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Open Carry in church

timf343

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Churches are not off-limits under the law, so open carry is lawful. Be careful if any of the churches you attend are connected to a school, as this could be fuzzy since carry inside schools, open or concealed, with or without a permit is prohibited. I'm not sure if this includes Sunday School either.

If no school, then open carry away. Of course, the same as any other private property, you must leave if requested by the person in charge of the property. They can ask you to put it in your car or stand on your head. The choice is of course yours as to whether this is acceptable. Once others see you open carrying, leaving your gun unattended in your car seems like a bad idea.
 

jfrey123

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Lostlittlerobot wrote:
Let me know how the carrying goes. My ignorant opinon is that mormons would freak out. Please post your results =)

I used to be Mormon, and I can tell you from experience that they LOVE firearms. Every father/son camping trip they planned included pistol/rifle shooting, even in the Boy Scout troop I was in at that church.



As for OC in church, I can't imagine many churches would allow it inside the chapel, but there's no law stopping you.
 

Vegas_Dave

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I would have to agree with the other posters.

Is it legal - I dont see anything that would indicate otherwise. The attached "school" (if a real accredited school) could be an issue but that might only apply towards Public schools...

I doubt that the same issue would apply towards a "Sunday School" though.

However, I also doubt that there are many churches regardless of affiliation that would allow open carry during service.

I attend a huge church. I know many of the pastors. Most are ardent gun supporters and even OC and CC themselves... just not at church.

All you can do is try - or in the case of how LDS CAN react towards people who rub them the wrong way (not saying that this would of course), it might be a better course of action to ASK first so that any Sunday morning drama can be avoided.
 

KBCraig

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jfrey123 wrote:
Lostlittlerobot wrote:
Let me know how the carrying goes. My ignorant opinon is that mormons would freak out. Please post your results =)

I used to be Mormon, and I can tell you from experience that they LOVE firearms. Every father/son camping trip they planned included pistol/rifle shooting, even in the Boy Scout troop I was in at that church.
That's entirely different than welcoming guns in church.

I seem to recall reading in the Utah thread that the LDS temple is off limits by statute (that location specifically, not just all churches). I don't have a cite handy, though.
 

jfrey123

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KBCraig wrote
That's entirely different than welcoming guns in church.

I seem to recall reading in the Utah thread that the LDS temple is off limits by statute (that location specifically, not just all churches). I don't have a cite handy, though.

Yes, agreed that my statement was entirely different than them welcoming guns in church, but the goal of my post was to educate where the poster his self admitted to having an arrogant opinion.


And having the temple off limits by statute wouldn't surprise me... It is, after all, the Mormon capital of the world.
 

sakeneko

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, Nevada, USA
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NewZealandAmerican wrote:
I'd like to know is it lawful to open carry in church? If it is can a church still ask you to leave or ask you to remove your gun and put in in your car?In my case that would be LDS "Mormon" chapels? If anyone else has open carried in church please share your experience.
It depends entirely upon which church. It is inappropriate to carry a deadly weapon of any kind into an Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, or Oriental Orthodox church, for example, regardless of whether it is concealed or openly carried. I am not as familiar with the rules of the Catholic Church, but would not be surprised if they were the same. Protestant churches are all over the map on this, so you should check with the individual church. The Mormon Church explicitly forbids weapons in their temples. I'm not sure about other buildings owned by the church, such as stakehouses.

In Nevada, a person who ignores the rules of the church in question and carries anyway is not committing a crime unless, when asked to leave, they refuse to do so. This rule applies anywhere, by the way, not just to churches or houses of worship. In other states, the laws differ considerably, so you should check.
 

Lostlittlerobot

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I'll assume you made an innocent mistake jfrey123. I wasn't arrogant, and never admitted to being so. And please apologize for calling me such.

So far all posts have backed up my opinion, that guns aren't welcome in churches. (though not against fed/state law)
 

jfrey123

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Lostlittlerobot wrote:
Let me know how the carrying goes. My ignorant opinon is that mormons would freak out. Please post your results =)
I'll assume you made an innocent mistake jfrey123. I wasn't arrogant, and never admitted to being so. And please apologize for calling me such.

I'll apologize for using the wrong word. I said arrogant, you said ignorant. To clarify my text: I never called you arrogant, I called your opinion arrogant after you called your own opinion ignorant.



The power of the pen (in this case the keyboard). Wars have been fought over the same situation as here, a case of mistaken words. :)
 

MilitaryMike

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FYI:

I am mormon and I carry conceled. This way it won't offend people, but I can still protect them and my family. Just me though.
 

Judge.410

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Hi, Everyone...just thought I'd jump in here after reading the posts....history tells us (U.S.) that THE MINUTEMEN had rifle racks at the back of their Churches to hold their muskets while enjoying their FREEDOM to worship at their Church of choice......maybe WE THE PEOPLE should build some rifle racks today.....WE might be needing them real soon!
 
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