Fun With Guns: Megachurch Edition
Pinelake Church in Rankin County, Mississippi, is a mega church with half a dozen campuses and 9,000 people attending every Sunday.
Last Sunday was special. Joseph Edgar Ray’s 9mm handgun discharged while he was sitting down to worship Sweet Jesus. A woman was hit in the leg by shrapnel when the bullet hit the concrete floor.
Pinelake Church Executive Pastor of Operations Rod Cadenhead pointed out in a statement that guns were not allowed on the property. In fact, a sign in front of the church says, “Carrying of a pistol or revolver is prohibited.”
Flowood Police Department Lt. Ricky McMillian said that Joseph Edgar Ray “had an ‘enhanced’ carry permits that allowed him to ignore signs prohibiting guns, except in some places like schools and courtrooms.”
Lt. Ricky also announced that Ray is an “upstanding guy” and that’s why he wasn’t releasing his mug shot.
Yep, Mississippi is just full of upstanding guys with enhanced carry permit just itchin’ to give you a war injury in church.
No, I’m not being sarcastic. Mississippi is just that.
Thanks to TexasTrailerParkTrash for the heads up.
One more reason why I am quite content to worship at Bedsprings Baptist these days.
1You think those special permits might come with a tin foil beanie?
2Tony,they come with a rubber-tipped,foil beany so if two wingnuts head butt,neither head will explode. Comments from several write-ups are telling. Some support his right to carry guns anywhere,some give him a pass for not using a holster. Some say he has the right to carry,but not in a church. Some even defended his gun rights and still managed to call him irresponsible. I guess love your neighbor,but wing them in church will become the new rw normal.
3And if he had killed the poor woman?
Would Lt. Ricky then have said Ray wouldn’t be arrested
4because his innocence was enhanced by kneeling to god AND his special carry permit?
I live next door to a church and every Sunday morning I’m amused by the beeps of people setting their car alarms. Apparently their cars aren’t safe in God’s own parking lot. So I wonder who they are afraid of when there is no one around but them?
5Ah well, you gotta luv Mississippi.
Sometimes, they outdo Texas…… in crazy.
6The right to carry means he can and being in church is a good place as it is full of delusional people.
7But the main point is WHY did it go off??
I’ve used guns and if the hammer is down and the safety is on and there is no round in the barrel, you can throw the gun and bounce it off a concrete wall and it CAN’T go off.
So for this to happen, he had the gun improperly carried, a round loaded, the hammer cocked and the safety off.
Doesn’t this state have safe carry rules??? I’m just sorry he didn’t have the barrel pointed at his balls, instead of down is butt.
I’m sure next Sunday there will be even more people bringing their guns to Pinelake Church. Because next time it might not be an “upstanding citizen” who shoots someone but a terrorist and they need to be ready to shoot ’em up and be heroes.
8Perhaps that’s why in Texas liquor stores are not allowed to sell liquor on Sundays, buy beer at stores on Sundays before noon, or buy alcoholic drinks at bars and restaurants on Sundays before noon.
9Right on point, L.Long. A loaded, cocked gun carried into church? This guy was planning something and maybe the accidental discharge prevented something far worse from happening. Or maybe Mr. Standup was sick of the sermons.
10Totally wacko. And what gets me in Texas is when I walk into the Capitol through security where i have to put everything in a basket but folks with guns can just walk in. Nutso.
11Incidentally, there is an article on Huff Post re the “Christian Militia” which has posted a threat to kill President Obama on facebook.
12Apparently the FBI is aware and watching, but these rnjw’s calling themselves Christian anything sickens me.
Yuppers. I too believe this guy was up to no good in church. I recall some really bad church shootings in recent history. Gotta wonder if all the gun carryin’ gun rights folks have total amnesia along with no conscience.
13@RA—“Bedsprings Baptist”—I love it! Is that anything like a Posturepedic Presbyterian, a Memory Foam Methodist or more along the lines of a Craftmatic Catholic?
14WWJP?
(What Would Jesus Pack?)
15An secret enhanced gun carry permit is an improvement over what they used to have. In the past, they allowed county permit holders (actual physical permit not required) to possess a noose, wear special white pointed masks, and burn the symbol of Jesus at night.
16Everybody knows it was Dems that were the KKK.
17I begin to wonder if some of us who have no intention of ever being near a gun might wind up with carry permits. Do you think it might scare a few of the enhanced ones and make the wonder if there was somebody coming after them?
nahhhh they’d probably react the wrong way and all of them start carrying ready to shooot without messing with cocking or taking the safety off.
18never mind
from a friend in Oklahoma:
WELL, ARKANSAS ALLOWS CONCEALED CARRY IN THEIR CHURCHES. wHY IN THE HELL AIN’T MISSISSIPPI KEEPING UP?
19AND WHAT IS THIS ENHANCED CARRY. I WANT ONE OF THOSE AND I WANT IT TODAY. I’M A FINE UPSTANDING MEMBER OF MY COMMUNITY! WE ALWAYS GET LEFT OUT OF THE GOOD TIMES.
And there you have it … in a nutshell … the reason I refuse to go behind the Cotton Curtain to visit cousins in Baldwin, Mississippi. Those people are cray-cray.
Secret enhanced carry licenses?? Double secret enhanced carry licenses???
Mississippi is Ridiculous.
20Any church so huge that it has to have an Executive Pastor of Operations is no longer a church at all. It’s a Sunday morning stadium full of Jeebus Fans, being hypnotized by rilly, rilly bad “music” and hoopin’ and hollerin’ for th’ LAWD.
God help us all.
21@TTPT- I freely borrowed from a friend. Please do same. Yes, all us Protest-ants (mostly) share a similar theology. As for the Craftmatic Catholics… I’ll have to ask my Catholic daughter-in-law and get back to you. 😉
22Thanks, RA. I belong to Our Lady of Perpetual Hot Flashes myself. Have a happy Thanksgiving!
23angela: If he’d killed the woman, he’d have gotten off the same way some hunters have…Why was she sitting where he could hit her and not wearing blaze orange? It’s her fault. She got in the way.
Same way, if the woman who was injured by shrapnel tries to sue the guy who shot her…community sympathy will be all with him.
24@TTPT (again 😉 ) I’m even more ecumenical than I realized. Seems I belong to Our Lady of Perpetual Hot Flashes also too.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you wonderful customers here at WMDBS, Inc. You help put the Happy in Thanksgiving for me.
25I thought that an “enhanced” carry permit involved penile implants. My bad.
26Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
27Hypocrites – all headed for perdition.
Ha, ha!!! Thanks, Ranger Jay and RA!
Happy, happy Thanksgiving to one and all!
28He wouldn’t be the first to attend church loaded.
But seriously, he’s got a carry permit and he walks around with a bullet in the chamber? Permit should be revoked at a minimum. The wounded lady should sue the guy for all his worldly guns and ammo.
29The only way that gun could have discharged is if he was strokin’ it in church…
How weird are those people?
30Suppose he did a Jimmy Swaggart mea culpa-I have sinned against you my lord,boo hoo?
31