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New Jersey Pastors Seek to Pack Heat

September 1, 2015

A pair of pastors has applied for concealed carry permits in New Jersey because they said they believe it is their duty to protect their flocks.

"As time goes by, I'm becoming more and more uncomfortable with the safety and security of the church," Pastor Jeffrey Kovach of Mount Laurel’s Calvary Bible Church told New Jersey-based Chasing News. Pastor Kevin Bernat of Egg Harbor Township’s New Life Assembly agreed with Kovach, saying he believes in the right to self-defense. "The right of self-defense, I believe, is godly," he told the news station.

Alexander Roubain, the president of the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, is helping the pastors through the process.

"Imagine that a criminal goes into a church while service is being conducted, starts stabbing and killing people, and the pastor should just call the police. If that is not the definition of insanity, then I do not know what is," said Roubain in an email to members of the organization obtained by NJ.com.

"They told me about their insane experiences in dealing with the New Jersey gun laws and how local authorities would make up rules which clearly violate [state] statutes," Roubain said in the email.

Concealed carry law in New Jersey allows government officials to deny permit requests at their discretion. There are only 1,600 permits in the state, whose population is 9 million. He told Chasing News he does not believe the pastors will obtain the permit unless New Jersey law is changed.