Guns in churches? Not yet. Case moves forward

By Craig Schneider, Rhonda Cook and Katie Leslie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gun rights advocates have gained ground for Georgians to carry guns in more and more public places in Georgia, and a federal judge on Monday kept alive their effort to allow people to carry firearms into churches.

If successful, the lawsuit to allow licensed gun owners to carry firearms into churches would be another victory for Georgia gun rights advocates. They have succeeded in recent years in securing rights to carry guns on MARTA, in certain bars, and in school parking lots.

U.S. District Judge C. Ashley Royal declined Monday to grant a preliminary injunction to allow guns in houses of worship, but he set deadlines for each side to submit the written arguments on which he will base his final decision.

The lawsuit was filed against the state in July in Upson County Superior Court on behalf of the Rev. Jonathan Wilkins, head of the Baptist Tabernacle of Thomaston. He wants to arm himself while working alone at the church and during services "for the protection of his flock, his family and himself," according to the lawsuit. The case has since been moved to the U.S. District Court in nearby Macon.

Wilkins partnered with gun-rights group GeorgiaCarry.org to challenge a law passed this year by the state Legislature that refined the prohibition of guns in public places. The revised law allows many private property owners, such as bar owners, to decide whether to allow guns on their premises. But it prohibits the weapons in churches and nuclear power plants. Guns are also prohibited in schools and government buildings.

In Monday's hearing, Judge Royal said the "places of worship" reference in the law is vague. He asked the parties to further define whether that description pertained to the sanctuary, classrooms and administrative office.

"A very plausible argument can be made -- [that] this statute deprived this man of being able to protect himself at work," the judge said.

Those who brought the lawsuit say churches should be afforded the same rights as private property owners in deciding whether to allow firearms. Attorney John Monroe, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Wilkins and others, said carrying a gun into church is a right protected by the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion and the Second Amendment promise of the right to bear arms.

Monroe said the judge's decision to not grant the injunction was "not at all discouraging."

But those who oppose guns in churches  say weapons work against the spirit of hospitality.

"Carrying a gun fosters suspicion of the stranger rather than welcoming them," said The Rev. Patricia Templeton, rector of St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church in Atlanta.

Alice Johnson, director of Georgians for Gun Safety, said, "It's a bad idea to allow people who are not trained and not required to know the law" to carry a gun in church. That endangers others in the church, she said.

Ed Stone, a board member of GeorgiaCarry.org and a plaintiff in the case, said the case seeks to allow individual churches to decide whether to allow guns, not to force churches to accept armed congregants.

"A church deciding they do not want somebody to carry doesn't violate anybody's civil rights," he said.

Stone said carrying a licensed weapon into church is a measure of preparedness, not paranoia. He also recalled a 2007 Colorado church shooting in which the suspect shot and killed several people before being shot by a church member, also a security guard.

"She was hailed as a hero, and well deserved," he said. "But she would have been a criminal in Georgia."

Royal gave the lawyers a 30-day deadline to submit their arguments in writing and an additional 15 days to respond to each other’s briefs.

Whatever the judge's decision, it will probably be taken to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and that decision is expected to be challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.