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I don't understand this at all. If you need a gun to protect your life, what is the good of carrying it unloaded? However I do agree that they should not fire their guns inside the church. Holes shot in the roof would prove very inconvenient during the next rainstorm. Instead, the congregation should wait until the church service is over and go outside where they can shoot them in the air celebratory style the way some Moslems do. Only they'd better check first to see to it that there are no low flying F16s in the area. Those pilots can mistake that kind of firing for hostile anti-aircraft activity and fire back as did when they blew up a wedding celebration in Afghanistan by mistake around 2001 or 2002.

Crazy.

"the pastor instructed the church to bring only unloaded guns."

Orwell was satirising communism when he made the amended commandment in "Animal Farm": "Thou shalt not sleep in a bed with sheets"

However, I always thought that this particular bit of satire was at least as pertinent to people who consider themselves Christians, but ignore the spirit and letter of the Gospels.

I was reminded of this recently when Mr Blair had the hubris to lecture Pope Ratburger on gay rights. He seemed to be totally unaware of beams in his own eye such as "Thou shalt not kill", "love thine enemy" and "turn the other cheek".

As GK Chesterton said "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It's been found difficult and never tried."

As I recall President Obama made a derogatory remark about Pennsylvanians clinging to their guns and religion during last fall's campaign so the association was there. As I also recall, it took him quite a while to loosen his ties and distance himself from his long time friend and confidant Reverand Wrong.

I support this pastor. I don't expect this story to translate well to those outside the U.S., but it makes perfect sense and the only way I can relate it is by way of analogy.

Let's say there is a movement within the construction workers' union to ban all nail guns on the premise of safety, and some within the industry are in favour while the rest oppose it on the grounds that building a house would take much longer if they were restricted to using hammers. At the union's Annual Convention, those who oppose the ban decide to bring nail guns with them, without nails, as a message to the union that they oppose the ban.

This story must be seen within the wider debate over gun rights and gun control in the United States. Yes, it's a little loopy, but a perfectly rational means of getting publicity for the cause of gun rights advocates like me.

Guns and Churches

If one of the flock brought his AK-47 with him, I wonder if he would have been turned away. If the Iraniacs had been as well armed as the people of Kentucky, you have to wonder how many of them would have become martyrs "resisting arrest" last week while some of those revolutionary guards might have taken a few sick days off worrying about gettng lead poisoning breaking down doors. Of all the potential criminals Americans fear, none is more potentially dangerous than the government itself. There are some governments that have murdered more innocent people than all of the non government criminals in the history of the world combined. Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, maybe China and a few others....including Great Britain. Perhaps the real answer to solving the problem of al Qaeda, the Taleban, and other terrorists is not to just try to capture or disarm them but to arm the entire population to protect themselves from them.

Countries that ban the right to bear arms are basically afraid of their own people and usually with good reason. The criminals will always find ways to get guns. BTW I don't own and never have owned a gun, never felt the need for one. But if I did, I am glad I have the right to one enshrined in the US Constitution. Besides, you never know when the Redcoats might return.

Christian Hippy-

You posted a link to a church shooting story. But guns weren't allowed in the church with the shooting, were they? Look how well that policy protected people! This church that encourages people to bring guns, on the other hand; no shootings there. :-)

Ironically, in my state, we are required to bring a rifle to church on Sunday to ward off indian attacks. I've never seen anyone doing it, though...