A federal appeals court in Atlanta on Friday rejected a minister's argument that gun carriers had a constitutional right to bring sidearms to worship services, leaving in place Georgia's 2010 law that bans guns in churches, synagogues and mosques.
On a day that was dominated by news of a mass shooting in a Colorado movie theater, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals flatly rejected the First Amendment freedom of worship argument, finding that pastor Jonathan Wilkins of the Baptist Tabernacle of Thomaston and the gun rights group GeorgiaCarry.org had not shown how the law interferred with sincerely held religious beliefs.
The three-judge panel noted that, while the lawsuit said worshipers would like to carry firearms for self-defense, "there is no First Amendment protection for personal preferences; nor is there protection for secular beliefs."
The lawsuit was filed after the Georgia Legislature eliminated a firearms ban at generic "public gatherings" and replaced it with a list of eight specific places.Wilkins and the president of GeorgiaCarry.org argued in their suit they were being forced to choose between their First Amendment religious freedom guarantee and the Second Amendment right to arms.
District Judge C. Ashley Royal dismissed their case so Wilkins and the gun group appealed.
The federal appeals court also rejected the group's Second Amendment challenge. It said that the group's belief there is an individual right to carry a gun into a place of worship does not trump a private property owner's right to exclusively control who is allowed on the premises and under what circumstances.
An individual's right to bear arms "certainly must be limited by the equally fundamental right of a private property owner to exercise exclusive dominion and control over its land," Appeals Court Judge Gerald Tjoflat wrote. "The Founding Fathers placed the right to private property upon the highest of pedestals, standing side by side with the right to personal security that underscores the Second Amendment."
Tjoflat wrote that the Georgia gun law was written with certain places banned because the Legislature was "concerned that the carrying of weapons ... would likely present an unreasonable risk of harm to people who assemble in eight specific locations" — places of worship, government buildings, courthouses, prisons and jails, state mental health facilities, bars without the owner's permission, nuclear power plants and polling places and their immediate surroundings.
The Second Amendment argument that the preacher and GeorgiaCarry.org made, Tjoflat wrote, asked the court "to destroy one cornerstone of liberty — the right to enjoy one's private property — in order to expand another — the right to bear arms. This we will not do."
John Monroe, the attorney for GeorgiaCarry.org, said he did not know yet if the group would continue its challenge. But, he said, the decision referenced an argument the group did not make.
"The state can't prohibit anyone form carrying a gun in church," Monroe said. "We never argued that a person should be able to carry against the church's wishes."
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