SALT LAKE CITY - Barry Young says he and his partners in Strategos International started their law enforcement consulting business with no thoughts to church security at all, but trends in violence in America created an unexpected demand.
"Although my heart is completely broken over the attack in [Sutherland Springs] Texas, last year we had 246 violent attacks at churches across America," Young said.
Young was in Ogden, Utah on Saturday training churchgoers from Northern Utah and Southern Idaho in church security.
He says the message is pretty straightforward, that congregations need to know how to "look out, get out, and take out." In other word, to be alert to possible dangers, have an evacuation plan, and if absolutely necessary to subdue an attacker.
"What we tell people is very simply this: we don't want to take people out but if it becomes a question between our wives, our sons, and our daughters, we're going to have to stop the threat," Young said.
Young said because of demand after the Saturday training, he'll return to Utah twice and Idaho once in the coming months.
