One of the most vulnerable venues to mass shootings in recent years nationwide has been places of worship, specifically churches.
Over the past several years, Rep. Lynn Greer (R-Rogersville) has attempted to push legislation that would allow churches to bolster protection against these threats by giving security personnel protections similar to what’s contained in Alabama’s stand-your-ground law. Greer has not had success. However, he and other members of the Alabama legislature, including Rep. Jamie Kiel (R-Russellville), are instead trying to get local legislation passed that would add the protections on a county level.
During an appearance on Huntsville radio’s “The Jeff Poor Show” on WVNN, Kiel explained how the objection of one member of the Alabama House of Representatives has now forced the effort to a statewide ballot, which will allow the entire state to vote on legislation that will only pertain to Franklin County.
“For several years, Lynn Greer has proposed legislation statewide that would allow some additional protection for church security teams in the case of having to use some kind of bodily harm against someone who might be trying to injure somebody or kill somebody in a church — and specifically, with an active shooter or something along those lines. So, we haven’t been able to get that passed for one reason or another through the House. He presented it again this year, so it still didn’t get passed. So, I presented local legislation that would allow Franklin County to do the same thing, except it would be local legislation. It would give our folks the ability to vote locally on a proposal that would give extra protection for our church security forces.”
Kiel said under normal circumstances there was typically no opposition to such efforts if the local legislators agree to local legislation. In this case, Kiel had the backing of Rep. Proncey Robertson (R-Mount Hope). However, with one objection in the Alabama House of Representatives, the bill will now be a referendum on the March 2020 primary ballot.
The Russellville Republican said there were several efforts statewide for this local legislation, but said Franklin and Lauderdale Counties, both in northwestern Alabama, will be on that ballot because of the objections within the House.
“Representative Greer and I will be working to make sure the information gets out statewide,” Kiel said. “We just want to be able to protect our churches locally. So, we’ll be making folks aware of what’s going on as we get closer to the March general election.”
If the referendum is successful, it could send a message to the Alabama legislature that the law should be passed to apply at a statewide level.
“I think it will send a message to the legislature that it is time to vote on this,” he said. “You know, all the bill does is give some immunity to a church security force where normally a stand-your-ground law would protect you or those immediately around you. You know, if there’s an incident somewhere else in the church, and if I’m serving on my church’s security team, which I do, and I pursue that – I go after that instead of just standing my ground, I actually go to the problem – you know, stand-your-ground is a little vague on that. So, we wanted to make sure in churches or our children that may be in another part of the church, or someone else. So that’s the basis for it.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.
