A Louisiana bill that will allow individuals to carry guns in church without first getting permission has been a little controversial. Unsurprisingly, anti-gunners strongly oppose the measure as they oppose anything that doesn’t make life difficult for law-abiding citizens who are no threat to anyone. Oh no, they never register in their minds that the people who intend evil are generally not deterred by such laws.

The measure also has supporters. In Louisiana, it seems the supporters outnumber the doomsayers. At least enough to send the bill to the Senate.

A controversial bill that would allow people to carry guns in churches cleared the House of Representatives in Baton Rouge.

It cleared despite strong opposition from faith-based groups.

The bill, backed by State Rep. Bryan Fontenot from Lafourche Parish, would repeal a law that allows churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship from banning concealed weapons on their property.

While faith-based groups may well oppose the measure, I find it rather hypocritical.

After all, they’re the direct beneficiary of the First Amendment, which protects them from all kinds of government intrusion, yet so many seem willing to jump on the bandwagon with anti-gunners to infringe on people’s Second Amendment rights. Nothing about that seems remotely right.

Of course, it doesn’t appear that the measure changes any of the criminal trespass laws, and that’s important. It still allows churches to tell people they know to be carrying to leave. Failure to do so would result in a criminal charge.

That’s still on the table.

What’s really going to happen, though, is that law-abiding citizens who carry can now carry in church and be available to act in case a madman comes in with the intent to slaughter the faithful. Yes, gun owners can stop bad people. We’ve seen it happen. White Settlement, TX, for example.

As it stands, there were likely members of many congregations carrying anyway. They just didn’t tell anyone they were doing it. Don’t ask, don’t tell is still in effect, it just covers entirely different issues these days.

Now that the bill has passed the House, the Senate will take it up where it’s likely to pass as well.

It’s not until it gets to the governor’s desk that I expect to see an issue. Governor John Bel Edwards is a Democrat, after all. However, he bills himself as a pro-gun Democrat, so I can see him going either way on this one.

He may well sign the bill, but he may use the faith-based groups’ opposition to this as political cover for vetoing it. That remains to be seen.

However, two years ago, he did sign another bill that loosened restrictions on carrying guns in churches. As such, it’s not unreasonable to believe he may well do so again.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to tell with Edwards being a Democrat, even a pro-gun one. I’m inclined to believe he’ll sign this one, which will make churches much more secure throughout the state. For better or worse, bad people can find which churches don’t allow guns and take advantage of that. Removing the ability for churches to refuse to allow firearms means those bad people will never know.

That means they’ll likely seek out an easier target.