White Settlement shook a lot of people. It wasn’t that the killer was put down in near-record time. No, that’s a point of comfort for millions of people; the idea that a good guy with a gun can end a threat that quickly helps a lot of us sleep better at night. What bothers people, though, is that it’s yet another example of a house of worship being targeted by a maniac.

Frankly, that’s never going to sit well with most folks regardless of your political persuasion.

Luckily, White Settlement also showed us how to deal with these shootings. It gave us a path. Now, one Ohio sheriff is offering something that will help churches follow that blueprint.

In light of the recent shooting at a church in Texas, Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones announced his office is offering free CCW classes to churches “that have or are implementing security teams.”

“Unfortunately, in these days and times, no place is immune from mass shootings and we want our citizens to go to church without worry and fear feeling safe and secure to worship with their families and fellow church members,” Sheriff Jones said.

Good on Sheriff Jones.

The truth of the matter is that good guys with guns are the most effective response possible to deal with a potential mass shooter. Gun control laws don’t cut it. Otherwise, the Chabad of Poway synagogue shooting would never have happened thanks to California’s strict gun control policies. It did, though, which means that gun control laws aren’t going to stop these kinds of attacks.

What will, however, is the appropriate use of a firearm, thus ending the threat.

Sheriff Jones clearly recognizes that and is doing what he can to help places of worship stand up their own volunteer security forces to they, too, can be safe.

Look, no one wants for churches to need this kind of thing. No one is proud of the necessity of this kind of thing.

However, we don’t get to pick what threats we’ll face in life. If we did, we’d pick something else. We don’t, though, which means we need to be prepared for anything. That means being prepared for a potential church shooting. Training people to meet that threat is, ultimately, the best thing he could do to keep people in his community safe.

While there will likely be some churches who will decline to take him up on his offer. That’s out of his hands, though if that’s your church, I advise you to press your pastor on it and try to change his mind.

You don’t get to pick if or when a bad guy will come for you. That’s beyond your determination. What you can do, however, is be prepared to meet that threat with superior equipment, training, and mindset so that should that day come, you’re the one looking down on the corpse, rather than being the one looking up.

It looks like at least one sheriff will help you out on that front. Take him up on it.