Here's why

A quote from an entry of mine originally posted on May 22, 2006, with some minor editing:

"In 2003, when the Minnesota Legislature passed the Personal Protection Act, a bunch of liberal, whiny churches headed by the Edina Community Lutheran Church filed lawsuits against the state, because they wanted to not only be able to ban guns from their premises (which they were free to do), but also ban them from their parking lots, and additionally to not have to post signs banning guns in their buildings (both of which they were not free to do). Every other private place that's open to the public in Minnesota has to abide by these rules, which were put into place for a reason (the signage rule to let permit holders know their policy, and the parking lot rules so that a person could leave their weapon in their private car if they still chose to enter the public place or business). Since the churches are open to the public, they were required to follow these rules, which they screamed mightily about. Basically, they wanted the ability to ban guns without telling anybody that they ban guns. I guess they wanted telepathic parishioners."

The heads of these churches just couldn't imagine why a worshipper would want to carry a firearm inside of a church. In fact, here's what one of the pastors said at the time of the lawsuit's filing:

"That would not create a very hospitable attitude," said Pamela Fickenscher, a pastor of Edina. "We'd love to get a simple exemption for churches of these requirements."

Well, allowing your parishioners to be sitting ducks for one person with a firearm and some kind of a personal problem isn't a "very hospitable attitude", either, but that's what happened today at a church in Missouri.

A person apparently shot three people fatally and wounded several others in a church sanctuary today. If that weren't enough, he also held a large number of hostages for a period of time:

"About 25 to 50 people were briefly held hostage at the First Congregational Church until the gunman surrendered, Neosho spokeswoman Desiree Bridges said."

Crazy people and criminals don't bother checking whether or not they're in a holy place before committing crimes and irrational acts. There's no "magic line" that makes a church exempt from tragedies, as much as some ministers wish there were.

It sure would have been nice if one of those several dozen people held as hostages by this apparent lunatic had had the means to quickly resolve the situation without further injury or loss of life by innocent bystanders. That's why people wished to carry inside your church if they wished, Ms. Fickenscher. To defend themselves and their families from nuts such as this one. By denying lawful permit holders their right to self-protection, you ensured that situations such as what happened today will continue to happen in the future.