With the recent gun violence that has taken place in churches across the country Top Guns owner, Steve Ellis felt it was his duty to help out his community.
Today members from 24 churches around The Valley traded in their bibles for the day in exchange for fire arms.
43 people gathered at Top Guns in Terre Haute for a lesson in gun safety and how to treat an active shooter situation in a church.
“It always pains me to see that the fire arms industry makes money off of tragedy, and that is not what any of us want,” said Ellis.
Top Guns held a free training where experts volunteered to come in and help churches learn how to recognize and combat an active shooter.
“Part of it is situational awareness, threat assessment, be a good whiteness, knowing what to look for and what to watch out for so that you can get that information and communicate to other members of the team,” said Ellis.
Zach Cochran is a church member that jumped at the opportunity for the training course.
“It is true there is only one thing that can possibly stop a bad guy with a gun, that’s a good guy with a gun. I think that if they know that there are some kind of security measures in line already, I think it makes everybody feel a little better,” said Cochran.
With the training being limited to one day, Ellis didn’t anticipate turning people into experts. But he says if they are able to make even a small difference that is all that matters.
“We may not be able to catch every scenario but man, if we can catch some of these, boy that would be a great thing to be able to prevent the next incident from taking place,” says Ellis.
With all of the reports of hate that has flooded the media it can be easy to feel paranoid.
But Ellis says that is no way to live, “don’t go through life being scared. But do go through life being prepared.”
Officials say that it isn’t just church members that should be prepared. They say everyone should be trained on how to be a good witness so that way they can look out for specific descriptions to tell police.
