While perusing the Web for current news stories ....
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| Should Vigilantes Guard Churches? |
... I came across this disturbing little quote from Don Gaetz, a Florida state senator.
"It’s now common for synagogues, churches, and mosques to have armed security. Often using paid professional licensed security personnel."
The state senator, who has sponsored a measure to allow armed volunteers, to replace professionally accredited guards in Florida religious establishments, gave this quote to FOX 13 news.
Now I freely admit that I had to do a double take, and reread it ... I simply couldn't get my head around the need to actually have armed guards in Churches, Synagogues and other places of worship etc. However in the heightened antisemitism brought on by pro-Palestinian protests, I can understand Synagogues requiring extra security (in Europe as well as the USA), but churches seemed unusual to say the least.
However apparently there have always been a small, but regular number of armed attacks on churches and other places of worship across the USA, with examples given such as in August 2025, with a shooting at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota, which left two children dead and around 20 others injured.
Or the September 2025 attack on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Grand Blanc, which killed 5 worshippers. These followed attacks in July 2025 on a Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky that killed 3, and another in Wayne, Michigan with one killed.
However, in fact this list of such attacks shows surprisingly few such incidents occurring each year. But its currently around 3 or 4 per annum on average, with the severity and number of victims varying greatly. However apart from cost concerns (which are considerable for small churches), the proposed Florida measure seems to be disproportionate against the size of the actual threat. Florida doesn't even appear on the list of states where these fatal attacks have occurred, which covers attacks back to the late 1800's.
So this proposed measure appears to be ideological in design as much as cost saving in this most Republican of US states, but the idea of untrained civilians, armed to teeth and itchy trigger fingers against an almost non existent threat seems to be spiked with risks .... what could possibly go wrong!!
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