A college campus, nightclub, a country concert, and now a small town church. Mass shootings happen everywhere, but central Arkansas pastors are working with sheriff's deputies to make sure it doesn't happen here.
Lonoke County Sheriff’s deputy and gun store owner Nathan House claimed there’s no safe place anymore.
“We live in a fallen world where evil is very present and we have to take steps to try to save as many lives as we possibly can and limit the number of people that can be victimized by these mass shooters,” he said.
House said he’s seeing a rise in interest in active shooter response training.
“We've had several churches reach out to us that are interested in the training,” he said.
House said the department's craze training, avoid/deny/defend, doesn't prevent but it does prepare.
“It may be a shooter this time, it may be a truck the next time, we don't know," he said. "We've not found any good way yet to stop an active shooter event, but what we can do is limit the impact these people have whenever it does happen."
Scott Harness, Senior Pastor of That Church in Cabot, said security is not just an option anymore, it's essential for our churches. He brought in deputy House to train his security team and others, including New Life and H2O Church.
“We don't just want our place to be safe, we want it to be safe wherever you worship. We're seeing churches come together and we're starting to collectively put our knowledge together,” he stated.
He said it's the leaders of the church's job to keep their people safe.
“We can't do everything but we do need to do what we can do to make sure people are as safe as they possibly can be, especially here under our care,” he said.
The active shooter response training is free if you'd like more information on the training, you can contact deputy House at the armory in Sherwood at 501-835-4867.