Daily Caller "After the attack at the Santa Fe High School, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick denounced a loss of faith and religion in society. While the news media puts the lives of these mass public killers under a microscope, collecting any information that can be gleaned about their childhoods from their family and friends and social media history, researchers have ignored the religious views of these killers.
"What is most shocking is how few of these killers appear to be religious, let alone Christian. Just 16 percent have any type of religious affiliation at the time of their attacks, with a slight majority of those being Muslims." . . .
. . .
"Five other killers were raised as Christians, but they moved away from the faith as they got older. It gives one an idea of the extreme detail that the media goes into on people’s religious views. For example, Micah Xavier Johnson, who shot the five police officers in Dallas in 2016, according to his parents, lost his faith after serving in Afghanistan. Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, was raised as a Christian, but he resented his parents “strong Christian faith.” Any religious involvement during their lives has been of interest in all the news stories on these attacks.
"Muslims make up a slightly disproportionately large share of these attacks. Even though they make up less than one percent of the US population, they account for 8.7 percent of these killers (six in total) and more than the number of Christians. This rate is a much lower than what we observe in the world as a whole where Muslims have committed 23 of the 25 worst mass public shootings since 1970 and 42 of the 50 worst attacks.
"Other killers who are explicitly identified only as “anti-Christian” are about as common as Christians, with three such killers. One of those killers was the 2015 Oregon Community College massacre where the killer shot those who reportedly told him that they were Christian. another killer was identified only as an anti-Semite.
"Others include an atheist and a Buddhist. Everyone else was either explicitly identified as no religious affiliation or that family and friends could not identify them as religious.
"Possibly, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is right that as society drifts away from religion, previously unthinkable acts become thinkable. This data can’t answer that question. What is clear is how very few of these killers have any interest in religion."
"What is most shocking is how few of these killers appear to be religious, let alone Christian. Just 16 percent have any type of religious affiliation at the time of their attacks, with a slight majority of those being Muslims." . . .
. . .
"Five other killers were raised as Christians, but they moved away from the faith as they got older. It gives one an idea of the extreme detail that the media goes into on people’s religious views. For example, Micah Xavier Johnson, who shot the five police officers in Dallas in 2016, according to his parents, lost his faith after serving in Afghanistan. Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, was raised as a Christian, but he resented his parents “strong Christian faith.” Any religious involvement during their lives has been of interest in all the news stories on these attacks.
"Muslims make up a slightly disproportionately large share of these attacks. Even though they make up less than one percent of the US population, they account for 8.7 percent of these killers (six in total) and more than the number of Christians. This rate is a much lower than what we observe in the world as a whole where Muslims have committed 23 of the 25 worst mass public shootings since 1970 and 42 of the 50 worst attacks.
"Other killers who are explicitly identified only as “anti-Christian” are about as common as Christians, with three such killers. One of those killers was the 2015 Oregon Community College massacre where the killer shot those who reportedly told him that they were Christian. another killer was identified only as an anti-Semite.
"Others include an atheist and a Buddhist. Everyone else was either explicitly identified as no religious affiliation or that family and friends could not identify them as religious.
"Possibly, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is right that as society drifts away from religion, previously unthinkable acts become thinkable. This data can’t answer that question. What is clear is how very few of these killers have any interest in religion."
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