Proposed Law Would Allow Guns in Churches in Arkansas

[Are_grits_groceries]

Little Rock, AR - Should you be able to carry a gun to church? It's a question state lawmakers will be taking up next week when they debate a bill that's kicked up a little controversy. The bill being discussed would let churches decide on their own to post a sign to ban guns inside, but opponents say it should not even be an option.

Grant Exton is a gun owner and president of the state's Concealed Carry Association. He's been working with lawmakers on a bill that would allow people licensed to carry a concealed handgun to take their guns to church. Exton says the proposed law's less about guns and more about property rights.
<snip>
Little Rock pastor John Phillips, now at Central Church of Christ, has first-hand experience with guns in the sanctuary. In 1986, while working at a different church, across town, he was gunned down in the pulpit.

(John Phillips, Little Rock Pastor) "A gentleman came into the church. He was mentally deranged, and at the end of the sermon, pulled out a gun and shouted something about baptism and proceeded to shoot me in the back a couple of times. I still carry one of the bullets embedded in my spine."

Phillips says philosophically, a sanctuary is a place of peace and should be gun free. As for protection, despite what he's been through, he says he feels safer in a church with no guns.
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0109/590527.html

That was one of the Top 10 wasn't it? Thou shalt.................

[Donnachaidh]

1. this is the sort of proposal that makes gun owners look like nutters

I'm sure Little Rock has more pressing needs in this economy than allowing guns in church. Or is this guy one of those nutbags that think's he's going to have to hole up in the church when them *durned liberals* come for his guns? :eyes:

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Praise the Lord and Pass the Amunition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZs61VCJvTg

Sing-A-Long time . . .

[katandmoon]

3. Why should only churches be gun-free sanctuaries?

Gawd, I hate guns and gun-worshippers. They won't be happy until everybody is lying dead on the ground full of bulletholes.

[Kansas Wyatt]

4. If NRA Fundies want to go to church to settle their differences...

I'm okay with that. Then they all can see and experience firsthand how wrong they have been, instead of imposing their will on the rest of the country.

[ferrous wheel]

5. Makes perfect sense. A guy with murder in mind wouldn't dare disobey a "NO GUNS" sign.

:eyes:

[Cid_B]

31. Columbine was a "gun-free" zone...

That sure worked out well...

[cobalt1999]

6. If a group of people is so delusional to believe in an invisible sky daddy...

They definitely don't need to be armed. They are dangerous enough just gathering together in large groups.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. Only 10 minutes for the first one.

[LanternWaste]

7. Good thing I don't go to church in AR...

Good thing I don't go to church in AR... in my own humble little north TX church, I guess we're a bit more meek than that, and don't really hanker to toting around weapons in a house of God.






But before anyone labels me a peace-nick, idealistic, pacifist socialist (I am, but labels are so twentieth century), feel free to carry your own high powered, high caliber, highly dramatic weapon (or weapons-- it may help you feel safer to carry four or five of them) to your own church-- but my church actually does have a specific sign stating "No Guns on Premises".

[ferrous wheel]

8. Virginia Tech had signs like that, too.

...

[LanternWaste]

16. Oh dear. Bless your little heart. You are so clever.

Oh dear. Bless your little heart. You are so clever. Or (insert what you want to hear here).

Your point being?

Because mine point was that guns aren't allowed in my church.

[ferrous wheel]

22. Well, yourn (sic) point fails to address the fact that "disallowing" them

is no guarantee somebody won't one in. I don't know how to simplify it any more.

[LanternWaste]

23. There are no guarantees in life. At all. None.

There are no guarantees in life. At all. None. A heavily armed individual is not guaranteed to live his life without getting shot in the back. A sign on a church is no guarantee either.

That's pretty simple, right? We simply do what we can within the confines of our own morality.

Sheesh.

[liberal N proud]

9. How long before the headline reads...

Parishioner blows-away congregation

[ferrous wheel]

21. Or the headline could be "Parishioner stops massacre before more are killed" lik

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/09/church.shooting/index.html

[Winterblues]

45. Fear Mongering Never helped anyone

Why are you so afraid? Why do you wish to make everyone else as afraid as you? Do you really think Church is a scarey place and everyone should be armed to go there? Is it just that life is so scarey to you that you feel the need to go armed every single place you go? I am sorry you have to live in such fear.. Try remembering that America is supposed to be the "Home of the Brave". Odds are you will get struck by lightning before you will be gunned down in Church..

[Solly Mack]

10. guess the rod and the staff wasn't enough

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Imagine if Jim Jones' church had a 'no guns' policy. nt

[Starry Messenger]

12. .

[aikoaiko]

42. Is that a Berreta? I figured Jesus for a 1911 Springfield if not a Colt.

:shrug:

The image was probably made by someone from the Vatican.

[ThomWV]

43. Not sure what it is but its not a Beretta

[ThomWV]

44. I can carry my pistol into a church in West Virginia, no problem

Unless the church has a sign at the main entrance telling me no guns allowed it is perfectly legal for me to carry my pistol into any church in this state. There are buildings where it can not be carried (schools, courthouses, places like that), but churches are not off limits.

[aikoaiko]

48. It might be the 90-Two, not the 92.

side view


3/4 view

[JVS]

13. Shouldn't this be a decision for the congregation?

[sandnsea]

14. The solution for mentally deranged people is not medical care

so just stop with all that government spending anyway. All we need is guns!

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

17. Massachusetts used to have a similar law.

Then King Philip's War ended.

[flvegan]

18. Sweet semi-automatic Jesus.

[Blue_Tires]

19. that's one big darwin experiment waiting to happen

by all means...if people want to start shooing up their own churches i won't intervene in their religious practices...

[TahitiNut]

20. "Guns! Because Crucifixion Isn't Fast Enough!"

:crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: I suppose 'some people' think Jesus was the last innocent person to receive the death penalty.

[jmg257]

24. Why is there even an issue? Of course you should. If people can get attacked in

churches, which they obviously can, then they should be able to put up an adequate defense.

Does anyone really think a ban would stop a "mentally deranged" individual from bringing a gun there?

[Soylent Brice]

25. "do you lov your guns... YEAH, you god... YEAH, and government... FUCK YEAH"

i love the bible belt.

[Ganja Ninja]

26. Heck with bringing guns, what's wrong with hand grenades?

I think they should all have to sit and hold on to live grenades and not be allowed to replace the pins until they walk out the door. That'll keep'em awake for the sermon.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. As a fashion statement or as an object of worship?

[jmowreader]

28. Oh man...

imagine the discussions about Mark 16:17-18!

"It says right here that you should take up serpents and they won't hurt you."

'But what about Charlie? Last time he tried taking up serpents, the Lord called him home. Maybe it's not such a good idea.'

"You're a blasphemer!" (sounds of gunfire)

[AsahinaKimi]

29. I suppose if you want your Gun Baptised...

Oh hell, why not.. In Japan, they use a Shinto Priest
to bless a car.^^

[gratuitous]

30. If only the congregation in Knoxville had been armed to the teeth

Oh, that's right; they took down the shooter without firing a shot. And he remains quite well enough to stand trial for his crimes.

[Cid_B]

32. If you want to bum rush a guy with a 1911 feel free...

I prefer center mass....

[gratuitous]

37. See, that's one of those "central message of the Christian testament" things

If you had a Bible, I'd point you to John 15:13 or Galatians 2:20. But then, that whole "You shall not kill" thing in the Hebrew testament seems to confound people who clearly should know better, but whose world view won't allow it.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

35. That's a shame.

It would have been much better if they had just gone ahead and killed him.

David

[cynatnite]

33. I made a joke about this a few years ago on DU...

I should've placed a bet. I could buy my son that XBox he's hoping for his birthday.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

34. Isn't not letting them a violation of separation of Church and State?

[DFW]

36. They worhip guns down south anyway--sounds perfectly logical to have them in church

I'm a southerner, though not from Arkansas, but I can tell you from growing
up there that many (not all!!) people have this fanatical adherence to the
"right" to own and use guns that defies all logic, unless you really subscribe
to the notion that the South is "gonna rise again."

I don't go to church anyway. The Gun'N'God people don't seem to notice my absence,
and it's just as well.

[aikoaiko]

38. I know it sounds absurd to many, but there is no good reason to prevent people from CCW

"Gun free" zones are vulnerable to people with malice.

If the church is ok with it and someone passes the background checks for a carry permit/license, then I say let them.

[petronius]

39. Why isn't it up to the church? This sounds to me like one of those religion-inspired

'blue laws' that has no place in a secular law book - there's no reason for the state to treat churches any differently than other organizations when it comes to carrying guns...

[slampoet]

40. "Shoot 'em all!!!! Let God Sort Them out!!!"

[alarimer]

41. Just one more reason for me not to go to church.

Ha.

[ThomWV]

46. Do you realized how backward this is? They can pass a law to ban where you can carry, but not this

Look, in the natural state you are not barred from doing anything. Unless there is a law against it the sky's the limit. So you can't pass a law allowing you to carry a gun in church - that is your perfect right in the absence of any law. What they can do is pass a law stopping you from being able to carry a gun into a church, or anywhere else.

[Redneck Socialist]

47. So

<shrug>

Concealed carry is permitted pretty much everywhere in my state, yet the church pews aren't stained with blood.

Much ado about nothing.