Ya never know who you might have to shoot during divine worship.

P.S.: Good old Mississippi does it again!

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States In Crossfire Over Guns In Churches

By ADELLE M. BANKS Religion News Service
Saturday, March 19, 2011


State legislatures in Georgia, Michigan and Louisiana are in the crossfire of the debate over gun rights and gun control as they consider allowing weapons in houses of worship.

In Thomaston, Ga., Baptist Tabernacle and a Georgia gun-rights association are challenging a new law that prohibits weapons in houses of worship.

A month after then-Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the 2010 law listing places of worship among "unauthorized" locations for carrying weapons, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal took the opposite tack. Louisiana law now permits worshippers to bring guns into churches, mosques and synagogues as long as congregants are informed.

Other crimes have prompted greater interest in new legislation. In 2009 alone, abortion doctor and usher George Tiller was shot in the foyer of his Lutheran church in Kansas; the Rev. Fred Winters was killed in his Illinois pulpit; and the Rev. Carol Daniels was found dead in her Oklahoma church.

Hawkins' organization reported seven homicides in churches in 2010, but while he supports crime prevention techniques, Hawkins does not advocate worshippers carrying guns into church.

"You go into somewhere crowded, like a church, and there's three people who have guns out that are shooting at each other," he said. "How's the police officer going to be able to discern who's ... the bad guy?"

In Virginia, carrying a gun in a house of worship is allowed unless there's a service being conducted. If there is a service, "good and sufficient reason" -- a term left undefined in the code -- is required.

In Mississippi, several bills introduced this year to remove churches from a list of prohibited places for weapons died in committee, but at least one continues to be debated.

"It seems to me that our law that explicitly prohibits acts in a church that are perfectly legal outside the church clearly violates the First Amendment in addition to the Second," said Jeff Pittman, vice president of the Mississippi State Firearm Owners Association.