Bill to allow Mississippi churches to train armed security

The Mississippi Senate has passed a bill to allow churches on the state to train their members as security guards with concealed carry, a move that has infuriated anti-gun activists as well as the state police.

The Mississippi Church Protection Act, passed on Tuesday, allows guards to carry weapons in a holster without a permit throughout the state while it protects them from enforcement of any federal gun regulation not passed by the US Congress, the Huffington Post reported.

Democratic Senator Hillman Frazier denounced the bill, saying it was politically motivated.

“We don’t need to pimp out the church for political purposes,” Frazier said, while holding an ornate sword at the podium. “If you want to pass laws to liberalize gun laws, do that. But don’t use the church to do that.”

Republican Senator Sean Tindell said, however, that it “will allow a church to have a sergeant-at-arms to protect the church body, just like we have (in the Legislature).”

The Republican further referred to last June mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, where nine black people were shot dead by a young white boy.

‘Soldiers of God’

According to the bill, the guards are immune from civil prosecution “if the action in question occurs during the reasonable exercise of and within the course and scope of the member’s official duties as a member of the security program for the church or place of worship.”

The Mississippi Police Chiefs Association (MPCA) had previously condemned the bill particularly the part that allows concealed carry without permit.

“By effectively dismantling Mississippi’s licensing system, this bill would block law enforcement who stop an armed suspect from confirming that he isn’t a violent criminal, severely mentally ill or otherwise dangerous,” Ken Winter, executive director of the MPCA, said last month. “This bill would put law enforcement officers and all Mississippians directly in harm’s way.”

In a statement around the same time, the Secular Coalition for America’s executive director, Larry T. Decke, said “This legislation would put ‘soldiers of God’ above the law, allowing them to act as judge, jury and executioner.”

“Belonging to a church should not afford anyone the same rights and protections as law enforcement. This legislation emboldens extremists by creating a legal means for radical preachers to enlist their congregants into ‘God’s army,’ he added.

Some church leaders, however, have welcomed the bill, which should now be sent to the state’s Republican governor, Phil Bryant.

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