Signs at The River at Tampa Bay Church read: "PLEASE KNOW THIS IS NOT A GUN FREE ZONE — WE ARE HEAVILY ARMED — ANY ATTEMPT WILL BE DEALT WITH DEADLY FORCE — YES WE ARE A CHURCH AND WE WILL PROTECT OUR PEOPLE."
The nondenominational church, which has hosted sermons about things like how religion can fix the transgenders and the gays, has actually had the signs up for over a year, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
However, the signs started getting attention after one of the pastors posted them to social media following the shootings at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
"If you think you are going to come here and do that, it is a deterrent for you because it is everywhere, it's not like we hide these signs," said associate pastor Allen Hawesth to the Times. "They're big signs, and it's going to tell these people, we will protect our people."
Hawesth says that the church officials are following biblical teachings by concealing firearms while teaching the word of God. "I believe, if you look at the teachings of Jesus, Matthew, and different places in the Scriptures, we see it will get increasingly darker, wars, rumors of wars, and people with not good intentions are going to look for a way to make a statement," he said.
In case you're wondering, this is what an NRA-sponsored hellscape looks like.
