Florida Bill Would Allow Armed Volunteers Defend Churches, And Not Just Licensed Security

If passed, this could protect countless churches for whom armed security is unaffordable

Wes Walker February 23, 2026
0 73 2 minutes read

It’s important that we adapt our responses to changes in the threats we face. As we see armed psychopaths picking out soft targets for mass murder, including places of worship, citizens need to adapt to protect themselves against such threats.

Such people tent to target gun-free zones where the threat to themselves is less, and/or they have greater chance of creating massive levels of gruesome chaos before someone can end the killing spree. Think ‘Sutherland Springs’, where one guy with a gun killed 26 people in a Sunday service, wounding 20 others from 5 to 72yo before fleeing the scene and getting stopped on the highway by a good guy with a gun while fleeing the scene.

If that hero, or several like him, had been part of that Sunday service, he might have been stopped before he ever walked in the door. He would not have had time to casually walk the aisles taking pot-shots at unarmed men, women, and children dressed up in their Sunday Best.

The rhetoric against Christianity, has ramped up to open violence, especially as noted in recurring manifestos of rage-against-the-world types. There is no shortage of churches or Christian schools attached to them that have become crime scenes. The public assassination of Charlie Kirk made clear to many that this threat isn’t just ‘out there somewhere’. It could happen anywhere. But for many small congregations, struggling to get by, the expense of hiring armed security is prohibitive. The more times in a week the doors are open, the more expensive it would be to protect.

Florida lawmakers are looking to change that math, and make it easier for Joe Citizen to help keep such places safe the very same way they would defend their own homes.

Senate Bill 52, which unanimously passed the chamber earlier this month, would authorize houses of worship to use armed volunteers instead of hiring licensed security guards, which supporters say would help cut costs while still keeping people safe.

“It’s now common for synagogues, churches and mosques to have armed security,” state Sen. Don Gaetz, who sponsored this measure, said to FOX 13. “Often using paid professional licensed security personnel.”
[…] If House lawmakers approve the legislation, it would then go to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The changes would take effect in July if the governor signs the bill into law. — FoxNews

ClashDaily has been suggesting exactly this sort of a remedy to the threat for years. We have similar thoughts about the protection of schools. It need not be a teacher. It might be a vice-principal, janitor, secretary, or even a school nurse who has a CCW or at least a secure weapons locker for when a threat shows up and help is some ten minutes away.