Sarah Roy remembers the Sunday in 1994 when a man walked into the sanctuary of United Pentecostal Church in Springdale with a sawedoff 12-gauge shotgun and shot his estranged wife twice.

Roy said Claude Mounce, 75, fired one shot on each side of her to hit Mildred Mounce, 61, who was sitting two pews away. Mildred Mounce survived. Claude Mounce was arrested and hanged himself in the Springdale jail. There were no other injuries as aresult of the shooting.

Roy said she wishes someone in the congregation had a gun on June 12, 1994. They might have been able to stop Claude Mounce, who brought the shotgun into the church in a box for an artificial Christmas tree.

“We were sitting in a church, and you look behind you and a man has a gun and you are helpless,” Roy said. “We were all just at his command. ... I myself have never used a gun. But if someone would have hadone, it would have been a very good thing.”

State Sen. Bryan King, RGreen Forest, drafted a bill that would allow churches to decide whether members of the congregation can take concealed guns into the building. Senate Bill 71 will amend Arkansas Code Annotated 5-73-306(16), which prohibits carrying concealed handguns in churches. The bill passed both chambers of the Legislature last week. Gov. Mike Beebe will sign the bill Monday, said Matt DeCample, his spokesman. The law will take effect immediately.

In the meantime, state Rep. Reginald Murdoch, DMarianna, filed a bill Friday that would clarify details of concealed carry in church. House Bill 1284 would require churches allowing guns to post a sign at least 8-by-10 inches in size at each public entrance stating that there may be someone in the church with a concealed handgun.

Determining who would be allowed to carry a weapon in church would be up to a church’s governing body or the person in the church with ultimate decision-making authority, the bill states. Also, the bill specifies when churches would be liable because of the actions of someone with a handgun in the church.

Murdock said his bill doesn’t conflict with King’s.

“We’re just trying to let the public know what they’re about to walk into,” said Murdock, referring to notification at church doors. “Just some direction and clarification and information,” he said of the entire bill.

DeCample said the governor had input on HB 1284.

“He discussed the general areas he hoped it would cover given the input from church leaders,” DeCample said.

Roy said she’s in favor of concealed carry in churches.

“I think we should be able to have a concealed gun for protection,” she said. “I think it would be OK. I sure do.”

Eva Fanning of Springdalewas sitting in the same pew as Mildred Mounce the day of the shooting. Fanning said she’s also OK with churches allowing certain people to carry guns, but she doesn’t want that option open to everyone in the congregation.

“I think that would be probably really good just to have some designated people who had them,” she said.

King said Thursday he wasn’t aware of the 1994 church shooting in Springdale.

“I do know to force them by law to be defenseless is why I wanted to change this law,” he said.

According to an article in the Springdale Morning News, Claude Mounce entered the church about 11:30 a.m. on June 12, 1994. It was between two church services, and 75 people were in the sanctuary.Roy said the choir was singing. According to the article, Claude told two men to stand aside and an elderly woman to take her seat.

He was looking for Mildred Mounce, who saw him and got on the floor, Fanning said.

“He stood there,” Roy said. “He was really searching the crowd trying to find her. He was going from side to side with his eyes. ... A Sunday School class tried to go out and he told them to turn around. I stood up and looked at him, and he raised the gun toward me and said, ‘Sit down.’”

After the shooting, four men and a woman from the congregation wrestled Claude Mounce to the floor and held him there until police arrived, according to another article from the Springdale newspaper. Claude Mounce killed himself later that day.

Mildred Mounce didn’t respond to messages seeking comment for this article. The Rev. Tom Singles, who was at the service that day in 1994, said he didn’t want to talk about it. He said it’s something the church wants to forget.

Dennis Lee, chancellor for administrative affairs at the Catholic Dioceses of LittleRock, said concealed handguns will remain prohibited in all Catholic churches in Arkansas.

“We felt like the current law was sufficient,” he said. “There’s no need for concealed handguns in Catholic churches.”

The Rev. Lowell Grisham, rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, said all Episcopal churches are gun-free zones. That declaration was made last year by the church’s general convention.

“I don’t understand this type of response to fear and anxiety,” Grisham said. “St. Paul said perfect love casts out fear. I wish we could find more ways to express perfect love and reduce people’s fears.”

Roy said church members who remember the shooting have dealt with it.

“I don’t dwell on it,” she said. “We prayed a lot. Everybody in the whole church prayed a lot about it. In the world we live in now, I’m always cautious about it, but I don’t let it interfere with the things I do. I’m determined not to live my life in fear.”

Fanning agreed.

“You do get past it,” she said. “When you’re in a crowd like that, you are watchful.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/10/2013