I ran into the children's building of my church "LOCK THE DOORS! Tell the children to lay on the floor! A man has a gun!!" Then my heart sank to the floor as I thought "this entire wall is made out of glass, what am I going to do if he shoots the glass???"
This is a real-life story that happened to me 12 years ago… But let me start at the beginning...
My entire life, my plan was to get my Florida concealed carry permit the day I turned 21 because I just thought it was really cool. As that day drew near, I realized I might have a problem. My wife was angry and scared at the idea of having a gun in the house around our kids.
Plus I was afraid that if I had a gun I would lose control and do something stupid that would land me in prison for the rest of my life.
So I put it off...
Then early one July Sunday morning, I was sitting at the back of our church when I noticed a man walking in wearing a long, black leather trench coat. Now, I shouldn't have to tell you that a thick trench coat in the middle of July in Florida makes no sense at all.
So, this naturally raised some red flags for me. I watched the man as he walked down the row checking to see if the side doors were locked. Then he walked up to an emergency exit, which was clearly labeled "alarms will sound," and pushed it open. The alarms went off, and all the people were looking around, confused at what was happening.
One week earlier, a man had walked into a church service in Georgia and shot the pastor right in the chest, killing him instantly.
Just imagine, I had been watching this on TV for the last week, and now it was happening at my church.
As I was sitting in service, a staff member slapped me on the shoulder and said, "Ryan, we think that guy is an active shooter. Go to the children's building, tell them what's happening, and secure the building.”
I jumped up, ran next door, and began locking all the doors and placing volunteers to guard each door. I decided that I would guard the main entrance, which was completely made of glass.
As I was standing next to the glass wall, I thought to myself, “What am I going to do if this guy shoots through the glass?”
At that moment, I realized I had made a very stupid and critical mistake. The wolf was at the door, and I was a sheep:
It was at this exact moment that I finally realized what I needed to do…
It's been 12 years since a man walked into my church with a gun and today I have overcome my fear of making a mistake with a firearm, I have developed a deep understanding of Florida Concealed Carry Law and I carry my firearm 100% of the time I am legally allowed to…
And now I am on a mission to help people just like you develop the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary to defend themselves and their families from a violent attack…