MISSOULA – President Donald Trump’s statement in the wake of the deadly weekend shootings at a Pittsburgh Synagogue stirred quite the discussion about protecting churches, schools and every other place that people can gather.
We wanted to ask what a pastor thought about this idea of arming his place of worship. MTN News reached out to Matt Lang – a pastor at Christian Assembly Four Square Church in Missoula to hear his thoughts on whether or not having guns present in a church would prevent a mass shooting.
“Short of just frisking people at the door or having metal detectors in your church, I don’t think there’s any way to stop that — unless it’s just really open really blatant,” Pastor Lane said.
“It would have to be the right situation where somebody spots it first and security takes care of that issue or that problem or that invader. But at the same time with people concealing weapons, there’s just no way to tell,” he added.
Pastor Lang says he falls in the middle of this idea and acknowledges the pros and cons of armed guards in a place of worship. He also stressed being a part of any form of community means compromising and looking out for one another.
“We’ve seen many many many times things like this actually bring people together and bring communities together. And It’s not saying that it’s ever good that a shooting would happen to bring a community together,” Pastor Lang told MTN News.
“But I think because of people strong faith and they’re genuine love for each other and the love for their community that people will come together and really form a bond that says you know we’re going to get through this together,” he concluded.
Pastor Lang added that he has thought about the potential threats of any type of violence in his church and told MTN News that fear has heightened in the wake of the latest mass shooting.
