Sheriff Mack Gives Thoughts on LDS Shooting Gun-Free Zones

➡ A man disrupted a church service, criticizing and insulting the church and its members. The speaker, a member of the church, intervened and escorted the man out. He criticizes the church’s policy against carrying guns, arguing that members should be allowed to carry concealed weapons for their own safety. He plans to continue bringing his gun to church despite the policy.
➡ People are often told that owning guns is bad due to the risk of hate crimes, but many shootings happen in cities across the U.S. every day. Some studies suggest that having a weapon can prevent many of these incidents, but this isn’t widely discussed. It’s important for individuals, especially men, to stand up for their right to protect themselves and others. The speaker believes that places like schools, which are often gun-free zones, are more likely to be targeted.

What happened Sunday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, I say Grand Blanc, just outside of Detroit, really had a huge impact on me. I belong to that church. A lot of you know that I do. I don’t try to make that a big thing. But I don’t try to push my religion on any view or on the position I hold with CSPOA. I never have. Will I mention that I went to church Sunday or something? Okay, I might do that. But I don’t get up here and quote scriptures and teach Sunday’s coalescence.

That really hit me, primarily because just 15 months ago, last summer, two men infiltrated and invaded our church service right here in Gilbert, just a mile to the west and a little bit to the north. And it was during church service. And the bishop wasn’t there that day. One of his counselors, a real young guy, was and one of the guys that came into the church looked like a Mormon missionary. Very well kept white shirt, tie. And the other guy that came in with him was in put-offs and a tank top.

Yeah, so it looked strange. I told my wife, I said, I want to sit by those guys, something’s up. And the guys never caught my eye. I was going to wave them over and come have them sit by us. But I kept my eye on them. And finally, one of them stood up, the one that looked like a missionary, stood up and said, can I have a turn to speak? And nobody said anything. And I guess the guy in charge just nodded. And so the guy walked up to the podium. Now he’s taken over the entire meeting.

He’s at the podium. He really started badmouthing our church and really cussing Joseph Smith and telling everybody, we were totally lied to and everybody’s a liar in our church and blah, blah, blah. And so nobody was doing anything. And so I turned to my wife and I said, I’m going up there. This has gone on long enough. And he had a big backpack on. And this is the same at UVU. There were no security checkpoints. And Sam’s nephew who was at the event was wearing a big backpack. And no one ever checked his backpack.

No one ever checked anybody. So these five or six police officers there didn’t do anything. I put my arm around the guy and said, hey, I was very friendly. I wasn’t trying to start a fight. I didn’t want to start a fight. I wanted to talk him out of the church. And so I didn’t want to make it any worse than I already was. And so, but I put my arm around him and I’m filling the backpack. And I couldn’t really tell if there was a gun in there or not. He could have had one.

It felt like books and something else hard, but I couldn’t tell if anything was a gun. And so anyway, he was still being nice, but still being very rude and accusatory about our church and demeaning our church. He was never yelling, except then I moved. I said, hey, this meeting is over and your turn is over and you need to leave our church now, or you’re going to be arrested for trespass. Once I’ve informed him that he was not welcome there and that if he didn’t leave, that’s trespass. Him coming in was not trespass, even though he intended to stay illegally.

So anyway, I made sure that that happened. And then I asked one of the other brothers there to call the police for some drive by. And the guys left and they were escorted out by two brothers. And then I talked to the church, to the congregation after that for a few minutes and told them, I said, look, I believe everything’s fine. And let’s get to our next meeting. So we had Sunday school after that. But folks, this is what really bothers me. And I am criticizing my church. And if they want to kick me out of my church, they can.

I’ve said this to my leaders here locally, that the church put out a policy about wearing or carrying guns to church. And it was completely from the extremist liberal left. Oh, church is a place for worship and peace and safety. And so what are they saying that for? Because a citizen with a gun helps guarantee that. And obviously, we would not want anyone to open carry in a church. Just conceal it. And no one needs to know that you have it. And I’ve taken my gun, since that policy, to church many times.

I didn’t have it with me on my person that day. It was out in the car. And I told my wife afterwards, I said, I should have asked you to go get the gun. So you would have had it handy. I didn’t think of that right then. And that was on me. That was my bad. However, our church says only current, full-time law enforcement and bring a gun to church. That means I’m disallowed. It’s illegal for me to do it. Or anyone with a concealed carry permit who’s had to go through all the training and all the licensing and everything else to carry concealed, which I am against.

I don’t agree with the state having that kind of authority. But when the church came out and said, used dogma from the gun control network worldwide and in America, I was very much offended. I told my church leaders that I was offended by it. And I told my church, at least one or two of them, that I will bring a gun to church anytime I damn well please. And that is the language I used. And I guarantee you that I will be doing it more often now. And in fact, I will do it every Sunday.

And I’m going to tell. I’m not going to lie about it. I’m not going to cheat about it. I’m going to tell my local leaders here that I am. No one will ever see it. No one will ever know I am. But I want others too. Not just me. I don’t get to church, but about 50% of the time because all the traveling I do. I won’t be there this Sunday. I’ll be traveling home that day from Michigan. That’s the work I do. That’s part of the job that I have. And every chance I get, I go to church with my family.

I love going to church with my grandkids. And so, folks, I love my church. But there’s one of our books that talks about, if there are mistakes, there are mistakes of men. And I believe that some of the leaders of our church made a huge mistake on this. And I’m not going to obey that horrible mistake by some of the men who lead our church. Anybody have any questions or comments about any of this? You’re totally free to share it. You want to talk about the church that was burned down and the people that were killed.

If you want to talk about any of these horrible shootings that we’ve had recently, the one in North Carolina, the guy’s on a boat and gets close to a bar and just starts shooting. The guy that shot at the ICE facility supposedly was trying to shoot ICE officers, but only shot and killed illegal immigrants. Was that really a hit within the cartel system itself to get somebody who was going to fill the beans or to whistle blow? I don’t know, but that’s probably not going to be investigated very well either, is it? And so, I am very much concerned about the threat to churches nationwide, not just Mormon Church.

Other Christian churches have been attacked just as much, but there’s been a few churches that have established a security system with former federal and local agents and police. And they’re ready and they’re prepared. And I believe that’s exactly what we should be doing. And I’ve made that recommendation to our church before, and you know where it went? I never got any response, nothing. And so, if I have to do it on my own or if they want me to leave and go to a different church, but I’m not going to make any bones about it, that I will bring a guy anytime I want to the church and inside any church across the country.

So, that’s the way it is. And folks, any of your questions, Jack, if anybody’s already posted something or if you have something else, please feel free. I don’t see a question there, but you know that in that shooting you’re talking about a Michigan, that state, or I’m sorry, the county, Genesee County is attempting to become a second sanctuary, sorry, second amendment sanctuary county. And I don’t know if that’s gone through. They made a lot of noise about it in March, but you know, that’s, somebody could twist that backwards into thinking, you know, that that’s going to lead to more of those types of episodes, when in fact it’s going to prevent them.

And it does everywhere over the United States. We never hear, you know, every time one of these events happen, especially if they’re related to anything that the people that are trying to take away our rights want to latch onto, they’ll tell us it’s a hate crime, and we can’t have this anymore, and we got to get rid of your guns. Well, in the meantime, in every city in the United States, there are hundreds of shootings, and dozens of them every weekend. And if you read the material from John Lott and others, you’ll see that carrying a weapon stops thousands of these things every year.

And we don’t hear one single peep about that. So in this case, you know, this is going to now take a lot of heat, because they want to become something they need to become, because there was a shooting in their church. Those are the kind of things that make you wonder, how does it happen to happen here, of all the counties of Michigan, for example? And so those, this, your idea and what you’re saying is what we all have to do as men. And you know, I know the women can carry as well, but mostly it’s a man’s project.

You have to say, I’m not going to allow you to disarm me. And I’m going to take care of the people that I’m with. And doing what you just said there is exactly what has to be done, whether it’s church or, and it’s the same thing with schools, you know, the more they make schools, nobody with a gun, more likely they are to be shot up. So anyway, thank you for bringing that. [tr:trw].