Gun-toters, leave the building

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. once described a handgun as "a machine designed to kill human beings."

We agree.

So it is beyond us why gun advocates press so hard to carry their "killing machines" into local churches, where the atmosphere is one of sharing, goodwill, generosity, healing and love. But then, along with their weapons, concealed weapon holders also conceal a dirty little secret. They know if they displayed their weapons openly, they would be shunned for bringing fear and loathing into the house of God. They'd be better off showing up at church with the measles.

For such reasons, we applaud the church officials who not only discourage, but prohibit people from bringing guns into services. Legislators say the recent flap was a mere misunderstanding. That their intentions were good in asking religions to register with the state if they choose to ban guns from church, but the clergy misunderstood them. And though the issue is still murky, we give them the benefit of the doubt.

What does come through crystal clear, however, is the fact religious leaders see no place for "weapons of individual destruction" in houses of worship.

We have the Armed Services and we have church services. Guns belong in the former, not the latter.

By refusing to be more flexible and realizing that prudence dictated a change of thinking, gun hard-liners only managed to shoot themselves in the foot with their own concealed weapons. Their fervor makes one wonder if they truly favor "freedom" or are simply looking for "license" to behave how they wish.

In the end, the idea of firearms in church is so foreign to most churchgoers they can't even fathom the thinking behind such behavior. Do gun toters fear a deranged soul will arise from the congregation and begin picking people off? Do they see themselves as the "guardian angels" rising to quell the violence?

If so, they should be writing novels, not gun pronouncements.

Gun advocates say they are weary of being called "gun nuts," that the label is biased and unfair. But if they don't want Utahns to see them as "nuts," they should stop making public statements that belong in Planter's cans.

Taking aim at the churches will only crystallize their image as loose cannons whose half-cocked ideas blow up in their faces. Machines for killing people are unwelcome in places where people are being saved.