"We are not a gun-free zone," a sign outside the Lighthouse Mexico Church of God in Oswego County says. The church's official website also includes a scrolling message that says "We are NOT a 'Gun free zone'- we protect our people!"
Pastor Ronald Russell tells Spectrum News that his church, located on S. Jefferson Street in Mexico, N.Y., has allowed congregants to openly carry guns since a shooting at a South Carolina church in 2015. Dylann Roof, a self-identified white supremacist, was convicted last year of killing nine black church members at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
Russell says he put the open-carry sign up this week after a Texas gunman killed 26 people and injured 20 at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs on Sunday. Police say Devin Patrick Kelley's attack was likely motivated by a "domestic situation" with his second wife's in-laws, but the deadly incident has raised questions of gun control across America.
"Times are changing," Russell told Spectrum News on Thursday. "It's not the congregation, per se, but the leadership. People say 'well, pastor, you're talking about killing some,' and I say 'well, if I don't protect my people, I'm being complicit.' A shooting here, that's not going to happen."
