Guns Come to Church

A few minutes before New Bethel Church’s highly publicized “open-carry service” began Saturday evening, Lynne Smith walked into the sanctuary with her husband and two friends and took a seat in the front row.

Reporting for TIME Magazine, Cary G. Stemle said that when asked what weapon she had with her, Smith had to stop and think about which gun she’d brought but finally said it was a Beretta .25 automatic. Her husband, Michael Houston, wore a Browning .380 in a holster. Their friends, Ted and Barbara Grant, were also carrying weapons.

Barbara, wearing a NYPD baseball cap, had a Ruger .38 revolver, while Ted, who wore a ball cap with the National Rifle Association logo on the side and “Silver Bullet Brigade” on the front, had a Taurus .40 caliber automatic.

TIME said that the unusual gathering was entirely legal and acceptable to the leaders of New Bethel, an Assemblies of God church in Louisville, Kentucky, that invited people to bring their unloaded guns to this first-ever event. Neither of the two couples in the front row are New Bethel members.

A statement on the church’s web site about the event said that gun ownership is not part of the gospel message, which is Jesus Christ, His life, death, burial and resurrection.

The statement continued, “Gun ownership falls under the scope of Christian liberty. One may either choose to own or not own a firearm. But as soon as someone yells ‘foul,’ or that this event or activity is not something that one may do as a Christian, the matter now becomes inextricably linked with the gospel.”

The web site continued, “We recognize that some will disagree with us about this event, and we respect their right to do so. Yet, in the words of one of the greatest theologians ever to come from the Christian faith, ‘To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.’ (St. Thomas Aquinas).

A disclaimer on the web page referring to the event said, “All visitors to New Bethel Church Property enter at their own risk. New Bethel Church will not be held responsible for injuries to you or damage to your personal property.”

Smith told TIME she read about the service in the Louisville Courier-Journal and came “to see what was going on.”

All four are longtime NRA members, she said, and all are deeply worried that the federal government will mount an effort to take away the right to bear arms they believe is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

TIME said that generalized concern was expressed in various ways by various people at the service, which became an international media sensation when it hit Louisville’s mainstream press early this month. Pastor Ken Pagano, a former Marine and a volunteer chaplain with the Louisville Metro Police Department, suggested the idea more than a year ago when the church board was brainstorming ways to expand its outreach.

Just after five o’clock, Pastor Ken Pagano stepped to the microphone, welcomed the crowd of about 175 and summarized the ground rules.

“All arms are to be holstered,” TIME reported he said. “It’s a cold-range carry as a show of support for the Second Amendment and First Amendment.”

TIME said Pagano focused on a number of issues he has dealt with before while being interviewed by journalists from Australia to Ireland.

They are that pacifism is optional for Christians; society faces more risks from texting and Twittering drivers on the highway than from guns; and “we’re not doing anything illegal, immoral or unconstitutional, so why apologize?”

TIME said he promised to keep the event (it was not a worship service) to about an hour, though it lasted 90 minutes.

The relaxed program was built largely around music and talking points interspersed with a series of videos downloaded from YouTube.

TIME said the audience sang a verse each of “America, the Beautiful,” “My Country ’tis of Thee,” and “God Bless America.”

They then watched a watched a video clip from the late comedian Red Skelton in which he invokes one of his former teachers who broke down the Pledge of Allegiance word by word. Pagano then asked the crowd to stand and led them in reciting the Pledge.

TIME said two videos featured the magicians Penn and Teller, who support gun rights. In one, they stuff a folded American flag inside a rolled-up copy of the Bill of Rights before seemingly setting it (and only it) on fire; the magicians then challenge the audience to embrace the ambiguity of the illusion and to understand that, regardless, the Bill of Rights remains.

Later, on another video, they parsed the language of the Second Amendment and quibble with those who quibble over punctuation around the word “people” and their right to bear arms.

TIME reported that Pagano related how the church’s insurance carrier refused to cover the event and his efforts to find a one-day rider. Only one agent in the country was willing to underwrite the event, he said – for $2,600. That, he said, illustrates how insurance companies have too much control over regular people. Those remarks, and others from Pagano, drew spontaneous bursts of “that’s right” and “amen.” The church eventually found coverage for $700.

After more videos there was a raffle with prizes of a free NRA membership, gun range time and a pistol.

There was also another video, this time of Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA,” and an invitation to hang out for hot dogs, chips and bottled water.
Afterward, Kevin Terrell, who was among a group of attendees dressed in camouflage, told TIME that his militia group, the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters, is closely watching various gun legislation in Congress.

He said that former President George Bush’s expansion of presidential power is a problem because he believes the current president has used it to his advantage.

“I used to think I was a right-wing Republican until Bush,” he said. “Now that absolute power has been passed to a left-winger.”

The church didn’t know what to expect from the first-time event, said member Charles Hinckley, a former pastor who carried a Smith & Wesson .380, but it went off smoothly.

TIME said that video cameras were prohibited on church grounds, forcing news crews to do stand-ups beyond the entrance to the church’s long parking lot, and still photos were restricted to one pool photographer.

TIME reported that Pagano, who said church members have a responsibility to stress safe gun usage, would like to make the open-carry service an annual event annual leading to the Fourth of July. And he said he had no problem with an alternative rally, “Bring Your Peaceful Heart … Leave Your Gun at Home,” that coincided with the gun service.

Terry Taylor, who heads Interfaith Paths to Peace, which organized the counter-rally, said there was no need to protest at the New Bethel event. “That’s not how we do things,” TIME reported he said. “We wanted to hold our own event and give something to people that we think is better.”

For more information go to New Bethel Church.

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Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is “The Face of Homelessness.” Additional details are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com. Reynalds’ latest book is “We All Need a Little Help.” It was released on October 3 2008. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

UN: Children have a ‘right’ to grow up in a world without guns.

Michael P. Farris, J.D., of ParentalRights.org, in The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:The Impact on Private Gun-Ownership in America, writes:

“The spread of small arms creates a serious global problem and requires an equally urgent response because the lives and futures of children are at stake. These weapons have extinguished more young lives than they have protected.” – Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF

The vast majority of Americans, regardless of their opinions on the increasing scope of international law, agree with the proposition that children should not be used as soldiers. Accordingly, much of the UN literature that addresses children and guns deals with this military-related issue.

However, a second theme is quickly found in virtually all UN pronouncements about child soldiers and weapons. UN child’s rights advocates believe, teach, and promote the idea that all private gun-ownership is dangerous for children, and that children have the right to grow up in a community that is free from all guns.

As the campaign to seek ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child intensifies, it is important for all Americans to understand the application of this children’s rights treaty to the issue of private gun ownership by American citizens.

Limiting the rights of gun-ownership is not some secret agenda of the UN, but is open for all to see. UNICEF, the official UN agency charged with the worldwide advancement of children’s rights, has published a four-color brochure entitled: “No Guns Please, We Are Children.” The quotation given at the opening of this paper is taken from the front cover of this UNICEF brochure.

Inside this brochure we find the following assertions about guns and children…[Continue reading on ParentalRights.org >>]

 

Wife Beheaded in New York

by Barbara Sowell, Faultline USA

A Prominent Orchard Park is man charged with second-degree murder in the beheading his wife. The particularly gruesome killing has received scant media attention since it was first reported yesterday.

The Buffalo News reported that Muzzammil Hassan, founder of Bridges TV, is charged with murder in the beheading of his wife, Aasiya Hassan, left, in Orchard Park.

According to The Buffalo News, Aasiya Hassan had recently filed for divorce from her husband, and she had an order of protection which removed Hassan from the home on “Friday the 6th [of February].”

Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.

 
Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder.

Ironically, Bridges TV was launched by Hassan in 2004 in Buffalo, New York, in an effort to portray Muslims in a more positive light.

Erie Country District Attorney has called this the “worst form of domestic violence possible.”

Because honor killings, such as beheadings, are still fairly uncommon in the United States, it is curious that the mainstream media has failed to adequately cover this story. MSNBC is the only major media to mention this story. MSNBC ran a scant report that only summarized The Buffalo News report.

Others sources writing about this story are two widely read blogs, Right Truth and Atlas Shrugs.

Atlas Shrugs asks:

We are throwing our women out like so much chattel. Where is the wall to wall television coverage like you get with Natalee Holloway and Callee Anthony, Jesse Davis? . . The intentional mainstream media obfuscation of honor killings and the act of beheading as both relate to Islamic fundamentalist practices & beliefs is anticipated, . . .

Open Carry 4 Texas

Texas is one of only SIX states in the entire United States that completely bans open carry of handguns. Representative Debbie Riddle (R – Houston) will soon introduce historic legislation to restore the right to open carry handguns in Texas.

So if you know anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in Texas, now is the time to contact them and urge them to sign the open carry petition for Texas at http://www.petitiononline.com/texasoc/petition.html

Time is short and this Bill may die if there are not enough citizen signatures.

Pass this info along to all your e-mail contacts.

According to MySan Antonio.com, “OpenCarry.org — advocating the change in Texas law. The group, which has raised more than $10,000 online to buy radio and billboard ads across the state, also says it has collected more than 53,000 Texas signatures in an online petition …”

Here’s a message from Mike Stollenwerk and John Pierce, Co-founders, OpenCarry.org. – a national pro-gun group.

Open Carriers Across America:
Representative Riddle (R – Houston) will soon introduce historic legislation to restore the right to open carry handguns in Texas. But that does not mean the fight is over – it’s just beginning. That’s why we need to drive up the signature count on the petition for Texas at http://www.petitiononline.com/texasoc/petition.html

And all Americans can help just like in 1836 when volunteers came from many states to help Texas fight and ultimately defeat an invading Mexican Army.

So if you known anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in Texas, now is the time to contact them and urge them to sign the open carry petition for Texas at http://www.petitiononline.com/texasoc/petition.html

The petition is now at over 54,000 signatures but we need to drive that signature count well North of 55,000 in the coming days to send a clear signal to Austin that open carry needs to be passed this year.

And if you blog in Texas, or can spare a few moments to add this message and/or the petition link to Texas blogs, please do so immediately. And remind folks to use valid email addresses so that they can receive vital updates on legislative matters from the Texas Open Carry Working Group which is going to be a permanent and effective pro-gun force in Texas to be reckoned with this year and in the future!

Please act on this message today.

If you blog please copy and re-publish the above message for your readers. Then post your link on the OpenCarry forum.

Read also A bill to register and confiscate your firearms!

 

A bill to register and confiscate your firearms!

Cross-posted from Faultline USA

You won’t be hearing about this on news. The left plans on sneaking this one through!!!

The following is from American Thinker. See Also The Snooper Report

The liberals are at it again. In a new bill introduced the first day of present session of Congress, and with zero coverage from the MSM, H.R. 45 (Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009) targets all gun owners in the U.S.A.

This nefarious bill seeks to strip us all of our Constitutional Rights to possess and bear firearms of any distinction. It requires, within the first two years, that all new guns be registered. The bill goes retroactive after two years.  Meaning that two years after the passage of the bill, ALL FIREARMS in a citizen’s possession must be registered, not just those purchased after the bill passes, and this apparently applies to antique firearms as well.

Every five years the firearm owner must go through a complete renewal process for each weapon owned.   Failure to comply carries stiff penalties including confiscation of the firearms and jail time (penalties as high as ten years imprisonment in some cases).  The bill also authorizes government searches without warrant, the creation of a federal bureaucracy to monitor firearm possession, etc. . .

See Summary of the bill here:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/02/more_gun_control_introduced_in.html

Contact your Elected Officials today!

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Teacher Suspended for Not Giving Up Her Constitutional Rights

What the hell is wrong with this country?

A couple of things but one that I have noticed is “political correctness”. Political correctness should be known correctly as, socialist indoctrination language training. This training runs rampant throughout American culture. We have become so fearful of hurting an individual’s feelings that we are afraid to make them a friend. Thereby forcing groups apart by color, race, creed, religion, beliefs, disability, gender, etc.

The left-wing has you jumping at shadows; behind every gun is a maniac, behind every joke is racist, behind every gesture is someone out to get you… This is how the Left makes victims for without this step there could be no subjugation of the masses.

If you are curious as to why this rant occurred, it was because a teacher in Beaver Dam Wisconsin was suspended. Not for anything that occurred at school. Not for anything criminal. She was suspended “because a concerned teacher” notified the school superintendent that she possessed a gun, a file. Had she brought the weapon to school? No, she put a picture of her and it on her Facebook page.

Local TV Coverage Video

The teacher took down the picture and eventually her entire facebook page.

If you can’t beat them then slander them with B_______. It doesn’t matter just get the right thinking teacher regardless of their teaching ability out of the school systems so that the pantywaists, perverts, and other liberals may spread their tidings of gloom and doom and encourage all the students to think become like sheep. I deleted the phrase think because that’s the last thing liberals want anyone doing. Even in the Presidential questionnaire his vetting team is concerned if respondents own firearms. The Presidential Cabinet is being stacked with anti-gun personnel by an alleged President who believes the Constitution needs to be changed to reflect “modern” society.” I am sure the owning of a gun would get you removed the One’s list faster than something like, say, tax evasion or lying.

I believe every student should go thru a mandatory gun safety class in the first grade. This would alert them to the “realness” of a firearm and how to safely handle or not handle it. They should also be given the opportunity to fire a weapon, supervised on a range before the sixth grade. Dr. Spock was the epitasis for removing toy guns from children but the socialist liberals promoted it. Dr. Spock in later years repudiated almost all of his former beliefs but the damage was done.

The social liberals are worried, very worried about anyone who owns or can use a firearm. They are working hard to chip away everyone’s Second Amendment Rights. What are you doing to stand in their way?

Ghost Ranger, Tex’s first novel, is now available on Lulu and Amazon