Because the enemy knows no bounds. I’ve already made it known that I’m a strong advocate for gun ownership. I don’t think that means people should check their gun at the church door either. Because if a thief thought for a second that even 10% of the people in a church had a gun, they would never pull a move like this:

This occurred at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Bel Air, Maryland.

The article also mentions:

If they had guns instead of cell phones, the thief would have been the one saying his prayers!

Now I know some of you are thinking that my statement about guns in church is somewhat insane. But I invite any of you to visit a “mega church” in your area one Sunday morning. You will see police with guns directing traffic and after the offering is collected you will also see police with their guns in the church walking the plates of money out of the sanctuary. I’ve seen it myself. Usually after the offering is over and the ushers are taking the money “in the back”. As soon as that door to the back rooms opened, I would catch a glimpse of a police officer waiting on the other side of the door. And sometimes the police officer would be waiting in the sanctuary outside of the door.

The churches that are large enough to leverage police for protection already have people with guns (police) doing the job. Smaller churches do not have such leverage and so they are on their own when it comes to protecting people who come to worship from people who come to steal, kill and destroy. If the church is not doing it, then it is in the member’s best interest to protect themselves.

Plenty of people have felt that such things like shootings don’t happen in church. But I’ve seen too many cases where shootings did occur in church and the evil doing shooter was the only one in the church with a gun. Usually several people are shot before the shooter is stopped. And in cases like this robbery, the shooter got away to steal again another day. I’ve also attended churches “in the hood” and there have been shootings near the church, with bullets literally flying in front of the church door.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Good people with guns is a good thing.

Hat tip to Fire & Hammer.

update (1/4/2006 4:24PM ET): Blogger TexasFred agrees!