Is the nursery at a church considered a child care facility?

This morning I went through the usual weekly routine of getting ready for church. I gave one last check in the mirror, stuck my Glock 23 in my ITW holster and covered it with my sweater, strapped my Sig p238 to my ankle, grabbed my "little princess" and headed out the door. It had never really occurred to me before, but after we dropped my 15-month-old daughter off at the children's class, a thought suddenly crossed my mind as we made our way to the worship auditorium (connected to the same building). Is the childcare area of a church considered a daycare facility and therefore off limits for carry? I'd like some opinions on this subject as well as your thought process of how you arrive at your conclusions. Thanks.

And please do not make this posting about whether or not to carry in church, as there is already another thread for that.

Why in the world are you carrying in church?? Haha just kidding. Childcare facilities (to my understanding) have to be licensed. So the question should be, do they have a license? My guess would be no. I don't think many, if any, churches have a license for childcare unless there is an exchange of money or something. Then again, that's a guess.

Concealed is concealed, no?

There's a difference between concealing because of no legal ramifications (eg private business). Its another thing to illegally conceal or carry in general due to restrictions from KRS.

Well I definitely want to stay within the legal bounds for sure, but of course the Kentucky Revised Statute isn't clear on exactly what specifically is considered a childcare facility. Since they aren't licensed or available anytime outside of church hours and we don't pay them for a service I guess I will also assume it's legal. I know assuming can sometimes be a thought process that leads to trouble, but I can't contact an attorney with every question I might ever have. Guess I'll just keep going along as normal.

Armed and Harmless said:

Well I definitely want to stay within the legal bounds for sure, but of course the Kentucky Revised Statute isn't clear on exactly what specifically is considered a childcare facility. Since they aren't licensed or available anytime outside of church hours and we don't pay them for a service I guess I will also assume it's legal. I know assuming can sometimes be a thought process that leads to trouble, but I can't contact an attorney with every question I might ever have. Guess I'll just keep going along as normal.

Click to expand...

I would tend to follow Langzaiguy's lead here, and have to say that they're not considered a daycare facility. As he mentioned, by definition, these facilities have to be licensed, they are a paid service and available at least 5 days a week during daytime work hours, in general.

In churches though, these services are generally provided by unpaid volunteers within the church, no money is exchanged or charged for this service and they are only provided during the church services. Therefore, I'd have to say that the two are completely different and it's not the same.

If you know any gun-friendly attorney's I'd advise you to contact them about this just to be safe, but I'd tend to think that there's nothing wrong here.

A moment of clarity...

Here we go, KRS 199.894 defines childcare facilities:

(3) "Child-care center" means any child-care center which provides full or part-time
care, day or night, to at least seven (7) children who are not the children,
grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or children in legal custody of the operator. "Child-
care center" shall not include any child-care facility operated by a religious
organization while religious services are being conducted, or a youth development
agency. For the purposes of this section, "youth development agency" means a
program with tax-exempt status under 26 U.S.C. sec. 501(c)(3), which operates
continuously throughout the year as an outside-school-hours center for youth who
are six (6) years of age or older, and for which there are no fee or scheduled-care
arrangements with the parent or guardian of the youth served;

NOTE: It specifically says that churches that offer childcare while services are being conducted are exempted from this status.

Thanks for the help here guys. Looks like carrying here is okay. I appreciate it.

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