The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
54% of Protestant Churches Rely in Part on Armed Church Members for Security
Only 20% rely on armed private security personnel, and 5% on uniformed police officers.
So reports a 2022 survey by Lifeway research (and see this summary, released June 6). This was apparently a "stratified random sample, drawn from a list of all Protestant churches," and the results were:
The percentage (54%) is up from 2019 (45%), which appears statistically significant. The breakdowns among subcategories, as to likelihood of selecting armed church members as security, are:
- Male pastors are more likely to select than females (59% v. 36%)
- White pastors (56%) are more likely to select than African American (33%)
- Pastors with no college degree (60%) or a Bachelor's Degree (61%) aremore likely to select than those with a Master's Degree (50%)
- Evangelical pastors are more likely to select than Mainline pastors (65% v.39%)
- Pastors in the South are the most likely to select (65%)
- Baptists (73%), Pentecostals (68%), Christian/Church of Christ (54%), and Non-Denominational (66%) are more likely to select than Lutherans (32%), Methodists (36%), and Presbyterian/Reformed (26%)
- Pastors at churches with attendance 250+ are the most likely to select(74%)
- Pastors at churches with attendance of 100-249 (66%) and 250+ (74%) are more likely to select than those with attendance 0-49 (41%) and 50-99 (53%)
I expect that many of these distinctions are connected to likely political and cultural views, though others may just stem from convenience (e.g., the larger the church, the easier it is to enlist members who are willing and able to help this way). For a couple of examples of whether armed churchgoers did indeed stop an armed criminal, see the Colorado Springs and Spartanburg incidents in this list.
Thanks to Crime Prevention Research Center for the pointer.
