BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) -- A man opened fire Sunday morning at a church, fatally wounding four people before abducting his wife, whom he later shot to death at another location, authorities said. (5-21-06)

Always carry every where possible. Church is one I would always carry in.

FYI: In Louisiana, churches are off-limits.

Maybe they need to rethink that ??

If churches are off limits, then how in the world did that shooting happen?

BG couldn't read

So, LA's legislature will address criminal literacy rates instead of allowing guns in church.

That is not as sarcastic as you think.

Let's see ... my church has three sex offenders, two of which are currently in prison, several former drug dealers who have been in prison, single-moms who occasionally drag their gang-banger sons to services 'to get some churchin' or their loose daughters who might also show up with some derelict fellow. We have panhandlers who sometimes show up looking for donations, sometimes drunk / high, and I've seen members in attendance who were obviously under the influence of something. Sometimes a gang-banger is dragged to church by a relative but remains in the parkinglot out of spite, sometimes joined by 'friends'.

On any given Sunday there are thousands of dollars sitting on a plate not being watched too closely. Taking it would constitute the easiest robbery job imaginable. There would be no cameras, video tapes, or locked doors ... just a few morbidly obese church ladies screaming hysterically at the thought of violence.

The preacher visits people in prison so when the felons are released on parole they often show up and like everyone else I / we try to give them the benefit of a doubt. We seldom see them more than once, anyway. Then, there are people who attend who do not have transportation and on the spur of a moment somebody might ask me to pick up / drop off someone ... inevitably in the worst part of town.

I recall a double homicide in Hudson a few years ago, committed by a Priest ... and religious workers certainly aren't immune from committing other kinds of crimes which I won't mention in the interests of good taste.

Now, I'm not saying that church is the worst place, or even a bad place. I'm just saying that the prim and proper stuffed shirts that one usually expects are only part of what makes up a church ... the rest are regular people each with their own problems and vices. This is the way it is supposed to be and I'm glad for it.

It is a peeve of mine that some people think one should be prohibited to carry in church. It is just as necessary as carrying everywhere else.

Weren't most of the minutemen deacons in their churches?

I remember a preacher telling a story about a church in Alaska, where a drunk/druggie charges in the middle of the service with a gun in his hand demanding everybody’s money. There is a muffled sound behind him that makes him turn around to find three quarters of the members pointing their (Sunday morning, go to preaching, carry) guns at him. He turns back to look at the pastor and stares right into the barrel of a 1911. The pastor tells him that he should leave now and the sight of all the hardware gets through to his addled brain and he stows his gun and walks out mumbling under his breath.

This story may or may not be apocryphal, but it is a good illustration of why you should carry in church

Prov 21:31The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.

Read gun for Horse.

Amen!

The church of Christ in Romulus, MI (now in Yipislanti) one time had a looney walk in with a gun and threaten DURING SERVICES to kill the preacher. For whatever reason he changed his mind and left. The same preacher had a mugger put a gun to his head about two months afterwards at a car wash near Westland. This was about 1994 or thereabouts.

A very good friend of mine was preaching in Glencoe, Ontario and a looney came in, removed all of his clothes on the front row during the Lord's supper, and tried to grand stand. He got rough housed by a few members and was met by cops as he fled down the road on foot. I think that was 1996.

I recall in 1992 that a certain loser who always used to hit me / others at church up for money got into a shoot-out with the cops. He actually used a CHILD as a human shield during the shoot out. Before he went to jail he used to be at services on occasion. This was at the South Macomb Church of Christ in Roseville, MI.

I recall in the late 1980's a guy broke into a nunnery somewhere in Canada and killed about six of the sisters ... there's a million more stories where these came from but I'll call it quits here.

I'm inclined to think divine intervention there.

I think a lot of Christians want to take Psalm 91 to mean that God will protect us from anything bad ever happening without our ever having to participate in our own defense.

A lot of people are inclined to think that everybody else is responcible for their safety. Whether is be God (or Gods), the Government (Police, Military, politicians, etc...), or whom ever.

I am begining to think that some good will come from Katrina in the form of some people waking up and realizing that they need to be responcible for there own safety.

Topic drift? We ain’t got no stinking topic drift!