Placerville Church Packing Heat With Prayers As Gun Range Owner Offers Firearms Training
PLACERVILLE (CBS13) — A Placerville gun range owner is offering training for church leaders to help keep their congregations safe.
Geof Peabody says he's trained more than 500 ministers and church security teams and has seen a dramatic increase in calls over the last few months.
At the Green Valley Community Church, about half of the security team is now packing heat.
Dan Moore is a gun-toting, God-fearing man who is part of a growing trend of faithful with firearms at the church.
"How many of the mass shootings lately have occurred in gun-free zones? All of them. Okay? They know it's a target rich environment," he said.
Peabody aims to make the environment less target rich with concealed carry weapons courses for ministers and church security teams.
"The last class that we just did which was introductory handgun training for church security members, we had nine different churches that were represented with about 25 students who came," he said.
But he's quick to point out that being armed does not mean you necessarily have to shoot. He walked through the interference technique.
"As long as it can keep turning I can keep firing. But as soon as you can grab it all the way around and stop the cylinder from turning, all of a sudden the machinery becomes inoperable and you can put a stop to the execution. You don't need to have a gun," he said.
While nearly half of the church security team armed, Moore admits not everyone in the congregation is on board with it. His hope is that over time, they'll see value in the education where he says parish safety is his only goal.
"The more of us there are, the better the chance of success is," he said.