TFred
Regular Member
Question for our lawyer friends:
I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine.
A church rents space in a private school for services on Sundays. The pastor of the church, and the principal of the school have both explicitly granted their permission to carry during the church services.
Code of Virginia 18.2-308.1 specifically covers ALL elementary, middle and high schools, "public, private or religious." Some of you may recall that in 2014, Delegate Mark Cole was unsuccessful in his attempt to strike "private or religious" from this section of code. He thought it would be better to leave it up to the individual school's ownership to set policy, but the bill was left in the Militia, Police and Public Safety committee. Therefore, it is my understanding that neither the owner of the school, nor the pastor of the church, would have the authority to grant permission for an individual person to carry in the school building, contrary to 18.2-308.1.
However, the code has a list of exemptions, among which we find:
Clearly a church renting the space would be "an organization authorized by the school to conduct its programs" on the premises.
My question:
If the church has an organized security team, and chooses to authorize the members of that organized team to carry firearms, could that be considered "a program" that would that satisfy the exemption allowed in the code above?
TFred
I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine.
A church rents space in a private school for services on Sundays. The pastor of the church, and the principal of the school have both explicitly granted their permission to carry during the church services.
Code of Virginia 18.2-308.1 specifically covers ALL elementary, middle and high schools, "public, private or religious." Some of you may recall that in 2014, Delegate Mark Cole was unsuccessful in his attempt to strike "private or religious" from this section of code. He thought it would be better to leave it up to the individual school's ownership to set policy, but the bill was left in the Militia, Police and Public Safety committee. Therefore, it is my understanding that neither the owner of the school, nor the pastor of the church, would have the authority to grant permission for an individual person to carry in the school building, contrary to 18.2-308.1.
However, the code has a list of exemptions, among which we find:
The provisions of this section shall not apply to [...] (iii) persons who possess such weapon or weapons as a part of any program sponsored or facilitated by either the school or any organization authorized by the school to conduct its programs either on or off the school premises;
Clearly a church renting the space would be "an organization authorized by the school to conduct its programs" on the premises.
My question:
If the church has an organized security team, and chooses to authorize the members of that organized team to carry firearms, could that be considered "a program" that would that satisfy the exemption allowed in the code above?
TFred