Practical Eschatology: Gunman Walked Into LDS Church

Friday, July 24, 2026

Gunman Walked Into LDS Church

The three videos below all pertain to an incident where a man, dressed all in black, walked into an LDS church somewhere in Utah with a revolver (unloaded as it turned out) and sat down in the foyer. The building was evacuated and police arrived and arrested the man without incident. If you just want the bare bones facts, I would recommend skipping the first two videos and go straight to the third video.

The first video is the host of the "Send Me" YouTube channel interviewing someone that was attending church when the incident occurred, and describes what happened.

The second video is a follow-up to the first video, with the host of the "Send Me" channel explaining why he did not provide information as to the location where this incident occurred and why there weren't any news reports.

The third video, from the Christian Warrior channel, provides commentary and analysis from someone who has helped train church security teams, albeit for other churches and not the LDS church; and, in fact, he is not affiliated with the LDS church.

As far as I can tell from my own interactions with other members, as well as comments I've read or heard, the Church's policy prohibiting the carrying of concealed carry weapons (unless a current LEO) seems to be largely ignored by those who regularly carry firearms. Individual bishops can try and organize a security team, but it would necessarily need to be current law enforcement officers per the policy. Not all congregations ("wards") have active LEOs; and some law enforcement organizations prohibit their officers or agents from participating in such teams. So, essentially you are on your own until police arrive, which is what the Church's active shooter training film basically tells you.

I understand why the Church has done this even if I disagree with the policy: many of the Church policies are driven by its risk management and legal departments. In this case, the Church faces less legal exposure by leaving the flock defenseless than if it permitted members to be armed or allowed security teams to be formed.

But even if the Church did authorize teams, there are some practical considerations that would make it difficult to secure the buildings from someone getting in: that there is no single "main entrance". The typical LDS church building in the United States will have two "main" entrances on either side of the chapel and one or more "main" entrances at the rear of the building; and larger buildings will have additional entrances. For instance, up until recently I attended church at a building that had 8 entrances. Not all of these will be unlocked for activities during the week, but all will be unlocked on Sundays.

In addition to the aforementioned entrances, there will be one or more additional outside doors that will typically be locked--generally an outside door to the kitchen and possibly additional access or emergency exit doors depending on the design and layout of the building and code requirements.

These design considerations are because, on Sunday, there will typically be two or more wards (i.e., congregations) meeting in the same building plus people coming and going to other meetings for specific organizations (e.g., choir) or that have appointments with leaders. In short, the buildings are not designed for security; they are designed for easy ingress and egress.