Are churchgoers' lives less worth defending?

February 13, 2:23 AMSt. Louis Gun Rights ExaminerKurt Hofmann

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In several states, one of the fronts on which the battle between gun rights and citizen disarmament is being waged is over the right of worshippers to carry a defensive firearm in church. For me, the controversy is a little difficult to understand--why should going to church necessitate surrendering the ability to defend oneself and one's family? Churches may be sanctuaries, but going to one is clearly no certain defense against people bent on evil--with the killings at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church last summer being just one example.

Some religious people might prefer to trust their faith to shield them, but personally, I much prefer the results of relying on a courageous, armed, private citizen.

This debate has returned to the forefront in light of passage in the Arkansas House of Representatives of a bill to repeal the state's church gun ban.

The Arkansas House of Representatives has narrowly approved a bill allowing concealed handguns in churches, despite hearing arguments that lawmakers should put their faith in God, not guns.

The bill passed Wednesday on a 57-42 vote and now heads to the state Senate.

I'm not sure I agree that a 57.6% majority is all that "narrow" a margin--when Obama won the presidency with 53% of the popular vote, we were encouraged to believe that the margin represented a "mandate from the people"--but I digress.

As always, not everyone is happy about the idea of lifting the state mandate of defenselessness in churches. Before the House vote, one pastor expressed his grave misgivings.

But that's little comfort for John Phillips at Central Church of Christ.

"I was a minister of a church in another part of the city and unbeknownst to anyone there was a man in church with a weapon. At the end of the service he pulled a gun out from under his coat and yelled something about baptism and proceed to shoot me," says Phillips.

Phillips says it was 23 years ago this month that a man named Larry King walked into the Ward Chapel Church in east Little Rock and shot him and another man who was trying to help him. Shot twice, Phillips spent months recovering. He says the courts sent King to the state hospital then jail for another crime, but the memories still haunt him.

I really don't mean to trivialize Mr. Phillips' suffering, but twenty-three years ago, public concealed carry was illegal everywhere in Arkansas, let alone in churches. In other words, I cannot imagine how Mr. Phillips has arrived at the conclusion that keeping the law the same as it was when he was shot would . . . help him and others avoid being shot.

Finally, the proposed law change would permit churches to prohibit firearms, the only change would be that churches could permit them.

In the end, the lives of churchgoers have just as much value, and are therefore just as worthy of defending, as the lives of anyone else.