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  • 2016-04-05 (xsd:date)
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  • Mississippi Bill Grants Churches 'Lethal Force' Powers (en)
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  • On 30 March 2016, web site The Free Thought Project published an article reporting that the state of Mississippi had passed a bill granting churches the power to act as soldiers of God, with congregants gaining the ability to legally kill other citizens while taking part in religious services: An article published on the same date by the Addicting Info web site provided a slightly less alarmist report: Both sites linked to the Mississippi legislature's House Bill 786, which does not include any wording referencing soldiers of Christ or soldiers of God anywhere in its text: While The Free Thought Project maintained that the bill legally recognizes actual 'soldiers of Christ' and grants them the power to kill and that the state of Mississippi effectively recognizes churches as their own sovereign entities, the actual text of the bill creates a legally codified way of assembling security details (with the participation of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety) who may possess concealed weapons in places (such as churches) that were previously off-limits to concealed carry: It's possible that some readers misinterpreted the bill's phrase to provide that killing a person while acting as a participant of a church or place of worship security team to mean participant of a church or participant of a security team, but the bill references only trained security team members acting under the direction of church officials. Such persons would be shielded from civil liability stemming from the performance of their duties: The Charleston church shooting in June 2015 appeared to be at least part of the impetus behind the introduction of the bill, as that specific incident was cited by a Mississippi lawmaker: While it is true the bill allows for armed security personnel to be present at church services, it isn't aimed at allowing ordinary churchgoers to kill at will, nor does it specifically designate persons as soldiers of God or soldiers of Christ and grant them absolute legal immunity from prosecution for killing anyone during church services. Under the provisions of the bill, any person seeking legal protection from criminal prosecution for involvement in a fatal shooting committed during church services would still be subject to arrest and trial with the hope that a jury would agree his actions were justifiable. (en)
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