Odd Stories: "Please Don't Bring Weapons" Asks Church

Milwaukee - After a new law permitting people to carry concealed weapons was passed, Catholic bishops in Wisconsin are asking their parishioners not to bring them to church.

The statement, read by Archbishop Jerome Listecki, reads “intuitively, we understand that acts of violence, destruction, and murder are antithetical to the message and person of Jesus Christ and have no rightful place in our society, especially sacred places," the bishops said just before the law went into effect on Tuesday.

"We ask that all people seriously consider not carrying weapons into church buildings as a sign of reverence for these sacred spaces.”



Listecki said the law makes it an individual church's decision whether to ban weapons or not. The permit allows people to carry concealed handguns, electric weapons, any knife except for switchblades, and clubs. Machine guns, short-barreled rifles, and shot-barreled shotguns are not part of the law and are still banned.



An employer may bar an employee from bringing their concealed weapon to work but cannot stop them from keeping them in the car even if it's on workplace property.



In order to get the permit a mandatory four-hour training course or hunter-safety course must be passed.



Since the bill passed on Tuesday, there have been more than 20-thousand permit applications. So far 879 were approved and 793 were printed. The state's Justice Department said 117 were rejected due to incomplete applicant data, insufficient training documentation, or a missing payment.

Commentary: The Seven Billionth Child

While everyone is excited about the birth of the seven billionth child.  News organizations such as the Associated Press are even doing symbolic stories about it and how it is affecting certain countries.

In the story the Associated Press covered, under the fluff about the celebrations going on around the world, is a story about how the country of the Philippines is looking at birth control for a solution to its population issues.  Although the Catholic church is still against it, the country's government is supporting a "program that includes artificial birth control" in the words of the AP.

Citizens of the Philippines, such as Danica Camacho who is the mother of the country's "symbolic seven-billion baby", are taking it upon themselves to try to cut down on the world's population.  Aware of the Vatican's stance she decided to start using birth control anyway.  ""The number of homeless children I see on the streets keeps multiplying.  When I see them, I'm bothered because I eat and maybe they don't", she said.

I'm sure even those who love children more than anything else in the world are aware it is time this planet gets this problem under control.  If we fail to do so the world's resources will be so scarce any child born will face an extremely difficult life.

It's time for us to willingly decrease the number of children we have through things like birth control and other family planning methods.