2/20/2018
True story as heard told by a pastor about his wife….She almost didn’t marry him when she discovered he owned guns, he said. it was so totally contrary to the way she, a pastor’s daughter, had been raised. Until a night when she was home alone with small children and her pastor husband was out of town. Someone on the back screened porch rummaging through boxes and rattling the door knob sent her running for her husband’s gun and calling 911. Although she’d never wanted to touch it, she found that having it for defense of herself and her children gave her a sense of not being so vulnerable. She stood there waiting, prepared to shoot if he breached the sanctity of her home and threatened the safety of her and her children. The police arrived, but the interloper had hurried away by the time they came. She learned to shoot and became a believer in the reality that there is a time and place for self defense, including having a gun.
There are a number of women I know who live alone and who keep a gun locked up but where they can access it quickly in the event of a break in. They are trained, they have considered the potential risks, and they are ready. Many of them also carry a concealed weapon in public, with their hand on it in their purse as they move with careful determination to their car if they have to be out after dark or on the road. . Before you allow anyone who seems to be moving toward you menacingly to get near you, yell, blow a small air horn can and if the person continues to approach in a threatening manner, be prepared to shoot.
In many churches now, there may be as many as a dozen or more people in churches I know of who are carrying concealed weapons on any given Sunday. Churches are hardening security in hallways and doors…..cameras, push button key pads, limiting access to children’s wings, stationing people where parking lots can be easily monitored.
What a shame that many feel it is necessary for the safety of innocent people, including themselves. But that is what our culture now has come to….gangs, drug related robberies, home invasions, angry ex-spouses taking it out on anyone they think has harmed them, workplace violence, domestic violence, and more. Once you know more than a handful of people who have been affected by such events, you consider your own risk and preparation.