COMMENTARY: Exclusions Should Be Few

People have had a lot of fun with the debate, such as it was, over allowing concealed handgun permit holders to keep their guns when they go to church.

“The preacher better wrap up by noon or I’m drawing down on him,” one suggests.

“Who would Jesus shoot?” another offers.

It’s a natural target, so to speak. A service at a place of worship is the last place anyone wants guns to be necessary, right? Well, there and elementary schools.

Nationally, the issue was passed around on Twitter and Facebook in the stereotypical anti-Arkansas way. Some suggested Arkansas was requiring guns in churches, which it most certainly is not. Others portrayed Arkansas as a place where parishioners are champing at the bit to be totin’ in the pews and Sunday mornings would look like the Wild West.

Most comments I saw appeared to be from people who are fairly anti-gun to begin with. They aren’t motivated to understand Arkansas’ legislative proposal at all. It represented just one more gun measure they could rail against.

That’s not to say the measure wasn’t worthy of debate. But they never took the time to realize the discussion was about a set of legislative exemptions to the state’s legal authorization to carry concealed handguns, and whether the inclusion of churches made sense.

If Arkansas is going to legally permit people to carry concealed handguns, it makes sense to narrowly define the places where they must give up that authority.

The existence of the law acknowledges the concept of citizens having a means of self-defense. Maintaining a bunch of exemptions waters down the entire theory behind concealed carry - that one never knows when he might have to act in self-defense.

It’s like a car owner trying to pick which day to be covered by insurance. How can one know which day he’ get into a car wreck and need that coverage?

Anyone who believes churches aren’t targets of violence or subject to the same vulnerabilities as any other place where people gather is mistaken. At my church, a woman once sat quietly in the front pews, then abruptly stood up and started shouting nonsensical comments as children gathered for the children’s sermon about 10 feet away.

What could we have done if this had been a mentally deranged person intent on doing harm? What if she had been armed? Fortunately, she walked away from the children, down the center aisle, shouting all the way, and out of the church.

Remember Dr. George Tiller? He was the Kansas doctor who performed abortions. He was shot and killed. Where? In the foyer of his church.

I used to work and live in Killeen, Texas, where in 1991 George Hennard crashed his pickup through a Luby’s restaurant then killed 23 people. One of Texas’ biggest concealed carry advocates was born in that instance.

Suzanna Hupp and her parents were eating there that day. When the shooting started, she reached into her purse to pull out her .38-caliber revolver. To her horror, she immediately recalled leaving it in her car, a hundred feet away, out of concern carrying it inside would violate the state’s weapons laws. Her father, 71, rushed Hennard but was shot in the chest. His wife went to cradle her injured husband.

Hennard shot her in the head. They both died.

Permit holders generally are the ones who are going to do their best to abide by the law. Indeed, if the church bill becomes law, I doubt anyone will notice any difference at all in their church experiences.

If a shooting happens in a church, it’s highly likely to come from someone who hasn’t gone to the trouble of getting a permit.

But, of course, we won’t be able to know because our Legislature is going to make all information about people who have concealed carry permits a state secret.

Legal carriers also are prohibited from having their handguns at athletic events, such as a University of Arkansas football game.

Most permitted carriers will abide by that law, but does anyone believe among 70,000 people in Razorback Stadium, there’s not someone illegally carrying a handgun?

I don’t. Those are the people to watch out for.

People who believe we’d all be better off without guns will never understand the way law-abiding gun owners think. But state policy recognizes the value of allowing Arkansas citizens to defend themselves in a dangerous world. If that’s the policy, it makes sense there should be few exempted locations where those permitted by the state should have to give up that protection.

GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE EDITOR OF NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 02/11/2013

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