Here in Louisiana there is no law against Open Carry in a place of worship but Conceal Carry was banned. Last year the La Shooting Association helped get the Conceal Carry restriction lifted. The problem for me is that the legislature basically came up with some sort of hybrid CHP/Armed Secruity Guard Frankenpermit thing. It's bizare and warps the entire CHP process in my opinion by creating a case for further restricting carry.
Here's what they came up with.
First, you have to have a CHP which requires a 9 hour class (~100 depending on the instructor and his rates) then $125 to the State Police CHP unit for the 5 year permit.
OK, you jumped through the hoops, spent a couple hundred dollars and got your CHP? Can you conceal carry in church now? Nope.
Now you have to get your church leader to form a special Armed Church Response Team. I'm not making this crap up. Stay with me here. Now the deacon or pastor or whoever forms this special Armed Church Response Team and he gets to announce to EVERYONE in the congrigation that you and your buddies will be part of this special team.
So now you get to CC in church? Nope, there's more. Now that you are on this special Sheepdogs for Christ SWAT team you and your fellow sheepdogs are required to attend some sort of "tactical" training, 8 hours in length, every year. There's nothing in the law about what this "tactical" training is supposed to be.
I have several problems with this law.
First, it takes a State CHP which is meant as a way to conceal a pistol for personal protection and turns it into a para-security license. My arguement is, if you want a armed security guard for your church then you, as a church leader, should feel free to contact a company like Wakenhut/G4S and have one or more security guards contracted to post up at your church. You can even contact your local Law Enforcement agency and contract for an Extra Duty officer assignment. The CHP is not a Security Guard license and this law blurs that line. Maybe I'm biased as I have been working as a Security Officer for several years now.
Second, This sets precident in telling people/citizens that while you can apply for a Shall Issue permit, there are some areas which are more risky to carry than others and so each place will require certain training and more hoops to jump through. They say, well it's crowed in a church and you need the extra training to carry in a church which has more innocent bystaders in the area. Today they say, you can CC in church by jumping through these hoops. Next year when we try to get rid of the restrictions on carrying in resturants that sell alcohol what will they throw at us? "You want to carry in Applebees? OK, get a CHP then take 8 hours of "tactical " training a year and get a letter from the manager of each resturant you want to carry in saying that you will be part of the Resturant Responce Team." It's no more dangerous to carry in a church than at a movie theater or at a concert. Yet you don't need to take additional training to carry at a movie theater or concert. You don't have to take "tatical" training and be on the WalMart Security Team to CC while Black Friday shopping. There should be no special requirements to carry in a Church or any other place.
Third, It doesn't take in to account those of us who are not part of a church congrigation but who may occasionally find ourselves in a church. I may go to a church I've never set foot in for any number of reasons such as being at a friend's wedding, a family members baptism, a coworkers funeral...heck, my ham radio club holds it's monthly meetings at a baptist church in Baton Rouge. Under the law, I can't legally CC with my State permit in any of these examples.
Fourth, In all of the arguements about the need for this law, nobody wanted to discuss the fact that there was never a ban on the ability to Open Carry in a church without the need for a permit nor additional "tatical" training. Whenever any of us brought this up in discussion it was waved off and dismissed. The constant shortshafting we got, even from those who are suppossedly "progun", was extremely insulting to those of us attempting to educate the masses and give our opinion. Open Carry in a church was poopooed as if we were discussing rapeing kittens. I heard people saying, "We need this so that we can leagally carry our guns in church in case a disgruntled family member or ex-congregaton member shows up to do violence." We would inform them, your pastor can already say "Hey everyone, these guys are openly carrying guns in church today just in case there's a problem." I mean, if everyone in church is going to be told that you and your friends are part of the church armed responce team, why worry about conceal carrying? We might as well been banging our heads against a wall.
Some links to read about our God's Sheepdog law-
http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2010...church-of-england-newspaper-july-23-2010-p-5/
http://chattahbox.com/us/2011/01/21/louisiana-worshipers-pack-heat-for-gods-army/
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsme..._locals_train_to_protect_their_churches_w.php
That's my long winded rant. Thanks for reading. Peace. Out.