Trope-a-Day: Guns in Church

Guns in Church: Averted in the Empire, in the direction that there is pretty much no inappropriate place to take a pistol, reasonably compact carbine, or either or both of the two swords, except for technical reasons, specifically including banks, grocery stores, airports, starports, in transit, in school, in court, in government buildings, or even attending the Court of Courts, and all the temples.  (Even that of the eikone of peace, who knows perfectly well where peace comes from, and that disarmament is not it.).  On, of course, the perfectly reasonable grounds that if you’re going to acknowledge people’s right to defend themselves and others, you have to acknowledge that that includes having the means to exercise it.

In fact, you’re likely to get in more trouble by not carrying one, since that makes you look like a pacifist or other shirker of their social duty – the one explicitly called out in the Imperial Charter, concerning defending your fellow soph’s rights as your own – which is why you find gun stores at most ports of entry, to permit visitors to comport themselves like civilized sophonts.

Heavier weapons may raise a few more eyebrows, and while it’s still not perfectly polite, are much less likely to result in gross offence should you ask someone to leave them in their vehicle.  (Doing this with the standard personal weapons, inasmuch as it’s telling someone that you won’t trust them until they render themselves harmless, is very much a serious insult.  You can insist on disarmament on your property, nonetheless, but the social consequences… ouch.)

The rest of the Associated Worlds, of course, can vary substantially.