Minister who held gun rally at church leaves to promote firearm rights
October 8th, 2009 by Syd
Minister who held gun rally at church leaves to promote firearm rights
Ken Pagano, who drew world attention to his small Valley Station church by hosting a rally celebrating God and guns in June, has resigned from his ministry to promote gun rights and church security.
He’s working part-time at a local gun range and has helped form a group called the International Security Coalition of Clergy, along with a New York rabbi and others who are promoting the use of armed and trained security at houses of worship.
Pagano said that although New Bethel Church in Valley Station supported his organizing of the “Open Carry Celebration,” he felt he had become “maybe a little too much of a liability” and brought notoriety to the small congregation.
“I didn’t intend for it to turn out that way, but it did,” said Pagano, 49, a retired Marine who had been pastor of the congregation for a decade. “If we had just had a celebration service and it died down, it might not have been as big a deal. But it still generated quite a bit of interest, which wasn’t bad for me, but as a pastor I was concerned about the congregation.” …
…Pagano organized the Open Carry Celebration at his church on June 27, where participants were encouraged to wear unloaded guns on their holsters. The approximately 200 attendees — church members and visitors that included several members of a private militia — recited patriotic songs and the Pledge of Allegiance and watched a series of Internet videos arguing for the right to bear arms and arguing that gun bans put people at risk.
Source: Courier-Journal
What is the point of carrying unloaded firearms?
I think the idea was to make a public statement, but I wouldn’t go if it meant I had to unload.
You may have had it unloaded in church during the service. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have had a magazine or two in your other pockets. . . . .