Guns In Church? Again? Nope.

I've spoken on the matter of Guns in Church before. You can drum it up on these archives, and see what I thought about it then. It's pretty much what I think about it now.

But I have had some good conversations in the meantime. One of which, was very helpful.

I spoke with an officer who was hired by a church to stand guard. The appearance of an officer may be unsettling, he said, but to many, it may be comforting. This officer has guarded numerous churches in Little Rock, and even began attending one on his off Sundays.

Probably needless to say, he had had many a conversation with pastors and other law enforcement officials on the subject.

"The pastors know their flock," said the officer. "They know that there are some people out there who can carry a gun, policemen, maybe."

"I've known of pastors to ask those officers to bring their guns to church," said the officer, with over 20 years of experience. "It's legal. It protects them. And nobody's the wiser. And, the best part, the church can look like a church, without all of those big signs."

A novel idea, I think, from someone in the know. Of course, not every pastor will know his or her flock well enough to tell a guest from an intruder — those people who one really has to worry about. But these things aren't new.

The officer said that on the very Sunday I was questioning him, a man had left a threatening message on the church's answering machine, apparently vexed that one of the pastors didn't want to collaborate with him on some project for television. They had his picture, and if he showed up, he would have been escorted. The officer recognized the member.

We obviously don't want what happened in Illinois to happen here. But I'm not sure allowing registered gun owners to pack heat in church is going to be much of a deterrent. But maybe the pastors can take charge of the situation as well.

It sounded like a pretty good idea to me at the time, anyway.