Guns In Church

Guns in church, it’s a potential perfect storm of controversy combining politics, religion and firearms.  There are First and Second Amendment issues.  And the debate has already started here in Georgia.  (I’ve provided some background on the issue in Georgia below.)

America has a heritage of carrying guns to worship.

First Amendment Question: Can Government Tell You What To Do In Church

There are really two questions in this debate, at least in the states with bans on carrying a weapon in a house of worship.  And that introduces the first issue; should the government be the one deciding what a person can or cannot do inside a church, synagogue or mosque?  The recent lawsuit, still pending, in Georgia is about that issue (see background here).  Most worshippers would be appalled at the thought of the government telling them which version of the Bible they had to use in church, or from which hymnal they had to sing. Those are decisions only the individual congregations have the right to make.  Government has no business to even consider these things, let alone legislate them.  And the same goes for the question of carrying a gun in church.  That’s a decision that must be left up to the individual congregation.  Yet four state governments, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and North Dakota, think they know better than the congregations in their states, even though the First Amendment to the Constitution directly tells them otherwise.  These states allow other private property owners (like restaurants, shopping malls, movie theaters, etc) to make that decision on their own, but not houses of worship.  Do these four states not trust people of faith to make this decision on their own?

That’s right, there are only four states with outright bans on carrying a weapon into a house of worship¹.  That may be a surprise to some, and I suppose that surprise is understandable, given how prevalent government meddling in our lives has become.  The truth of the matter is that bans on carrying a weapon anywhere only impact the law abiding citizen, and actually have the potential to do the exact opposite of the ban’s stated intention.  What the government will tell you is that banning guns from churches or schools or post offices or anywhere, is meant to ensure the safety of the people who frequent these places.  At best that reasoning is naïve, at worst (and in the case of government mandated bans I suggest this is the case) it’s an outright lie.  What banning firearms in a given location does accomplish is to render the people at that location virtually defenseless.  Who obeys those bans?  Law abiding citizens do, which includes those of us who have gone through the trouble of becoming legally licensed to carry a gun².

Gun Free Zones Don’t Work

Where do you think most mass shootings occur?  Let me Google that for you here.  Let’s see, school, school, government office, school, England.  In all of these places guns were banned.  Guns are virtually banned in all of England, yet since those gun laws have gone into effect crime in England has risen dramatically³.  If someone is determined to commit an act of violence chances are that a ban on firearms in a given location is not going to deter that individual.  They’ve already decided to break any number of laws, including murder.  Are we to believe that such an individual will reconsider rather than risk a weapons charge?  Put it this way, when was the last time there was a mass shooting at a gun show?   Never.  Why may that be?  Well my guess is that while these mass shooters may be crazy they aren’t necessarily stupid and they realize their best chance of success is in a location where they don’t have to worry about someone shooting back.  If you read some of those stories I Googled for you you’ll see that the standard knee jerk reaction from the liberal mainstream media and gun control fanatics is a cry for more gun free zones and tougher gun laws, yet in all of these instances the shootings occurred in places where guns were already off limits.  Gun free zones don’t work.

Here’s one view on the effectiveness of gun free zones

Here’s another, slightly more serious view

It seems obvious, at least to me, that laws forbidding congregants to carry a gun into a house of worship will not stand up to the scrutiny of lawsuits as they are a violation of the Second Amendment protected right to bear arms, and, more importantly for this argument, a direct violation of the First Amendment guarantee of the freedom of religion.  Which leads us to the second question in the guns in church debate.

The Spiritual Dilemma: Should You Carry A Gun In Church

For some people carrying a gun in church may seem like a lack of faith.  “Surely God will protect me in church, of all places,” they may say.  Allow me to pose the question this way; when you’re in your car do you wear a seat belt?  Do you have a fire extinguisher in your home?  Do you look both ways before crossing the street?  If you ride a motorcycle do you wear a helmet?  Do you go to the doctor for regular checkups?  If you have small children in the home do you put medicine, poison and sharp objects in locked cabinets or out of reach?  Do you see where I’m going with this?  And how about other safety considerations at church, surely there are fire extinguishers somewhere in the building.  And many houses of worship require some sort of background check on those folks working with children.  Taking responsibility for your own safety and the safety of your loved ones is not a demonstration of a lack of faith; it’s an act of love and obedience to God, regardless of where you practice it, at home, church, work, wherever.  I’ve already detailed why I carry a gun everyday and everywhere that it’s legal for me to do so (here).  I don’t carry at church, but not out of a belief that it would somehow be wrong or unspiritual to do so.  I don’t carry at church because for the time being it is illegal for me to do so, but once that law is changed…

In the suit challenging the law in Georgia, Rev. Jonathan Wilkins is quoted as saying he needs to have a gun for his own protection while working alone at the church, during services and “for the protection of his flock, his family, and himself.”  Putting aside the question of how carrying a gun reflects on one’s faith, let’s ask, “how likely is that you’d ever actually need a gun to protect yourself or others in church?”  Let me Google that one for you here.  There’s Richmond, California; Knoxville, Tennessee; Hampton, Virginia; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Youngstown, Ohio.  And that’s just the first page of results.  Was God not paying attention to those churches?  That question borders on blasphemy.  Of course God was paying attention, and yet those shootings all took place in churches.  Funny thing about how God works; He often chooses to use people to accomplish His will.  As His people we have a responsibility to be prepared for any eventuality.  I kind of like that saying, “Pray like it’s all up to God, and work like it’s all up to you.”

Not only are churches not immune to a crazed individual shooting up the place, but to many criminals houses of worship appear to be easy targets.  The assumption by most is that no one will be armed at a church.  And there’s a good deal of temptation at a church for a thief looking for what appears to be easy pickings; lots of cash on a Sunday morning, office equipment, sound equipment, computers.  And don’t forget the parking lot.  While everyone is inside during services there’s a squadron of unattended vehicles just begging to be broken into.  A few years back we had a number of car break-ins in our church parking lot over the course of several Sundays.  The church instituted a policy of having several men patrol the grounds and the break-ins ceased.

Whether you choose to carry a gun at all, to your house of worship or anywhere, whether it’s legal or not, is between you and God.   I’m only hoping to present some considerations for why you might decide to carry a gun.  If you opt not to, well, I hope you never run into a situation where you’re faced with a serious threat of violence and one of us law abiding, freedom loving, God fearing licensed gun owners isn’t around.  I’m just sayin’.

Background on guns in church debate in Georgia:

On June 8, 2010 Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law HB308, the Common Sense Lawful Carry Act, authored by my friend, State Senator Mitch Seabaugh⁴.  That bill originally included a provision to allow guns to be carried in houses of worship with the stipulation that the presiding official permits it, either for all or some designated license holders.  The governor said he wouldn’t sign the bill with the church carry provision remaining, so a committee removed that language from the final version.

Then on June 28, 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court incorporated the Second Amendment against the states with their ruling in the McDonald v. Chicago case.  With that ruling many predicted there would be an avalanche of lawsuits against other state and local gun control laws.  On July 7, 2010 GeorgiaCarry.org filed a suit in the Superior Court of Upson County Georgia seeking to have the ban on carrying firearms in places of worship ruled unconstitutional, citing that the ban violates the First and Second Amendment.  The case was moved to federal court.  U.S. District Judge C. Ashley Royal held a brief hearing on Monday August 23, 2010 where he refused to block enforcement of the law but he also declined to dismiss the case.  His final ruling on the case is still forthcoming.  Some analysts expect Royal’s ruling, regardless of what it is, to be appealed and eventually go before the U.S. Supreme Court. More details on that case are here.

The same week that the Georgia lawsuit was filed Louisiana enacted legislation to allow parishioners to carry concealed weapons in houses of worship.  The Louisiana law does have some stipulations on additional training and the fact that there are armed worshippers must be announced (story here).  That leaves only four states, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi and North Dakota, with outright bans on guns in houses of worship.

Footnotes

¹GeorgiaCarry.org has an interactive map of carry restrictions by state here.

²All states that issue some type of license to carry a firearm have a number of requirements that must be met before that license is issued.  At the very least an applicant must go through a thorough background check by law enforcement.  Many states also have minimum training standard that must be met.

³The World Conservation Trust website cites a study showing that gun murders in London went up by 90% within a year of England’s handgun ban.

⁴I actually do count Senator Mitch Seabaugh as a friend.  We first met in 2000,when he was campaigning for the Georgia Senate for the first time.  He was a guest on my morning show on J93.3 (WVFJ).  We have kept in touch over the years.  By the way, his wife Leah makes one mean rhubarb pie.

Why I Carry a Gun

I carry a gun.  Everyday.  Everywhere.  At least everywhere not prohibited by law, which is, as of June 8, 2010, a much larger list, and much easier to determine in Georgia, where I live.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I did not enter into this practice of everyday carry lightly.  I can’t pinpoint the exact date I began to seriously consider purchasing my first gun, nor the impetus for that consideration.  It was sometime in the latter third of 2008.  My daughter left for college.  Barack Obama won the presidential election.  My car was broken into while parked in the lot at work.  And it seemed that several times a week there were stories in the local news of home invasions, carjackings, bank robberies and drug busts, not just in Atlanta proper, but in my county and the surrounding communities.  It could have been any one or a combination of those things that started me thinking about getting a gun.  Maybe I just started paying closer attention.

Whatever the reason, I began to research gun ownership, carry and use.  Several years prior, upon discovering that a friend carried a gun, I asked if you needed a license to carry in Georgia.  This person told me that all you needed was a driver’s license.  They were wrong.  During my research I discovered that Georgia is a “shall issue” state, one of 38 states that, by state law, must issue a license to carry if the applicant meets the requirements of the state, allowing no discretion on the part of the issuing agency.  Most, 27 in fact, shall issue states do not require a license to carry openly, so what they are issuing are concealed carry licenses.  And three states (which I’ve included in the 38 shall issue states), Alaska, Arizona and Vermont, do not require any permit to carry a concealed weapon. So if I were going to carry a gun in Georgia¹ I would need to get a Georgia Firearms License² (GFL).

I also learned that Georgia has a “Stand Your Ground” statute.  Stand Your Ground or Castle Doctrine laws generally state that an individual has no duty to retreat and has the right to use force, up to and including deadly force, when confronted with an attack or threat of an attack that causes the individual to have a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or others.  Under Georgia law “Stand Your Ground” encompasses any place an individual has the legal right to be.  The use of force, even deadly force, under Georgia law renders the individual immune from criminal and civil prosecution.

The more I learned the more I came to appreciate the gravity of my decision.  And so I bought a gun³ and got my GFL.  Which, finally, brings me to the “why”.   I always understood that owning and carrying a firearm was a right.  A right enunciated in the second amendment, but also a right that pre-dates the constitution or any form of government for that matter.  The right to defend oneself and others is inherent in the right to life itself. 

What I learned through my months of research is that being armed with an instrument of deadly force is more than a right; it’s a responsibility.  Ultimately I alone am responsible for my own well being and that of my family.  As a Christian I have a responsibility to be prepared to come to the aid of someone who is not able to defend himself.  As a citizen I have a responsibility to defend the rights afforded by the constitution and my creator.

I take these responsibilities very seriously.  So in addition to getting licensed and carrying a gun, I took a firearms course through my local sheriff’s office.  I joined Georgia Carry (GCO), a citizen’s advocacy group that has been instrumental in much of the recent legislation in Georgia to revise and loosen gun laws.  I practice regularly and have even participated in several shooting competitions though GSSF (Glock Sport Shooting Foundation), which I have joined, and IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association).

I now regularly practice open carry in an effort to help make guns more ubiquitous in my community.  Oddly, the Glock on my hip generates very little attention.  Two people have asked me if I was a police officer and a cashier at the supermarket commented that when she got through with her shift she was going to the range for some target shooting.

Finally, I have purposed in my mind and heart that I am ready to act on these responsibilities even to point of using lethal force.  Not that I seek out an opportunity to do so, quite the contrary.  I now pay much more attention to my surroundings and do my best to avoid placing myself or loved ones in situations that may reasonably be unsafe.  Unfortunately we can’t always predict where or when violence may be visited upon us.  So I prepare for that which I pray never happens, ready to meet the challenge that I hope never comes.

Footnotes

¹Georgia law does allow you to carry a weapon in your own home, vehicle and place of business without a GWL, so long as you are eligible to be issued a GWL should you apply.

² As of 06/08/10 with the passage of SB308, the Common Sense Lawful Carry Act, the GFL became a Georgia Weapons License (GWL).  SB308 also eliminated Georgia’s nebulous “Public Gathering” law (a holdover from Jim Crow days) and replaced it with a short and exhaustive list of places off limits and clarified all laws dealing with weapons.

³In addition to researching the law, I also did quite a bit of research on guns.  Handguns vs. rifles vs.
shotguns, caliber, brands, etc.  I wound up buying a Taurus Millennium Pro PT111 9mm semi-automatic pistol.  I have since purchased a Glock Gen 4 G17 9mm semi-automatic pistol and a Mossberg 500 12 gauge shotgun.