Church Security Training: Decision Decks Help You Think Through a Crisis Before It Happens

Here’s a simple way to prepare your mindset for the unexpected!

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

Whether personal self-defense or serving on your church security team, anticipating potential threats is a crucial skill we must hone as rigorously as we sharpen our defensive shooting accuracy in the time we spend at the range.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Chart: The Spectrum of Potential Threat Personas in Self-Defense and Church Security ]

One way to accomplish this is with Decision Decks, five packs of cards—60 scenario cards per pack—to enhance situational awareness problem solving and decision making abilities, created by Simon Osamoh, founder and president of Kingswood Security Consulting and the Worship Security Academy, and former head of counter-terrorism at Mall of America, Minnesota, where he oversaw the internationally-recognized behavior threat assessment team.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Interview with Simon Osamoh of Kingswood Security Consulting ]

You already know about the benefits of dry-fire training in the comfort of your home; in the same manner, Decision Decks are pre-crisis mental workouts you can contemplate anywhere to sharpen your readiness.

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Senior US District Judge Rules California’s Ban on AR-15s to Be Unconstitutional

California’s ban on AR-15s and other so-called “assault weapons” violates the Second Amendment.

Senior United States District Court Judge Roger Benitez declared Oct. 19, 2023 that California’s law making it a crime to acquire and possess many common modern semi-automatic firearms violates the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, saying the state’s “’assault weapon’ prohibition has no historical pedigree and it is extreme.”

Here are excerpts from his astute and comprehensible 79-page ruling:

“The State says criminals already have and favor using guns described as ‘assault weapons.’ Rather than being outgunned, many citizens want these same firearms as a defense against criminal attacks. Americans today own 24.4 million modern rifles (i.e., AR-15 platform and AK-47 platform rifles), according to the State’s expert. Of the AR-15 rifle owners surveyed, 61% said one reason they acquired their gun is for home defense. Consequently, while criminals already have these modern semiautomatics, the State prohibits its citizens from buying and possessing the same guns for self-defense. At the same time these firearms are commonly possessed by law-abiding gun owners elsewhere across the country.”

“Guns for self-defense are needed a lot because crime happens a lot. A recent large-scale survey estimates that guns are needed defensively approximately 1,670,000 times a year. Another report, originally commissioned and long cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there are between 500,000 and 3,000,000 defensive gun uses in the United States each year. That is a lot of situations where Jane Doe needs a firearm to defend herself and her family. Trial testimony from hoodlums is not needed to prove that a homeowner brandishing an AR-15 can be a strong deterrent to criminal attackers. But when brandishing does not stop an attack, Jane needs an effective defense. That is where an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle can come to the rescue.”

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September Marked the 50th Straight Month – 4 Years – of Firearm Sales Over 1 Million

September marked the 50th continuous month on record in which USA gun sales in the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS) exceeded 1 million firearms, according to estimates by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).

[ Read the SemperVerus article, 20 Reasons to Concealed Carry a Defensive Firearm ]

The NSSF’s estimate is only a minimum, since it doesn’t factor in sales of multiple firearms during a single transaction and it doesn’t include sales in the 25 states that don’t require background checks for people who have qualified and been issued concealed carry permits.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, 12 Reasons to Responsibly Carry a Defensive Gun Every Day ]

Results from a Rutgers University New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center study, released in late June, indicate the number of Americans who own guns could be as high as 60% of the USA adult population (155,531,710 people).

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Concealed Carry Daily Prayer ]

An analysis by the Crime Prevention Research Center identified a total of 440 active shooter incidents during the years of 2014–2022 and found that a responsibly armed citizen stopped at least 157 of them, which is 35.7% of all incidents; in 2022 alone, it was at least 41.3%.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Nebraska Is Now the 27th USA State That Allows Permitless Carrying of Concealed Firearms ]

The above data support Wake Forest University sociology professor David Yamane’s conclusion that “guns are normal and normal people use guns.”

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of Self-Defense ]

Invite SemperVerus® to present its 5 life-changing success-generating components—prepare, aware, be, know, do—to your organization to inspire and motivate your members.

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Chart: The Spectrum of Potential Threat Personas in Self-Defense and Church Security

[ Read articles in the SemperVerus category of Church Security ]

Among the ways of being prepared for unexpected self-defense or church security situations is to intentionally engage your mind to think about possible dangerous scenarios you could encounter and the ways in which you’d respond to them.

[ Read articles in the SemperVerus category of Situational Awareness ]

To help you conduct these mental exercises in a “gaming” fashion, SemperVerus has created the chart below listing at least 36 character personas that could be motivating factors in threatening crises. They represent the spectrum from seemingly minor incidents to major violent acts perpetrated by either males or females: from a “lone wolf” (a single bad actor) to a “wolf pack” (a gang with malevolent intentions); from rational to irrational behavior; from opportunistic to premeditated; from vandalism to synchronized active killers.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Gentle Response De-Escalation Training for Church Security Teams ]

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Components of a Strong Mindset for the Legally Armed Citizen ]

Regularly think through each persona and plan for your own actions in meeting them head-on. For example, what would be your first move if a lone and crazed person accosted you on the street? What would you do if, during your volunteer shift on church security, a coordinated attack of active killers (high on the synthetic stimulant Captagon like these terrorists) simultaneously entered your church through two wings of the building? Plan now to be prepared!

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Concealed Carry Daily Prayer ]

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