SoCal Churches welcome armed members: will they regret it?

June 24, 7:54 AMLA Gun Rights ExaminerJohn Longenecker

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Last week, fifteen Southern California religious leaders listened to the counsel of Interfaith Intruder Response and the recommendation of admitting congregants with concealed carry permits to services while wearing their weapon. This means a loaded gun in church. Several of them at any one service. We hope.

Will they come to regret it?

Probably not. They may be castigated for their decision, but that's nothing in the way of slings and arrows for the faithful. They get that all the time. Much of the carping will come from the anti-gun crowd, but the faithful take it a lot from the pro-choice crowd. A walk in the park. The discernment is in electing to admit armed citizens, the discernment is not in stopping them at the door.

Will these Southern California Churches regret placing their trust in their congregants who accept the invitation to come to worship armed with a sidearm under their coat or in their purse?

One of the easiest ways to answer critics of concealed carry of handguns is to take a peek at whole states of the union who affirm their constituents' right to be armed with a handgun wherever they have a right to be. Some who had previously banned weapons from public places are now supporting the armed citizen in parks, as news reports mention. These officials are coming to affirm concealed carry more and more on two sound grounds: 1) It's an affirmation of the Second Amendment and though there have been some disputes, one can't go wrong affirming it, and; 2) the track record of millions (yes, millions) of concealed carry citizens who have never given their state cause to regret their support over decades. No state's concealed carry law has been repealed, and more latitude in carry is coming all the time.

There have been changes in Parks. You can carry your gun in the wilderness for your personal safety. There have been changes in the thinking of trustees of college campuses; many campuses have affirmed student carrying of their handguns without regretting that support, and others have joined them recently. There have even been reports of change in support of concealed carry in airports. And, of course, churches around the country have been glad they had an armed member immediately on scene to stop an otherwise massacre.

What took so long? What is taking so long is coming to a happy conclusion; more are coming to realize that the armed citizen is the way to go in the Original Homeland Security, which works rather well for personal security on private or public property and in general. Churches, schools, workplace, parks, airports and aboard civil aircraft – the armed citizen is a very parsimonious mode of general security. It's like one-out-of-ten persons in any group of citizens knowing First-aid and CPR. Internet search term "The CPR Corollary". [Instead of calling out "Is there a Doctor in the house?", it might be best to call out if there are any medical persons in the house. A lot of non-physician medical practitioners are excellent at First-aid and CPR and millions of others are trained in it.]

One of the greatest kinds of courage which has not escaped my attention is how the churches, the airports, the college campuses and workplaces affirming concealed carry have understood how they are giving up a little control over the situation.

What is praiseworthy to them is that it is not a mistake, but the right thing to do, considering it was a situation out of control. Their realizing this and putting their members, employees and students first will change the entire complexion of the problem and probably without regretting it.

The beauty of the CPR Corollary is that it answers the question of whether gun owners can be trusted in situations other than life-threatening scenarios. [Thirty-five years ago, the questions of doctors and attorneys was how layman could be trusted with medical training. The objections to teaching citizen CPR were identical to the question of armed citizens anywhere today.]

I doubt very much that church, park and workplace will regret their election to affirm the armed citizen. Especially when their choice is announced and well publicized.

We'll always have the person who is prohibited from owning and possessing a gun or any weapon; the question is not how to profile them and to see them coming, but how to stop them when they arrive.

This Original Homeland Security is best. We do not protect our country by the restraint of our liberty and of our authority, but by the exercise of our liberty and our authority.

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Liberty is both exercised and it is taught, or it skips a generation. See the Good For the Country Bookstore for John's highly recommended books on Independence from our servants. Also, be sure to subscribe to e-mail notification on the button below for the latest.