Sounds like a good plan. It make seem “over the top” until it’s needed. Better to have it and not need it...
I condemn Illinois, because a citizen isn’t allowed to carry a gun - only criminals.
But in this case I don’t know what better security could have done - he started squeezing off shots and the gun jammed. You’d be in condition yellow, see this guy going up, go to condition orange, then when he started shooting you’d be lucky if you could draw, rush and take a bead before it was over.
An earlier post mentioned that even protecting the president is difficult under such circumstances, I agree. However, I wonder how the whole thing would’ve played out if the pastor was visibly flanked by friendlies - even from a distance.