Heroes and Habits: Lessons From Real World Armed Self-Defense Situations

Who ever dreamed that a church safety conference would leave participants feeling emotionally spent? The first-ever Bulletproof House of Worship Safety Conference organized featuring Lt. Col. David Grossman took place in late April in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Well over 400 attended, drinking from a firehose of information and experiences from multiple outstanding speakers.

By the end of the three days of presentations, attendees walked away emotionally spent from first-person accounts of tragedies, balanced in part with first-person accounts of exceptional gallantry. As an added bonus, everyone left awash with life-saving information and contacts.

Looking back on my notes and talking with other Guns Save Life members who attended, we all agree on the superlative nature of the three-day training experience. I can’t recommend it enough.

I’ve probably attended upwards of forty or fifty training seminars and schools over the years, learning everything from practical techniques to mindset and tactics. This was among the top three ranking right up there with Massad Ayoob’s Lethal Force Institute (yeah, I’m dating myself… it’s known as “MAG” now I believe) and the Polite Society conferences organized by Tom Givens. High praise from a training veteran.

Among the many speakers were some folks who shared first-person accounts or their investigation of incidents. Obviously, they dissected them to pull out the valuable lessons – both good and bad – that we can learn from.

Carl Chinn, New Life Church Shooting

Carl Chinn from the New Life Church in Colorado spoke first. He offered various statistics showing that violent incidents at churches are growing. More lives are lost to violence in churches and church functions than in schools.

He then gave his first-person account of the December, 2007 murder spree that took place at his church. In short, they had a good safety team, but by the end of the second Sunday service, many of the team members had left early. Four remained when a rifle-wielding madman threw smoke grenades on one side of the church as a distraction. He then drove to the other parking lot on the opposite side of the massive complex and opened fire on people leaving with their families.

Tragically he killed two and wounded several more even before he entered the building.

In terms of security, they weren’t prepared. Two of the four on the security team left their guns in their cars. Chinn himself carried a KelTec .32 ACP. “It’s a great gun for small snakes or really big spiders,” he joked. For lunatics killing people with an AR? Not so much.

They got word that it really was gunfire and Chinn left his post watching over the pastor and his family to help the others on the team and protect those parishioners remaining. He saw the killer at the end of the hall. The killer saw Chinn and popped off a couple of rounds at him.

Chinn retreated and decided he would make his stand using a support pillar as cover. He prepared to engage with his spider gun before the killer could make it into the sanctuary where hundreds remained.

Meanwhile Jeanne Assam, a recent church member and new volunteer working just her third weekend on the security team, engaged the killer from a side door along the hallway. In an exchange of fire with the killer, she ended the attack with her Beretta 92. She fired a number of rounds, scoring multiple hits including to the killer’s femoral and carotid arteries. If Jeanne and Carl had failed to stop the killer, he would have had free rein in the sanctuary full of 700 or so to slaughter as many as possible (and he carried a lot of ammo with him).

Since then Chinn has launched the Faith Based Security Network to provide resources, training, and intelligence for church security people nationwide and beyond.

Chinn closed his presentation with this: “The evildoer can take your life. He can’t take your eternity.”

During a break I asked if he still carried that .32 ACP. He laughed. “Not as my primary, no. I carry a nine now.” Good to see he’s learned.

Greg Stevens: Grandfather, old man, cop

A guy who genuinely loved his job and the people he served, Greg worked 40 years, 3 months and 6 days before he retired as a Garland, Texas cop. America needs more people like Greg Stevens, who stopped the first ISIS attack on American soil in May 2015. By himself. With his GLOCK pistol and a single magazine of ammo. Against a pair of armor-clad, AK-toting jihadists.

On that fateful day, Stevens worked security at a service entrance to a public facility hosting a “Draw the Prophet Mohammed” event. Police half expected there might be trouble given the nature of the event. Organizers hired a bunch of off-duty cops to work that day and the local department also brought in extra people. Everyone there that day was kitted up with armor plates and AR-15 rifles. Except Greg. “I wasn’t AR-certified,” he chuckled.

So he parked under a tree for shade at the end of the service drive. His job: keep cars from entering the drive. He worked there along with an unarmed security guard.

A four-door sedan rolled just past the entrance and stopped, he told us. It had tinted windows. They just sat there.

When the occupants didn’t roll down a window to ask directions or do anything, Sargent said the hair on his neck began to stand up. “Something’s not right.” He listened to his intuition and paid close attention to the vehicle and its occupants.

As the unarmed security guy began to approach the car, the passenger door opened half-way. Mr. Security squealed and ran for the border like his hair was on fire. When Greg looked back at the car, he saw a boot-clad foot on the pavement and the muzzle of an AK. “I knew it was on when I saw that muzzle.”

Stevens had drawn his GLOCK .45 caliber sidearm and used his squad for concealment. The passenger emerged, clad in body armor, with that rifle, maybe 30 to 40 feet from Greg. The Garland cop engaged with that .45 GLOCK and after a brief exchange of fire, he put down the passenger.

“I don’t even remember drawing my gun, but we know who shot the best,” Stevens remarked with a wicked grin.

Meanwhile, the driver, similarly kitted out in armor and carrying a rifle, began blasting away at Stevens. He then turned his attention to him and shot him down as well.

Looking back at the passenger, Stevens said he saw the guy squirming around and reaching for his throat. Their intelligence suggested that suicide vests were a potential threat. “So I finished him off before he could blow us up.”

Stevens then noticed the driver trying to prop himself up. Knowing he had two or three rounds left, Stevens ended the threat of a suicide bomb detonation with some anchor shots on the driver. At that point, he reloaded and began to advance on the car to check for additional threats.

The SWAT team and everyone else on the scene came then rolled up to rescue Stevens. However, the excitement was over and the threats had been neutralized, thanks to the only guy who didn’t have a long gun that day. Stevens didn’t initially see or hear them due to the adrenaline dump and the noise of the gunfire in both directions. Eventually they got his attention, pulled him back, and took it from there.

What makes Greg Stevens, a guy who had 37 years on the department at that time, special?

“Towards the end of my career, I let the young kids fight with suspects, but I took every last opportunity the department gave us to practice with my pistol.” Every time the department would make ammo available to practice on their own time, Greg signed took advantage of it. Every time they opened the range for training or practice, Greg said he made it a point to be there. Every class the department offered, he attended. He took advantage of all of those opportunities.

Stevens didn’t rise to the occasion that day as some think they will do in a critical moment. He defaulted to his training which was very good and comprehensive. Years of classes, practice, and dedication to defensive pistolcraft paid off that day. Not many people can say they took out two armor-clad bad guys with rifles using only a sidearm and a single magazine.

Stevens received the Presidential Medal of Valor from President Obama for his courage and superlative work that day. He went on to work another three-plus years before retiring. He loved his job and the people he served that much.

He talked about it in this video.

 

Jack Wilson – A dangerous old man

Jack Wilson was 72 years old the day a lunatic walked into the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. Wearing a trench coat, a woman’s wig, and looking more than a little odd, the church safety team volunteers had their eyes on the odd duck before he even entered the facility.

They made a number of mistakes that day, and have since learned from them, but this is how it went down.

Wilson, owing to his age and years of service, was one of the leaders of the church safety group. They had a number of volunteer members, including one man who placed himself a couple of rows back from Mr. Trenchcoat

Wilson and a couple of other security team members lingered at the rear of the sanctuary in the back behind the man, just in case.

Midway through the service, Mr. Trenchcoat got up, opened his coat and raised a shotgun. The safety team guy two rows behind the shooter rose and started his draw.

Here’s one area of many where things went poorly. On that day, the safety team guy carried a pistol he’d never fired. It had been a gift from his daughter, along with a brand new leather holster. It was brand new. He’d never fired it. He hadn’t practiced with it. But that’s what he carried that day.

The new holster’s leather was stiff and didn’t want to surrender the gun, delaying the draw. The killer, seeing the other man attempting to draw, turned his attention and his muzzle towards the good guy. He killed the safety team member with a blast of buckshot from about 15 yards – 45 feet – away.

Then the killer blasted one of the ushers. The killer then turned and advanced down the aisle towards the pastor at the front.

Jack Wilson had a range in his back yard and he loved to practice shooting his pistols. His favorite drill involved a paper plate stapled to a backer board at 15 yards. For the drill, he would use his timer and draw and shoot a single round at that paper plate, from concealment, in under two seconds. He did that a lot…like hundreds of times each and every month for fifteen plus years. “I just loved the drill.”

That Sunday morning, as the sanctuary descended into pandemonium, Wilson drew his pistol after seeing his friend on the safety team dropped by a shotgun blast to the chest. He no doubt saw the second shot from the killer as he brought his gun up to engage. Everything was probably moving in super-slow motion.

Wilson aimed, took up the slack on the trigger, and fired on the killer who was walking toward the front of the worship hall. When his shot broke, the bad guy was 46 feet away. Sound familiar?

Wilson drilled the killer in the head…through his ear hole. That’s John Wick stuff right there, only in real life. And that single shot ended the horrific incident.

Here’s the video:

Wilson didn’t rise to the occasion. He defaulted to his training, practice and muscle memory.

He talked about the importance of training, practice and preparedness in a Turning Point USA video.

Those are the primary lessons here. You’re not going to rise to the occasion. You’ll default to whatever training you’ve had, so seek out good training. Practice with your gear. Practice not until you get it right, but practice until you can’t get it wrong.

In my state – Illinois – we’re required to shoot 30 rounds to re-qualify for carry permits every five years. As an instructor, I’m astounded by the sizeable percentage of people who haven’t fired a round since their last qualification, roughly five years earlier. Most of them haven’t even changed the ammo in their guns.

No doubt those sorts of folks hope they will rise to the occasion if they ever need their gun to defend themselves or a family member. I hope it goes well for them, but hope is a poor strategy. Hope has no survival value.

For those interested in attending the next Bulletproof House of Worship Seminar, it will be held in Roswell, New Mexico on September 18-20, 2025.  Lt. Col. Dave Grossman told me a few weeks back that they will offer one of these in each time zone across America next year as well.  So if you don’t want to go to America’s UFO City in September because of distance, sit tight.  They’ll have dates and locations for next year soon.