Articles with checklist

Church Security Armament Recommendations By Tom Givens, John Correia, and 6 Other Professionals

SemperVerus asked 8 firearms training professionals for their recommendations as to what they consider to be optimal for church security team volunteers to carry while on duty, having as their objective to protect others rather than concerning their own everyday self-defense.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Training: Decision Decks Help You Think Through a Crisis Before It Happens ]

Every one of the questioned professionals stresses the absolute #1 prioritization of obtaining ongoing defensive mindset and quality skill training as the primary requirement before considering what guns and gear should be used. It’s not the weapon that makes the defender succeed; it’s the defender’s superior training and mental acuity. Once that is understood, they offer their equipment recommendations.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Prayer for Church Security Team Members ]

The categories to which the professionals responded are:

  • Brand of firearm
  • Style (full size/duty size, compact, subcompact, micro compact, pocket, etc.)
  • Optics/Sights (red dot, reflex, night sights, 3-dot sights, black out rear site, fiber optic, tritium, etc.)
  • Carry method (IWB, OWB, appendix, shoulder, pocket, ankle, off-body, etc.)
  • Action Type (revolver, semi-auto)
  • Action (single, double, DA/SA, hammer, striker, etc.)
  • External Safety: (yes, no)
  • Magazine (single stack, double stack)
  • Magazine Capacity
  • Number of Extra Magazines
  • Caliber
  • Ammo Brand
  • Weapon Mounted Light (yes, no)

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of AMMO ]

Click each of the following names to view their recommendations:

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What to Take to the Shooting Range—Including a Prayer

Whether you go to the shooting range to qualify for volunteering on your church security team or to train to improve your personal armed self-defense skills, you go to increase your defensive marksmanship to be consistently accurate.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Firearms Training: A Directory of Shooting Drills ]

The more you train, the more you become proficient in handling firearms and the safer you are as a defender, because you know you are responsible for every bullet that leaves your gun.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 4 Basic Rules of Gun Safety ]

The time you spend at the range is not an expense, it’s an investment, since…

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Checklist: Church Security/Safety Equipment

If you’d like to be interviewed to share best practices of your own church security/safety team, contact SemperVerus by emailing staytrue@semperverus.com.

[ Bookmark the SemperVerus CHURCH SECURITY INTELLIGENCE CLIPBOARD ]

Here is a list of equipment suggestions to include in your church security/safety office and as carried tools (depending on how many tools you want to carry, you may want to wear a sling bag, hip bag, or cargo pants):

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Protection Book Review: Just 2 Seconds

The book, Just 2 Seconds: Using Time and Space to Defeat Assassins by Gavin de Becker, Tom Taylor, and Jeff Marquart, “examines the previously inviolate rules of protection, then subjects them to rigorous analysis. Will leave protection professionals reevaluating everything they know or thought they knew,” according to Vincent O’Neill, former Special Agent with the US Secret Service.

Gavin de Becker is the founder of Gavin de Becker & Associates (GDBA), a threat assessment and security firm that provides private, corporate, and government protection services and training courses.

While the book is 712 pages long, 570 pages consist of an extensive compendium describing thousands of successful and failed attacks, kidnappings, accidents, medical emergencies, and non-lethal incidents involving at-risk people worldwide over a period of more than 50 years, in addition to eight appendices of protection-related guidelines. Its title refers to the extreme brevity of time during which the average violent attack begins and ends.

The first 142 pages are comprised of five chapters detailing the important protective lessons learned from those events—highlighting 11 precepts that enhance personal safety—and the five essential insights for protectors. These conclusions are practical and proven standards for one’s own self-defense and the protection of others, that can be applied in church security.

The five essential insights for protectors (and individual self-defenders) are Now, Time, Mind, Space, and See. Here are a few excerpts for each one:

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Active Self Protection Self-Defense Checklists and Acrostics

John Correia is the founder of Active Self Protection, teaching people to develop the attitude, skills, and plan (ASP) to defend themselves and their families from harm.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Armament Recommendations By Tom Givens, John Correia, and 6 Other Professionals ]

John is a nationally-recognized subject matter expert in private citizen defensive encounters and law enforcement use of force, a master firearms instructor, martial artist, court-admitted expert witness, teacher of teachers, and former pastor. He reviews thousands of violent incident videos as true-life self-defense teaching lessons on his Main and his Extra YouTube channels.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Self-Defense and Church Security Lessons by John Correia Reviewing an Attempted Carjacking ]

The following is a collection of some of the acrostics and checklists John has created to assist in remembering self-defense techniques and mindset.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Interview With John Correia of Active Self Protection About Church Security Teams ]

•   Vehicles are transitional spaces where threatening incidents can easily happen. Follow this LET’SS GO checklist IN NUMERICAL ORDER to quickly remove yourself from vulnerability:

LET’SS GO

  1. L ock your doors as soon as you get into your car.
  2. E ngine on.
  3. T ransmission in gear.
  4. S seatbelt buckled.
  5. S can your surroundings.
  6. G et organized.
  7. O n your way.

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