A screenshot of Cotton’s statement
Credit: The Raw Story
A board member for the National Rifle Association blamed pastor and South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney for not only his own death, but the deaths of eight others in Wednesday night’s terrorist attack at his church, Think Progress reported on Thursday night.
Charles “Chas” Cotton made the remark on the Texas Concealed Handgun License (TexasCHL) forum, which bills itself as “the focal point for Texas firearms information and discussions.” Cotton, who is listed as a moderator on the site, made the derogatory remark in a thread concerning the mass shooting.
“He voted against concealed-carry,” Cotton said of Pinckney. “Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.
Pinckney was the head pastor at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for five years and a member of the state Senate […]
So, sir, according to your remarks about the Charleston shooting, you believe that churches should be fields of battle, instead of places of refuge. I would assume that you believe Jesus should have carried a gun, instead of promoting peace and justice. And that Mahatma Ghandi or Rev, Dr. Martin Luther King each should have carried a gun.
Your remarks are lack responsibility, are misguided, inhuman, lack understanding and compassion of victims of guns and for the “shooter” himself. What if YOUR family member/s was/were among those murdered?
Without question you promote death instead of life. Are you more comfortable with death instead of life?.
We choose life.
Anne —
I’m not sure how what I said, in deep sarcasm, got interpreted as advocating more guns in churches. I meant the exact opposite.