Thursday, November 16, 2006

A surreal ruling

...from Hennepin County judges. Minnesota's "shall issue" carry law (gun carry permits) allows private entities to exclude firearms in their buildings if they notify people on their properties of this policy, either with a sign or orally. Two churches (not Bible-believing ones, thankfully) have objected to this on the grounds that the state is somehow telling them how to communicate their policy to congregants.

Now, maybe I'm dense here, but if not orally or in writing, exactly how are they going to communicate their policy to visitors? Perhaps via ESP or facial gestures? Maybe slap them upside the head with one of John Spong's books? Or perhaps they can sing "give peace a chance" halfheartedly and off-key, and offer the permit holders a "dead fish" handshake?

Methinks the judge should have simply pointed out that as long as these churches have new visitors (hopefully not often, given their theology), there is no way they can enforce their policy other than to use the means provided for in the law. Unfortunately, logic and common sense do not appear to be prerequisites for a Hennepin County judgeship.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Are you the same Robert Perry who attended Central Fellowship Christian Academy in Macon, Ga. back in the early-mid '80's?

Bike Bubba said...

Scott, I don't believe that I've ever even had the pleasure of visiting Macon, to be honest--the closest I've come is probably going through on I-75 on my way to Florida on a band trip. So I'm not your friend--"Perry" is actually a fairly common name for unrelated people to have, as it simply designates those who made hard pear cider.

(great last name for a teetotaling fundamentalist like myself, eh?)