Ken Pagano asked his flock to bring their unloaded handguns - in holsters - to New Bethel Church in Louisville for a celebration of the Second Amendment. When the event got under way a little after 5 p.m. Saturday, about 200 people - many carrying small firearms - sat in the Pentecostal church sanctuary.

"We are wanting to send a message that there are legal, civil, intelligent and law-abiding citizens who also own guns," Pagano said in greeting the audience, which included people who do not belong to his church.

"If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today," he said, drawing hearty applause and exclamations of "amen!"

“This country started by people gathering together in churches and complaining about taxation and about their current government, King George the third, taking armaments that they had,” said Chesley Kemp, 61, a family doctor with his Kimber .45 auto at his side.

Dr. Kemp drove two hours from Bowling Green to attend a gun celebration here inside the New Bethel Church, believed to be the first such event in modern times.

The pioneer spirit suffused a 90-minute program staged by Ken Pagano, the pastor of the Assembly of God church, for whom God, guns and America are a package deal.

“But for a deep-seated belief in God and firearms, this country would not be here today,” Mr. Pagano declared from the church’s stage-like pulpit. “Amens,” rolled forward from the congregation of about 180 people who were celebrating their ability to bear their arms almost anywhere in Kentucky, including in church. Mr. Pagano said this not a worship service (the church posted a snippet of the event on YouTube). But at one point, he could not resist, raising both hands above his head, blessing his flock and saying a prayer.

“You have become my parishioners,” he said. “I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you….”