FBI warns of foreign actors trying to 'sow discord' in the wake of mass shootings

[Beetlegeuse]

FBI warns of foreign actors trying to 'sow discord' in the wake of mass shootings


Houses of worship remain a vulnerable target for attacks and foreign entities could be looking to "sow discord" using the internet, an FBI official warned at a security event with law enforcement officials and faith leaders this week.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, urged faith leaders to have a share information with U.S. authorities and to have a "strategic perspective" in thinking about security.

"You need to be thinking about this for the next six months. You need to be thinking about this for the next year. What are the consequences of going to conflict with Iran and Hezbollah, those actors of interest here," the official said.

"You need to be thinking about that right now," the official said.

The briefing covered a broad range of topics including best practices on how to keep houses of worship safe in an ever-present threat environment.

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I'm going to keep saying this until people hear me and wake up. I am forever hearing knotheads talk about carrying a concealed handgun to church, but if that's all you've got, it ain't enough. Not nearly enough.

Remember what John Steinbeck said about "fair fights"?

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.

A "shooter" by definition is coming after you with a gun. If all your defenders have is handguns, they're at best only equally equipped. And as happened in Sutherland Springs, he might be coming with a semi-auto rifle and body armor. In which case all your congregants bragging about their pea shooters are fucked.

If your church has a duty roster and a schedule for roaming security and all they're armed with is handguns, and if they have no body armor, what they're really there for is to draw fire from the shooter while everybody else tries to sneak out. You're literally doing nothing more than making your security guy a more lucrative target and trading his life for the other congregants.

Your tactics suck and shame on you for it because you could have -- and SHOULD HAVE -- done better. That's worse than derelict, that's criminally stupid.

Work body armor and at least one long gun into your security plan. A long gun lets you meet force with force. And you also have to plan for the worst, because failing to plan is planning to fail. What if he gets past your perimeter security and enters the main congregation? He's got panicking people standing all around him and running for their lives. And he's shooting another one every three seconds. How many people will he kill before you can render him inert from across the auditorium with your stubby little Glock 26?

That's why you need a reliable shooter with a rifle.

If it makes your congregation squeamish to see a man armed with a long gun, hide it in a trombone case. Mount a concealment rack under a pew. Cut a hole in the wall between the studs for a concealed gun rack. Do whatever it takes to make a long gun readily accessible.

The best place for your shooter might be the choir. Because the auditorium usually is laid out so anybody sitting anywhere can see everybody in the choir. Which means everybody in the choir can see everybody in the auditorium. And you can hide full battle rattle under a choir robe. And your guy can have an M4gery lying at his feet and no one except his fellow choir members could see.

But your shooter also needs to retain freedom of movement under any foreseeable condition so he can relocate to an inconspicuous spot and stand unnoticed while he takes an unhurried surgical shot.

If you think you have "a plan" because you've got three retired or off-duty cops in the congregation with their duty sidearm, you don't have a plan at all, you're just whistling past the graveyard. Don't give these sons of bitches a fair fight.


And oh by the way, if you've got pacifists in your congregation objecting to an "offensive" security plan because the 6th Commandment says, "Thou shall not kill," point out that there is no blanket proscription against killing anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. Which means their English translation of the Hebrew Bible is incorrect, so they should go buy a proper one and ditch the pacifist nonsense.