild about giving my name and photo and LTC info to anybody that I don't have to, even if it is for a good cause. Not that I have anything to hide, but still....
Now, remember this is a small town, small church and small police force. It's sort of an "open secret" who does and does not carry in our church anyway. So even if I were to go along with this, it's not like I'm giving up any Top Secret information!
So what do y'all think? Would you put the brakes on this and bow out gracefully, or would giving your name and photo identifying yourself as an LTC carrier to a local small town LEO (who probably already knows anyway) be no big deal to you?
I have a better idea. Get your pastor to ask the Chief and his officers to to attend the church and meet the security team personally. In addition, have the officers bring their photos and certifications to hang on the church wall so the parishioners will know who the "good guys" are.