U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Louisiana is one of a few states which ban guns in churches but allow church leaders to allow guns on a case by case basis. According to Concealed Carry.com, as of 2018, there were ten states and the District of Columbia with this policy of religious discrimination against churches that approve of an armed population.
The laws in states that ban guns in church are a way to demonize guns. They fairly scream: Guns Bad! Good People Don’t Have Guns!
The laws flip the script of the Second Amendment, where guns are assumed to be part of everyday life. Arms were seen as property so valuable, they were directly protected in the Bill of Rights.
The states which have such laws are listed at concealedcarry.com.
They are Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Carolina.
The District of Columbia has a similar law!? And with the exception of the District of Columbia, the ban on guns in church, without special permission, are in pro-Second Amendment states.
North Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi are Constitutional Carry states. Louisiana, Georgia, Ohio, and South Carolina have shall-issue concealed carry permits.
In most states, the carry of guns in churches is treated the same as on other private property.
My church, in Arizona, actively accepts armed worshipers. Many attendees carry openly.
In colonial America, some colonies required worshipers to bring arms to church.
The Louisiana bill, HB 334, would flip the script back toward the traditional position, with guns having an accepted, honored place in American life. If you have a problem with that, it is allowed, but it is *your* problem, not the problem of American society.
Notice the negative framing of the issue by a reporter in Louisiana. Here is the lead from 4wwltv.com:
To Terry’s dismay — a series of gun bills passed the house Friday. One — House 334 — would allow those who have a concealed carry permit to carry a concealed handgun into a church.
“There is too much murder and violence and particularly gun violence that goes on right now without exacerbating that by arming our citizenry and encouraging that,” said Terry.
That phrasing indicates guns need to be “allowed” to be in Church, not that carrying guns is a Constitutional right, and particular churches are allowed to ban guns on their private property if they wish to do so. The quote sets the stage. Guns are Bad!
It is the script which progressive have been pushing in the United States for nearly 100 years.
The assumption, under English and American law, is everything which is not forbidden is allowed. The progressive assumption is the opposite: everything which is not allowed is forbidden.
The American traditional assumption encourages innovation and tolerance. The individual is mostly in charge of their own life. The progressive assumption is the government knows best and should make our decisions for us.
To be fair, the progressive assumption has changed from endorsing Christian morality up until about 1965 to endorsing pagan or Roman sexual mores or lack of constraints after 1965. At the moment, the progressive ideal seems to attack traditional Christian sexual morality, the idea of the family, marriage, and, it must be said, motherhood.
Progressive policy has come to promote sexual activity without limit or responsibility, essentially the sexual morality in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
Single women vote Democrat by large percentages.
Banning guns in churches is another way for leftists to enforce their vision of what is acceptable and what is not.
Louisiana has a veto-proof Republican majority in the House and is one vote short of a veto-proof majority in the Senate. It has a Democrat governor, John Bel Edwards. There is a strong chance he will veto the bill if it is sent to him.
Republican legislators are likely to give him that decision.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.