State Rep. Lynn Greer, a Republican from Rogersville, plans to file a bill this year in the Alabama Legislature called the Alabama Church Protection Act. It was previously introduced in the State House of Representatives in 2018 and 2019.
“We’re modifying Stand Your Ground so it will pertain to churches and church events,” Greer said on Thursday. “I think we have a better bill than we had three years ago.”
It would add churches to the 2006 Stand Your Ground law, allowing churchgoers to defend themselves with guns at church.
“It’ll give not only criminal but civil immunity,” Greer said. It would apply not just to churches but temples and mosques, he said.
“This pertains to all religions,” Greer said. “It protects everybody.”
The bill proposes that church members can use deadly force to defend themselves, and would be presumed justified if they believe someone is about to harm people in attendance at a church.
A shooting at a church in Texas the week after Christmas brought renewed attention to shootings at churches.
A shooter at West Freeway Church of Christ in a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas, shot and killed two churchgoers on Dec. 29, 2019. Jack Wilson, a member of the church security team, shot and killed the intruder, Keith Kinnunen, within six seconds after he fired the first shot.
“I was shocked,” Greer said. “At my age, in my lifetime, you never expected this. That’s what our nation has evolved to. We kind of expect it.”
Three deadly shootings in 2017 made it the deadliest year for killings at U.S. churches. But it has been a recurring problem, from seven dead at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Texas in 1999 to nine killed at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.
“Large churches can hire security,” Greer said. Small churches rely on more informal protection, he said.
“In Rogersville, there are 1,300 people and 12 churches,” Greer said. “They can’t afford to hire a security team.”
More than 94 people have been killed in at least 23 church-related shootings since 1999, with at least 8 shooters then killing themselves also.
The Alabama Church Protection Act will be on the ballot as a constitutional amendment in November this year for Lauderdale and Franklin counties, Greer said. He would still like to see the bill passed as a statewide law before then.
The next legislative session begins Feb. 4. Greer said that Sen. Arthur Orr plans to introduce the bill in the senate.
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Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement Thursday saying that Alabama’s Stand Your Ground law already offers protection for those who would defend themselves and others from a shooter at church.
“The shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ in Texas was a sobering depiction of good vs. evil in our society today," Marshall said. "Tragically, that congregation lost two of its members; yet mercifully, Jack Wilson spared the lives of many more. Texas law was recently updated to ensure that individuals like Mr. Wilson do not have to fear the threat of prosecution for carrying a firearm in a church that allows it. Fortunately, Alabama can proudly say that it already offers this same protection. We urge every church in our state to adopt a church security plan that will better ensure the safety of their members during worship.”
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