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The mass shooting in Sutherland Springs shocked the nation, but it really shouldn’t have. While many railed about how churches should be immune to such attacks, it’s not like it was the first by a long shot.

Maniacs often target houses of worship for one simple fact above all others. In many states, it’s illegal to carry a gun to church, which means you have a large number of people in a confined space with limited exits and no firearms. It’s a mass shooters’ playground.

Sutherland Springs was just the most recent here in the United States, though New Zealand fell along a similar pattern.

As a result, many states started changing their laws. Now, it looks like Florida might be joining the ranks of those who did, though it already kind of was.

A controversial gun-rights proposal that was sidetracked last year in the wake of the mass shooting at a Broward County high school started moving in the Senate on Monday.

Voting 4-2 along party lines, the Senate Judiciary Committee backed a measure (SB 1238) that would allow individuals with concealed-weapons permits to carry guns at churches and other religious institutions that share property with schools.

Florida law allows religious facilities to be open to people who have concealed-weapons licenses and are armed. However, state law does not automatically allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to possess firearms on private or public school campuses.

Opponents of the measure, including members of the gun-control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, argue that the proposal seeks to make any religious institution exempt from state firearms laws.

What the law will actually do, in my understanding, is make it primarily so churchgoers who worship at churches that also have schools on their property won’t have to disarm to worship.

All it will do is clear up any confusion about the law.

Of course, Moms Demand Action doesn’t care about churches. They just don’t want anyone carrying guns. Especially at houses of worship. Why? Well, the cynical side of me suspects that they know armed parishioners could stop a mass shooting, thus not only proving their nonsense wrong but also not give them bodies to use as a soapbox to rail against guns.

But that’s the cynical side of me.

Regardless, Moms Demand Action is completely off-base and, frankly, needs to be ignored. Its issues aren’t related to freedom or anything else. It doesn’t care about whether churches want guns on the premises or not. Moms Demand Action wants to make it so people can’t carry, regardless of whatever reasons.

Its war against guns is unhinged but consistent. Let’s be honest, it opposes this bill, not because of any real factor, but because it’s a pro-gun bill. That’s why its arguments are so ridiculous.

My hope is that the bill passes this time around and Floridians can then meet an armed attack at their places of worship with the required level of force to end it and save lives. However, I also suspect that if they pass this law, they won’t have to do any such thing.

Funny how that works out, isn’t it?