NY pastor's call to arms

Tells parishioners: Bring your guns!

An upstate church is encouraging its worshippers to come locked and loaded following the massacre at a Texas chapel last Sunday.

“We are not a gun-free zone,” reads the latest sign in front of the Lighthouse Mexico Church of God in Oswego County, which is about 35 miles north of Syracuse.

The church — which describes itself as the “most upbeat church in upstate New York!” — features the same pro-gun message on its Web site and adds “we protect our people!”

Church pastor Ronald Russell says he’s been allowing firearms in the house of worship since white supremacist Dylann Roof gunned down nine black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015.

“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,” he told Spectrum News.

He put the new sign up this week to remind his flock of the open-carry policy after shooter Devin Kelley murdered 26 people at a small church in Texas over the weekend. “Times are changing,” he said. The church also offers self-defense classes and training on how to identify suspicious behavior, Spectrum reports.

Lighthouse isn’t the only Empire State house of God preparing for another attack — Buffalo’s True Bethel Baptist Church plans on hosting active-shooter training during its services this Sunday.

But its focus will be less on fighting back and more on survival techniques, its pastor told local news network WIVB.

“It’s not about you know whether we need guns in church, or weapons in church, but what are the simple things members are to do? Are they to stay in the building, are they to get up under pews? It’s simple things that could save a life,” said pastor Darius Pridgen.