Transcription
Welcome, Christian warriors. I have an important intelligence brief to give you regarding the church shooting in Michigan yesterday. I'm going to need you to pass it on down to your church staff and your safety ministries.
But before we start, it's important to let you know that you are going to want to freak out and turn your church into a bunker. And you can't do that. You have to keep your church open and welcoming and trust in the Lord.
Now, I trust the Lord will protect me because he gave me some great training and some great tools. Some of the tools I bought at Boise Black Rifle. Not a paid sponsor, but they're really cool people. So, if you're in the Idaho area, head on by there. Tell them that Christian warriors sent you.
But having good equipment and having a good attitude and having good training isn't enough. You have to trust in the Lord. You have to read your Bible. And you have to look at the Bible for answers for everything that we do. And shutting your church down and turning into a bunker and putting people with AR-15s out front and doing bag checks. That's not a part of being open and welcoming and getting people to come to Christ. I hope I expressed that enough for you because some of the comments yesterday had me worried that some of you were going to be posting guards with AR-15s out front and we definitely don't want that. Leave it in your car or in a gun safe in the security office.
If you want to look at the comprehensive intelligence brief that I put together that we're going to talk about today, go to christianwarriortraining.com. You can download it over there and it makes it a little bit easier to have that copy to show to all your staff. It's easy. You could just share a link with them and they'll be able to see everything. I don't put a ton of stuff over here on YouTube. I know it seems like I do, but if you don't want to miss a thing, go to Christianwarrioring.com. I put out way more information over there and I have freedom of speech there so I can be a little bit more open.
All right. Look, following the attack on the LDS House of Worship in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, the near-term risk of copycat attempts by lonewolf offenders against any faith-based facility is elevated. This includes your schools. So, you should be worried about this right now. And this includes your offices and anything that's open during that time. Anything that is faith-based oriented from church to school to what have you, this concerns you.
Now, this incident received extensive national coverage and research tells us that past patterns indicate a short-term contagion effect for similar violence. So essentially, people are going to see what happened yesterday in Michigan and they're going to want to copy it and replicate it and do it on their own and make a name for themselves.
Now, when we do an intelligence assessment, we have some key judgments. Now, the first key judgment is that the near-term copycat risk is elevated. So, the media is saturated these attacks and have temporarily increased the probability of subsequent events for roughly 2 weeks and sometimes it can be longer. The likelihood of this happening is likely.
Our key judgment number two, the target set extends beyond the original denomination. So offenders typically frame grievances broadly against churches or houses of worship and not a single tradition. Now the likelihood for this is likely.
Now our key judgment number three, methods most at risk to be copied are simple and low cost. Expect firearms, arson or inciniary attempts, vehicle into a structure and edged weapons. The likelihood of this happening is likely.
Our key judgment number four, most offenders will be loan actors with some leakage, meaning leakage meaning that they're going to give you indicators that they're going to do an attack or there's going to be pre-inccident behaviors that's visible to family peers or online communities. The likelihood of this happening is likely. The only way that this is going to stop is by people recognizing these behaviors and interceding in those behaviors. Otherwise, it'll happen. It does appear right now that there was that leakage or those indicators that came out for this man over the past week or two.
Let's talk about the most likely, the likely possible, and least likely scenarios that are going to happen based out of this incident. Now, the most likely scenario is we have an elevated threat. That means that one or more loan offenders are going to attempt low-cost attacks on faith-based facilities within 14 days. Now methods include firearms brought to the service, attempted arson and entryways or utility rooms, simple improvised inciary devices or vehicle into a structure. Now site selection is going to be convenience-driven not denomination specific and the likelihood of this happening is likely.
Now, on most of these active shooter events at churches, there is some tie to domestic violence or some grievance to the church or they attended there in the past, but there's some transient tie to the church in some way to the active shooter. So, you need to talk to your people and find out what the threats are internally. If you're going to church and you're having a problem with a stalker, an ex-husband, ex-wife, or what have you, you need to let your church know so they can protect you while you worship.
Now the likely scenario is moderate to an elevated threat. Now this includes threats, hoaxes and swatting which we have seen a lot of swatting lately and that's going to increase against churches in the region or nationwide and it's going to create disruption in a resource drain for law enforcement. The likelihood of this happening is likely.
Now the possible scenario is a moderate threat and that's coordinated but low sophistication attempts at multiple sites on the same weekend inspired by publicity and social chatter. the likelihood of this happening. It's possible. I mean, it could happen. It's not high on the radar, but it's something you should be paying attention to.
On a side note, I have been warning you for years, and so have others like Sarah Adams, Command 11, Survival Dispatch, to let you know that there are going to be coordinated attacks in the United States perpetrated by Al Qaeda. That would be separate from what we're talking about right now.
Now, the least likely scenario is very low threat, and that's a complex multi-actor plot with advanced IEDs or insider facilitation. Resource and skill requirements reduce the probability in the immediate term, and the likelihood of this happening is unlikely. We like to bring it up though because it's something that we should think about and have on our radar. This is separate from what we've been talking about with Al Qaeda and ISIS and those people.
Now, some pre-indicators to watch for include sudden fixation on recent church attacks in social media or private messages including praise or tactical commentary. The tactical commentary would include "I would have done this," "he should have done X," or what have you, or "he did this well." You should be looking out for that kind of language. It doesn't fit in. Like if it's your safety team talking about it, it's one thing. But it's your kid talking about it and he's angry with the church, that's another. You want to look for leakage of intent to friends, family, pastors, or online contacts. That leakage again is information leaking out in social media posts or language during conversations that indicate an attack may happen.
Recent acquisition of firearms, fuel oxidizers, fuses, or large quantities of matches and accelerants. That in of itself isn't anything. Please don't look at my shopping list. That by itself doesn't mean anything. But that in conjunction with these other leakage indicators do mean something or anger towards the church or what have you.
Prevent probing like photographing entries, counting greeters, testing doors, loitering near utility rooms, or repeated parking lot drive-throughs. Also, clothing or staging that conceals identity or weapons, vehicles that are parked in direct access lanes. We have seen this repeatedly that parking in direct access lanes. You can look at my unfiltered debriefs of active shooter events over at christianwarriortraining.com where I can post video and not be demonetized or taken off the platform and you will see that that is a common theme.
Now, the time window for all of this is now through October 12th with some tapering thereafter and it could be subject to any new catalyzing events or heavy publicity that may continue from this.
Now, there's some collection requirements for church and intelligence volunteers. You want to capture and archive credible threats, suspicious activity reports, and police case numbers. I really suggest that you do join the FBI SA. It is a faith-based intelligence network that has tons of information. It is a great platform to belong to. I think after an event like this, you should assign one person at your church to do that. It's pricey at $200 a year. I think it's a little too much money, but you get a lot of good info out of it.
You want to screen local open sources for chatter referencing church security service times or calls to finish the job. I'll give you an example. We have two people here in Boise, Idaho that sent a 300-page manifesto to a couple of churches. And essentially, it looks like a hit list of who to attack. And unfortunately, our my church was recognized as one of those churches after that list came out. They talked about coming to disrupt our church. You need to take action right away with those people and you you you can't be nice about it. They have threatened you. We are lucky they're in custody right now on $15 million bail for intimidating a witness, which $15 million bail is the highest bail I've ever seen for a crime like that. Might give you an idea of the severity. We are worried about these people and churches should take immediate action with people like that and get restraining orders if they're mentioned and start doing trespass orders right off the bat. You can work with local law enforcement for that, but you I mean we're dealing with that right now in Boise, Idaho. How many of you thought you would have that issue here in Boise, Idaho? I sure didn't see that on my radar when I moved here.
You want to liaison with local law enforcement for director patrols and current threat notes. So make befriend. Don't talk to the chief or the sheriff or the captain or the lieutenant. Find a good sergeant or a good officer or deputy that is a Christ-believing person and get to know them and they will feed you all sorts of information more than you will get from some command staff. No offense to the command staff out there, but you know what I'm talking about if you are one.
Some immediate actions for your safety ministries and I'll talk about for those of you that don't have a safety ministry. I will talk to those at the end of or right after here. Look, you want to increase your visible security presence this and next weekend. And you want to post greeters and train safety personnel at primary entrances, foyers, and children's areas. You want to run an entry control refresh before services. You want to talk about usher positioning and quick lock procedures for classrooms and children ministries and lockdown procedures in general.
You want to brief your parking lot team. And I got to tell you, we recently brought our parking lot team into this safety ministry because we figure they were going to be the first persons to see something go down. So, we might as well bring them into the ministry and make it a little more formal. You want to brief that parking lot team and have them watch for vehicles staging near doors, circling vehicles, and any diversionary smoke or small fires they might start.
You want to refresh your communications about sheltering in place, lockdowns, medical and evacuations. You want to test your radios and any backups you might have. You want to coordinate with local police department like I talked about earlier.
Now, you can do some very light hardening that's not a big deal. You want to verify exterior lighting. Lock your utility rooms. Remove fuel cans from sheds. A lot of you have a shed with your lawn mower and all that in it. Those are easy to break into. Get the gas and all that other stuff out of there. You want to make sure you have fire extinguishers near the main entrances. And then most places have a NOX box. A Nox box is a little box that goes above the door that has a key to the church for the fire department. You just want to make sure all that information is current.
You want to make sure you have medical readiness. You want to stage your trauma kits and your AED at known posts so that when you say grab the trauma kit, everybody knows where to go and go grab it. And if you have a pre-stage casualty collection point, you want to go ahead and restate that and just reassure everybody that that's where the point is.
If you don't have a security team and it's just you. I have been there. I've been at a church where it's just me. And that's fine. I made sure I was armed. I made sure I was trained. I set myself in a place that if somebody came to attack, I was in a position to stop them immediately. I probably would have got shot. That's okay. I know the Lord's going to take care of me. But I would rather it be me than somebody in the congregation. I do hear occasionally from church security team members, "Well, what good am I if I get shot first?" Fine. Shoot me first. Now I know where I'm supposed to find the bad guy, right? Better me than some kid or somebody's wife or somebody else down the road. I know God will take care of me. So, if you're by yourself, just have a plan. Find somebody in the congregation to give you a hand if something goes down and just have emergency plans in place.
You do want to talk to your pastor and your elders about setting up a formal safety ministry. Question I get all the time is, I I'm in a small village, a small town, I'm in a rural area. Do I need a safety ministry? Yes, you should have a formal safety ministry just like a worship ministry that deals with the safety of the congregation and what you're going to do if something happens. Everywhere needs to have this issue.
If you're a pastor or an elder watching this, you need to make sure that you have a safety team and you need to make sure you treat them just like the worship team or the greeters or anybody else. They're doing an important job and they're putting their life on the line for all the people in the congregation and we should make sure that they're supported.
The last thing, don't turn your church into a bunker. I just told you a bunch of horrible stuff. The last thing you're going to do is do a knee-jerk reaction and go start doing bag checks, a metal detector, and AR-15s out front. We don't do that. I saw a pastor on Sunday in the United States doing his sermon with an AR-15 slung. Come on, man. Just stop.
All right. Obviously, you can see I'm I'm a gun guy. Okay? You don't see me doing that. I train with my pistol. I have an AR ready if I need it. And I do everything I can to make sure people are welcoming at my church. I'm an enhanced greeter. I put a smile on my face. I welcome them. And I want them to go like a year later, "Oh, he's he's a security guy." That's what I want them to do. And you want the same thing, too.
That's all I got for now. I want you to pray for our churches. I want you to pray that people don't have a knee-jerk reaction. That they keep their churches open. They keep them welcoming. If after Charlie Kirk's assassination, there's a lot of people coming to Christ, and we don't want to put a barrier between them and coming to church. Make sure you're welcoming for them and take care of them.
All right, that's all I got for now. Remember your ABCs.