Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey (R): Serious Christians Need to Get Serious about Gun Ownership

Religion stands at the very center of the recent school shooting at Umpqua Community College. According to many accounts, the shooter asked his victims about their religious views before shooting them (see the following ABC News article). As the investigation continues, more details about the shooter will no doubt emerge. 

Religion has also played a role in the response to this shooting, at least for Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a Republican from Tennessee, according to a Washington Post article by Elahe Izadi, Lt. Gov. Ramsey ("Christians ‘serious about their faith’ should consider getting guns, Lt. Gov. says"). On his Facebook page, Ramsey posted a NY Post article about the shooter's targeting of Christians and then makes the following statement: 

"As I scroll through the news this morning I am saddened to read the details of the horrible tragedy in Oregon. My heart goes out to the citizens of Roseburg -- especially the families and loved ones of those murdered.

The recent spike in mass shootings across the nation is truly troubling. Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the same: Christians and defenders of the West.

While this is not the time for widespread panic, it is a time to prepare. I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit. I have always believed that it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.

Our enemies are armed. We must do likewise."

Ramsey then posts a link to Tennessee's Handgun Carry Permit page, providing people with instructions on how to obtain the permit. 

The story of the Umpqua Community College shooter is one in which religion and guns tragically intersect. The discourse that emerges at this intersection, however, will only become denser as Americans register their responses to this tragedy. If the responses thus far are at all telling, "religion" will not, and indeed never does, provide a single response to human suffering and violence.