Traditional security measures, like metal detectors or pat-downs, might compromise that sense of sanctuary, Baker said. So he proposed other, subtler methods. He suggested that churches organize undercover security teams -- and recommended that some members come armed with concealed weapons.
If violence breaks out at church, it could take minutes for even the fastest police and rescue crews to respond, Baker said, "and there's a whole lot of bad that can happen in two to three minutes."
Baker, like other security consultants, said churchgoers need to fight back instead of hiding if they're being attacked, as many students have been coached to do in the event of a school shooting. "If I'm going to get beat, I'm going to get beat doing something," Baker said. "I'm not going to get beat doing nothing."
Seminar attendees -- all men except for two women -- nodded as Baker spoke.
One attendee, Al Brown, of Abundant Living Family Church in Rancho Cucamonga, said the pastor at his church at first was reluctant to let parishioners carry firearms into services. But with some persuasion from Brown, the former police chief at UC Irvine, the pastor came around. "He saw what was happening around the country," Brown said.
Brown said he had attended three church security seminars. He said he did so in part because he worried that his church might be victimized because of its support for Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Some of the churches that have been the scenes of recent shootings appear to have been targeted because of their stances on political issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. Last year, a gunman who police said had a "stated hatred of the liberal movement" killed two people during a children's performance at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville because the church advocates for gay rights.
Other shootings have been acts of domestic violence that just happened to occur in a church. That was the case last year when a man shot and killed his estranged wife at St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton, N.J.
Synagogues and black churches, frequent targets of racial vandalism and violence, have long had security measures in place. Even so, some are now boosting their efforts in the wake of several high-profile hate crimes, including this month's shooting at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
"For us, it's an old threat that's just lifting its head again," said Paul Goldenberg, the director of the Secure Community Network, which provides security training to Jewish communities. "We have to do all we can."
No matter the shooter's motivation, churches are easy targets, experts say.
"During a church service, you've got a large number of people in a very confined and close space, and an armed gunman can put a lot of lead down the range in a very short amount of time," said Greg Crane, who owns a security consultant firm called Response Options.
"If the devil comes to visit someday," he asked, "how ready are you going to be?"
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kate.linthicum@latimes.com
