LDS Church bans guns from its meetinghouses
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is asking people to keep their guns at home when they attend church meetings. It is prohibiting people from bringing firearms into the church’s houses of worship.
The First Presidency of the LDS Church is asking members to keep the focus on worship, and says in a letter going out to local church leaders that lethal weapons are inappropriate in the buildings.
“Firearms are prohibited in the church’s houses of worship, including temples, meetinghouses, the Assembly Hall, the Salt Lake Tabernacle and the Conference Center,” the letter says. “Scouting merit badges and other activities where firearms are legitimately involved should be held in facilities other than houses of worship.”
Utah law allows religious organizations to prohibit firearms from their properties. The only exception the LDS Church will make is for law enforcement personnel, who are required to carry weapons onto church property for a legitimate reason.
Matt Throckmorton, a former state representative who supported gun-friendly legislation, said he is against the state gun control, but supports the rights of religious organizations to prohibit firearms on their properties.
“Obviously, I completely support the right of the church, any church,” he said.
The LDS Church is sending the letter, signed by Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson and James E. Faust of the First Presidency, to area presidencies, area authority seventies, temple presidents, stake presidents, bishops and branch presidents in Utah.
It will register with the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and give notice, so anyone bringing a weapon to one of the prohibited areas could be criminally prosecuted. However, the First Presidency first asks that a person carrying a weapon should be dealt with politely, and asked to take firearms to a different, safe location.
“Every reasonable effort should be made to avoid confrontation and to defuse emotional situations so as to prevent violence and misunderstanding,” the letter says.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.