Guns at schools? NC lawmakers debate how to keep church services safe on school campuses

How do church congregations protect themselves without guns?

That’s the question state lawmakers were asking Wednesday morning while discussing Senate Bill 43. The bill would allow people with concealed carry permits to have a gun on school property after hours if the property was being used for religious services.

The bill passed the North Carolina Senate and, on Wednesday, its first hurdle in the House after a judiciary committee debated and then supported the bill.

Lawmakers questioned whether it would make more sense to pay for security at religious services on school campuses or allow congregants to carry weapons onto school grounds.

In March, opponents of the bill voiced concerns about mass shootings, accidental shootings and the possibility that a child could find a gun left behind after a church service.

Rep. Jeff McNeely, an Stony Point Republican who introduced the bill to the committee, said that just allowing guns onto a school campus wouldn’t mean anyone in the congregation is actually carrying a gun or using it.

“In the event that somebody does move to make a bad action, the mere brandishing of a firearm would generally stop things, so in every respect, this is a lot of bang for your buck with regard to public safety,” McNeely said.

Several pastors attended the hearing and voiced their support of the bill.

Rep. Mary Belk, a Charlotte Democrat, asked if it was legal for churches using school buildings to have an off-duty officer on site for security.

McNeely said at smaller, rural churches the congregation doesn’t necessarily have their own funding to pay for off-duty officers and if they do, their towns might not have enough off-duty officers to watch over a church service.

But, he added, if the House doesn’t pass the bill or Gov. Roy Cooper vetoes it, lawmakers need to consider providing the congregations money to pay for security.

With 533 “church schools,” McNeely said that would be a significant amount of money coming out of the state’s budget.

“That’s kind of where I think we’re at with it,” McNeely said. “We’re at the crux: do we take the money from the state budget and pay to protect these people or do we allow them to have their Second Amendment rights like the rest of us have, which I have at my church.”

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