Guns And Religion

A 26 year-old man who identified himself as mixed-race, not religious but spiritual [1] "opened fire at an Oregon community college was forcing people to stand up and state their religion before he began blasting away at them, survivors said Thursday." [2]

@BodhiLooney tweeted: '"The shooter was lining people up and asking if they were Christian....If they said yes, then they were shot in the head. If they said no, or didn't answer they were shot in the legs."' [3]  In total, ten were shot dead and seven were wounded, their conditions still unknown. [4]

Some blamed this and other mass shootings across America on the accessibility of guns [5], even though they could also be blamed equally on the secularization of and spiritual hypocrisy in society.  While this blogger believes that all the guns in the world ought to be outlawed, confiscated and permanently destroyed, he also believes that people ought to have faith in God, although not necessarily embracing any religion in particular since religions in large part have become economic and political entities that worship wealth and power and thrive on hypocrisy.

More and more, guns and religion seem to merge together to form a single concept: death, accompanied by its twin relatives, the threat and the fear of death, as evidenced by the kind of security that is needed to protect the pope from being shot to the armed conflicts in the Mideast and the mass exodus of refugees, from Syria and other places (Kosovo, surprisingly [6], [7], [8]) seeking asylum [9].

[1] http://www.rt.com/usa/317303-ucc-oregon-gunman-identified/

[2] http://nypost.com/2015/10/01/oregon-gunman-singled-out-christians-during-rampage/  This blogger revisited the link on October 3, 2015, to revise a typo from "fired" to "fire" and saw that the words quoted had been removed from the article.  The article was apparently revised since it was posted by the sole original author, Chris Perez. The other two authors were not listed at the time this article was accessed on October 1, 2015.   Thus the article was re-written by them after the posting without documenting that it was updated.  The only remnant of the words quoted "opened fire" can be read under the caption under the first photograph.  Hopefully, they would remain.

[3] Ibid. See comment under [2] above.  Here, too, the quoted words were deleted from the original article and the paragraph was re-written.  Admittedly, the revised version is an improvement over the original; however, as awkward as the original version was, Chris Perez was quoting the tweeter and this entry was quoting Chris Perez quoting the tweeter.

[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/us/oregon-shooting-umpqua-community-college.html?_r=0

[5] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/01/shooting-in-oregon-11-essential-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-america/
[6] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-six-charts-that-show-where-refugees-are-coming-from-where-they-are-going-and-how-they-10482415.html
[7] Article: Religious aspects of the Yugoslavia - Kosovo conflict: http://www.religioustolerance.org/war_koso.htm
[8] http://www.dw.com/en/kosovo-population-drain-challenges-germanys-refugee-policies/a-18245189
[9] It is not known that any country in the world has received and accepted a single application for asylum from a United States citizen seeking to escape death by mass shooting due to his/her religious or political beliefs, or choice of entertainment.