Behind the Rocky Mount United Methodist Church in Jemison, Alabama, lies a dirt-clay gun range where church members practice their marksmanship in between prayer. Pastor Phillip Guin said the idea for the range came out of a need to teach some his congregation’s gun owners about firearm safety.
Because many of his church’s members were hunters and gun enthusiasts, Guin decided to create the Rocky Mount Hunt and Gun Club.
“This is an opportunity to reach out in the name of Jesus Christ in a setting that is completely unique,” Guin said. “Even odd by some people’s standards. But who’s to say that church can’t happen right here?”
The range is also used my some officers in the Jemison Police Department including Deputy Chief Marc McMinn who trains and teaches safety courses to members of the public there.
“Really, the whole purpose of this range is to provide recreational and gun safety in a warm, loving, Christian environment,” Guin said. “Right now, we are just really happy with how everything turned out. We found a use for the small ‘Grand Canyon’ behind our church, and turned it into something that is pretty cool.”
