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I mentioned this in the discussion about the Sikh temple: I have been carrying concealed to our church for a while now, where we have two armed police officers on duty every Sunday. I've said hi to them and made small talk occasionally, but have never confided with them that I'm a CHLer. I don't feel the obligation to, except for the hypothetical scenario in which there's an active shooter and I engage him. I would want our security guards to know in advance that I'm one of the good guys. But I'm not real sure about how to initiate that conversation.

Are you in a similar situation at your church where they have armed security? How have you approached them with this topic?

I know we've talked about church carry in general, or the matter of informing other members of your church about your CHL status, but I don't recall this specific question coming up before. Thanks for your input.

I will defer to others in your area & attend a BIG church.
Every one in our church knows who carries, what they carry.

No armed guards at my Church that I am aware of. No police directing traffic. No signs to prevent me from carrying. The only two people at my Church that know are my wife and daughter.

The only 'security' we have on Sunday's other than the ushers (I am GUESSING they are unarmed) are police officers directing traffic on Sunday mornings out on the street that come inside for coffee and donuts (imagine that ) between services. None of them know and they don't have a need to know.

I wouldn't inform anyone, unless you are ready for them to give you a verbal notice. I work at a church that has 3-5 uniformed and a few off duty LEO's (volunteer guys who go there). Per employee handbook, I have to keep mine in the car, however, if I were able, I still wouldn't inform anyone who wasn't in the need to know (my wife).

Its a larger church with multiple services and 1000+ people at any given service. The bigger the church, the more decision makers there are, thus, the greater chance of someone saying, "no".

I agree with Rrash. If you tell them, be ready to either attend church unarmed or look for another church.

Chas.

Rrash wrote:I wouldn't inform anyone, unless you are ready for them to give you a verbal notice. ... The bigger the church, the more decision makers there are, thus, the greater chance of someone saying, "no".

IMO - Even worse than "more decision makers" are people fearful of knowing that any "firearm" is in their proximity. These are the ones who would "bleat" the loudest to instigate verbal or written notice to assure a gun free zone -- unwittingly serving notice to those who desire to do evil.

I go to Gateway in Southlake when I'm home. I've only told one of the security officers that I carry, and that's because we used to work together and he asked if I was armed

For the church I attended from 2000-2008: I told the pastor because at that time, churches were statutorily off limits without permission. He loved it. He told me of a few other CHLers and who the off duty LEOs were. At least one perpetually-perturbed band member carried on stage, and one of the associate pastors had expressed interest in taking the CHL class. I knew of several others that wee unabashedly pro-2A. This was a larger church, but fairly conservative and carrying didn't seem to ruffle any feathers.

When we moved to our new church in 2008, the law regarding churches had changed, but I still told my pastor about my secret. The members are truly a close-knit family, so I know of a handful of other CHLers in the flock.

We all know who carrys at my church. But as you have been told YMMV! But I am a pistol packing Preaching like ZN Morrell !

Rrash wrote:I wouldn't inform anyone, unless you are ready for them to give you a verbal notice.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:I agree with Rrash. If you tell them, be ready to either attend church unarmed or look for another church.

Chas.

This has actually been my subconscious hurdle to talking to them. I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one thinking along those lines. My thought-process has been that, from reading some stories on this forum, there seem to be some cops who are not fully informed about church-carry, or CHL in general. Maybe not many, but some, and it would pretty much ruin things if such thinking were held by the cops at my church. They seem to be great folks, though. I've been trying to come up with an off-hand way to broach the topic. Maybe bringing up the Sikh temple or the Colorado theater incidents? I could ask them what their response would be, and I could throw in something like, "What if there are other people at church with guns?"

Too obvious?

I have not learned the way, but I have figured out its best to keep your mouth shut. When I use the term "your mouth shut", I am actually referring to me.

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS

We have two teams of first responders during our services. One is a medical team, made up of off-duty paramedics. The other is made up of off-duty LEOs. All are church members. Of the LEOs, a couple have been to the range with me before, and probably 3 or 4 know that I have a CHL simply because we talk guns, and it has come up over the years. The first responder teams haven't been formed for that long....maybe early spring of this year. Anyway, since then I've actually had the conversation with the guy who heads up the LEO side of it. He has no problem with CHL. His own dad who is also a member of the church has one. My concern, which is what we talked about, was being clear that I didn't want to get mistaken for a bad guy in an active shooter scenario if I had to draw my gun. I suggested to him that it might be a good thing, wherever possible, to identify whomever in the congregation is a CHL holder, for much the same reason. He agreed, but we also realized that unless one of the other CHLs identified themselves to him or one of the other LEOs, there was little likelihood of that happening. In any case, all of these cops are young guys with a very pro-2nd amendment attitude, so they aren't really a problem. And for my own part, my circle of friends who know about my CHL include a couple of people on the pastoral staff as well as some of my fellow worship team members. Nobody cares....at least not in a negative way.

I love my church.