A Republican state senator would like to have a law that makes Sunday church attendance mandatory.

While debating a concealed carry bill that would allow Arizona citizens to take their guns with them everywhereÂ â€“ except in places like schoolsÂ â€“ State Senator Sylvia Allen on Tuesday admitted her frustration in even having to debate the bill. Concealed carry everywhere should be automatic, she suggested. Senator Allen, a Tea Party Republican, also admitted that instead of debating the gun bill, her colleagues perhaps should be debating a bill mandating compulsory church attendance.

Of course, Sen. Allen supports both bills.

“How we get to back to a moral rebirth of this country, I don’t know, since we are slowly eroding religion at every opportunity that we have,” Allen lamented in front of her colleagues.

“Probably we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday to see if we can get back to having a moral rebirth,” Allen posited,Â decryingÂ the “horrible erosion of the soul of America.”

At least the Tea Party senator thinks her fellow Arizona citizens should have a choice in which church they would be forced to attend.

Senator Allen refuses to apologize for her comments, but offered an explanation.

On Wednesday, Allen said that was a â€œflippant commentâ€ but decried the changes since she was a child in the 1950s. â€œPeople prayed, people went to church,â€ she said in explaining her views. â€œI remember on Sundays the stores were closed,â€ Allen said. â€œThe biggest thing is religion was kicked out of our public places, out of our schools.â€

The Phoenix New Times notes the gun bill is the same one that provoked the debate among lawmakers of “whether God or humans gave Americans gun rights.”

As for Allen, this is definitely not the only time she’s caught the public attention with her statements. Her first time in the national spotlight was when she declared that Earth is 6,000 years old. (She’s off by about 4.54 billion years, according to scientists.)

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs

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