Pastor/Legislator proposes bill to facilitate having guns in church
JACKSON, Miss (WTVA)
"The way people are doing things today, we have to do something to protect ourselves."
The Charleston church shooting forced pastors like Jesse Horton to rethink how safe they were at church.
Representative Andy Gipson is both a pastor and a state representative.
"I became concerned about small churches like mine and others that, you know, we don't have the funds to hire security," Gipson said.
That prompted Gipson to draft proposed legislation for secruity purposes.
"It would be a brand new law to clarify the existing law because currently the law is silent or contradictory on the authority to carry in a church or place of worship."
Gipson says there are conflicting laws on the books.
The general permit law says you can't carry at a church. But enhanced carry holder may.
There also aren't any limits on open or purse carry.
Horton's church put up "no guns allowed" signs after the open carry debate.
He's since had to rethink that, to some degree.
"You need someone that would be armed. It's gonna be hard to wrestle a person down with a gun and you don't have anything to protect yourself," Horton said.
There are a couple of retired policemen that Horton has asked to carry-- "I gave them permission to ready at all times."
Under the proposed law, if a church adopted a security plan, they would be granted civil immunity.
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