I was asked to attend an Active Shooter for Church Security course by some friends. They’re looking to up their church security game and I have agreed to help them based on my training and experience. The cost was pretty reasonable so it was a no-lose proposition. I get to see what is being taught, a bit of a refresher on security matters, and a few more reps running through scenarios and exercises. Certainly exposure to church specific concerns as I’ve yet to do anything related to that particular realm. The course was put on by Protect His House. The instructors were both very good, good guys, and certainly “got it” which immediately puts them ahead of a lot of training I’ve had. They had a good mindset of they were there to teach and correct, not demean or test. Again, different than most of the training I’ve had. Both of the trainers were law enforcement and I think had similar experiences to mine and decided to not fall into that trap. Good on them.
I’m going to divide this into two parts with positive items second, negative first. This is less of a review and more of my impressions. Look at it through the following lens: I was sworn law enforcement for about a decade, have worked many events with attendences between 500 and 30,000 people. NCAA football and basketball games at a 1-AA school, concerts with acts such as The Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, Godsmack, Korn, Disturbed and more, and VIP protection for those acts and related to the sports games for visiting dignitaries. Some of this was armed in capacity as sworn LE and others were not as private security for the venue. Since that time as a citizen I’ve been diligently practicing, training, and researching to up my skillset beyond what I had when I left as a professional.
Pretty early on it became clear this course wasn’t aimed at me. Not that the course was bad, but it wasn’t really compatible with someone of my skill level. This is a complaint I’m finding myself having about a lot of training. Because I don’t have the receipts I’m being led to believe I am unskilled and untrained. Neither of those things are true, clearly, and that is probably my biggest take away from this course. Even the instructors recognized it. For a few of the exercises I was pulled aside and told to keep doing what I’m doing even if they tell the class something else. I agreed with them as what they were telling the class was certainly more fool-proof and safer gun-in-the-world technique even if less effective. Lesson for me is I probably need to figure out how to start a given training evolution with at least the second or third class. Paying for, and sitting through, the one and maybe the two course and learning nothing is a waste of time and resources.
The course was certainly time compressed and I think that is probably the biggest harm to it. The course was set up such that it was to expose those very new to security or gunfighting to things they need to research further and practice rather than actually teach those skills there completely. There was a room clearing, medical, considerations, and a scenario section. Nothing taught in these sections was wrong, just incomplete and very scratching the surface. Most hands-on portions each student could only do the exercise once. In the medical section I would have preferred a proper Stop the Bleed course. Room clearing multiple rooms and layouts with the trainer as bad guy for us to identify and shoot no-shoot and be able to do that exercise half a dozen times each. I think the course would have been a better value if the price were doubled and taught over 2 days in order to pass along skills explicitly rather than only exposure.
Outside of the control of the trainers and the course, was the folks attending. Fudds, posers, and folks that believe the gun as talisman were easily 90% of the attendance. In the control of the trainers was trying to push them out of these views and behaviors. I don’t think that was done. I fear that having taken this course these folks will believe they are now prepared, educated, and certified to take care of this problem. It is critical they do more to finish out the various sections of the course, but, having been exposed to people like those in attendance my whole life I’m certain this will not occur. Lesson here is the average person is very incapable and dilusional about their abilities. Likely if a critical event occurs I’ll need to take charge and perform as many of the critical tasks as possible myself. I’m also doing the right thing by teaching those around me the skills I do have. An example of this was during the tourniquet use portion all of my friends were re-folding the TQs to look like they do out of a NAR package and staging them. Such that when it was time to put them on we all did it in 15-20 seconds… as we have done this many times before in dojo days with me. The key reason I talk about the make up of the class is your fellow students are often as critical to the quality and value of the class as the trainers, especially when there are group exercises required.
My biggest takeaway was confirmation that I am infact on the Path and doing the correct things. I need to gain confidence in my abilities and skill level, the skills exist. I’ve been brainwashed by messages for the general public that I’m not capable, when the truth is I’m probably even more capable than most First Responders. This must be internalized. I also learned that not much has changed in the last decade since I did security/LE work professionally as far as tactics and strategy goes.
In the medical portion there was a section about improvised tourniquets, when required because you ran out of real ones, that was very good as well as some thoughts about a medical kit that works in practicality. There was a discussion about people hit not knowing they are hit, and not surviving a tension pneumothorax because it progressed too far before intervened due to not knowing they were hit. I really think the medical section if doubled in time could have been quite good and incredibly valuable even if it was still beneath my level.
The data presented about how violence at places of worship actually occur was very valuable for determining strategy and the most probable threat, and what is generally not. All of the information relayed from the interviews with Jack Wilson was incredibly valuable generally. All questions were answered very well and as I said above the trainers both “get it” and didn’t say anything flat insane to coddle the participants in the course. The considerations portion was probably the most valuable overall and the most focused to the task at hand even though it was a lecture portion.
Scenarios & reality based training are always good no matter your level of ability. I wish we were able to do more of these though and plan & experiment more. I wish a bit more would have been done to not be able to game the scenarios but I understand why they were executed the way they were. I know some of the gaming my group did was put me in position to intervene first, which is to the detriment of the rest of my group as I’ve already been through training similar to this and done it in the real world. Of course my trying to sit back and participate as little as possible knowing this fell on deaf ears.
De-escalation through ministering a possible threat was a key emphasis. I do think this is the correct approach and am happy to see they were discouraging “bouncers for God” as they put it. However, I do think there was a bit of acceptance of gun as a talisman, or an assumption the class was better than they were even though often demonstrating big red flags they were very beginner shooters, not even novice. There was one specific instance where a trainer called out someone during a scenario because they were trying to make a shot entirely across the congregation and I think everyone but the shooter was in doubt they could make it (20m headshot over everyone’s heads, the shooter’s age, grip, and demeanor was leaving a lot of doubt that round would go where it should go. Maybe not, but I would have been surprised).
Again I must stress the trainers were very good. I think the more advanced courses could be quite valuable, though again I worry about the kinds of people in my area that would attend such a course. I wasn’t finding any unknown to me WarPoets. I must admit that was one of the reasons I attended the course and found myself disappointed. If a participant took the course and realized how much they didn’t know and how quickly a lot of the items were presented, so then sought further information, training, and practice it would be extremely valuable. I know I was hesistent, and did not, offer to help further their gunfighter skills as I think undertaking such an effort would be an excersise in pain for me based on the other participants behavior during the course. Also, no one asked. Probably a failure in myself on that one though I believe it as true.