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With a copy of "The Reagan Diaries" on his desk Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signs the Church Protection Act to allow churches to legally have armed security.(Photo: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant's Office)
JACKSON, Miss.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— Mississippi's governor signed a bill Friday to allow churches to have armed security guards even as the state police chiefs association expressed concerns.
The legislation was proposed in wake of the June 17 Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shootings in Charleston, S.C., in which Dylann Roof is accused of killing nine people in a Wednesday night Bible study group that he had attended the previous hour.
"Churches deserve protection from those who would harm worshippers," GOP Gov. Phil Bryant tweeted after signing House Bill 786, which is effective immediately.
Before Bryant signed the bill, the Mississippi Police Chiefs Association said its provisions will do away with a license to carry a concealed handgun in public and put law enforcement and all people in harm's way.
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"I wish we lived in a world where this bill wouldn't be necessary," said state Rep. Andy Gipson, a Republican who wrote the bill and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>also is pastor of Gum Springs Baptist Church in Braxton, Miss.
Mississippi already allows people to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. He said the new law only clarifies that a handgun can be carried in a sheath, belt holster, or shoulder holster as opposed to sticking it into a pocket.
“I wish we lived in a world where this bill wouldn't be necessary.”
Andy Gipson, Mississippi state representative
Trained security personnel are called for in the law, Gipson said.
But the police chiefs' group disagreed, saying<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bill lowers the bar for those who can carry a concealed, loaded gun in public to include violent criminals, some severely mentally ill people<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and chronic alcoholics.
During debate in the state House, state Rep. John Hines, a Democrat from Greenville, Miss., said measure isn't needed. He believes it has the potential to create problems, asking rhetorically what would happen if a child took a toy gun to church, a security person mistook it for a weapon and the armed guard hurt the child.
The bill was one of three that the governor signed Friday. Others dealt with expanding charter-school rules<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to allow students in poorly performing school districts to attend the schools in nearby districts, taking their allotment of government education money with them, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>outlawing a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure called dilation and evacuation.
Follow Jimmie E. Gates on Twitter:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>@jgatesnews
The cartoonist's homepage, clarionledger.com/opinion<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Marshall Ramsey, The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger)
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