Should you be allowed to carry a gun to church?

Yes.

What about the person sitting next to you?

Yes.

The question before a three-judge panel for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta Thursday is whether Georgia’s prohibition on firearms in places of worship conflicts with the promise of religious freedom in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

GeorgiaCarry.org, which brought the initial lawsuit, believes religious institutions, not Georgia law, should dictate if firearms are allowed inside, and they point to accounts of shootings in churches as examples of why guns are needed even while worshiping.

Full Story. (h/t Fark)

An interesting legal approach by GeorgiaCarry.org, and we’ll see if it pans out. As expected, the opposition doesn’t get it.

But lawyers for the state say the ban makes it possible for “worshipers to focus on spiritual activities” instead of “protective vigilance.”

So perhaps we should ban smartphones as well, because I can tell you for sure they don’t do much to help worshipers focus on spiritual activities, especially when someone forgets to turn off their ringer. If this is about ensuring focus, there’s much else that we should ban to remain consistent. But of course, it’s not about that.

But Jonathan Lowy, director of the Legal Action Project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control group that is not a participant in the lawsuit, said there is no constitutional right to carry loaded guns in public.

“If you chose to have a loaded gun in your home to protect yourself, that’s your right. It’s a whole different issue when you bring that gun where me and my children and other families are just going about … business.

Let’s play a little bit with the phrasing here:

If you choose to speak freely in your own home to protect yourself, that’s your right. It’s a whole different issue when you start practicing free speech where me and my children and other families are just going about … business.

Is that acceptable?

Why isn’t it a different issue when police bring their gun where you and your children and other families are just going about business?

And it would be even more dangerous, he said, if well-meaning, armed civilians, faced with a dangerous situation, begin shooting in an effort “to save the day.”

“Injecting more guns into more public places and being held by more people causes death and injury much more than it’s saved lives,” Lowy said.

Mr. Lowy, can you please present the data and evidence to back this up? Because we have data and evidence, and it does not support your conclusion; in fact, quite the opposite.

I posted about this just a few days ago. There is much violence in church. You’d like to think if there was anywhere there wouldn’t be it would be in a church, but alas, such is not the case. If we want to talk about the ability for folks to focus on worship well… I’d say allowing someone to go on a violent rampage kinda makes worship a wee bit difficult. If there are ways good people can deter and stop such events, I’d say that helps the ability to focus on worship.

Consider what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about self-defense.

2265 Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.