# The government should study the role of religion in gun violence. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 17, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470 "2013-01-17T04:30:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/41 "2013-01-17T23:24:52Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Neo-Nazis, militias, and the KKK are not religious groups. You can certainly argue that the Klan is not following _your_ religious principles, but it certainly self-identifies as a religious group. William Simmons was a Methodist preacher, and the Second Era Klan was very much a Christian organization. Beside the burning cross, their meetings invariably included hymns, readings from the scriptures, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/42 "2013-01-17T23:29:38Z")
**Ludovic** : Prisoners themselves don’t seem to think so: just look at all of the miraculous Death Row conversions that seem to happen. **ITR Champion** : How many seem to happen and what’s your source for it? **Ludovic** : I assume you have sources for public apostasy happening after conviction? Of any sort? Is this your way of saying that you won’t answer my question? You referred to “all the miraculous Death Row conversions that seem to happen”. I asked you for a source for that claim; my question is still open. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/43 "2013-01-17T23:56:32Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Needless to say, none of the atheists here who are claiming that religion causes violence have been willing to address those four studies showing the opposite, or even acknowledge the existence of those studies. FTR, I think the claim that religion causes people to be violent is ludicrous, as would be the claim that atheism causes people to be violent. But despite what you seem to believe, being religious is in no way a hindrance to people committing violent acts. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/44 "2013-01-18T00:28:21Z")
ITR, KKK - what do you think that cross thing is? There was little or no public outcry against torture. Crane ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/45 "2013-01-18T03:04:12Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Is this your way of saying that you won’t answer my question? You referred to “all the miraculous Death Row conversions that seem to happen”. I asked you for a source for that claim; my question is still open. What claim? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/46 "2013-01-18T03:08:32Z")
Specifically, you are asking for a cite that they “seem to occur”? Really? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/47 "2013-01-18T03:12:05Z")
The OP’s proposal would go over like a fart in church. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/48 "2013-01-18T18:48:27Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > What claim? You said: “just look at all of the miraculous Death Row conversions that seem to happen”. In response I said: “How many seem to happen and what’s your source for it?” I was asking you how many seem to happen and what’s your source for it? I’m still asking the same questions, and I’m not sure why it’s so difficult for you to understand the question or provide an answer. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/49 "2013-01-18T20:33:44Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > Most religious organizations support armed violence by the society in which they reside. Horseshit. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Danger-Mouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@Danger-Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danger-Mouse)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/50 "2013-01-19T17:49:08Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > No, it’s what’s called pointing out the obvious. Most murderers in America are inevitably religious primarily because _an overwhelming number of people in general_ in America are religious; atheists would have to be pretty rabidly homicidal to catch up with our much smaller numbers. You should consider the percentage of people with a religious affiliation doing violence, against the percentage of those of the same faith that don’t. With absolutely nothing to back this claim I’m making, I’m sure it would be less then a tenth of a percent would do a violent crime. A gangbanger shooting someone may have been taken to church as a child, when he kills someone, is he obviously motivated by religion? Is he a practicing Christianity, Lutheranism, or Baptist behavior? I think saying a gangbanger, who in Chicago for instance as I live, are well responsible for most violent crimes, and since they are not doing so in the name of religion, they are doing so as atheists. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/51 "2013-01-19T18:25:05Z")
Shodan, How so - Our wars are generally supported by the religious community. Christianity is a violent religion. Perhaps you believe that our soldiers are apostates? Crane ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/52 "2013-01-20T21:00:54Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > Shodan, > > How so - Our wars are generally supported by the religious community. Christianity is a violent religion. > > Perhaps you believe that our soldiers are apostates? > > Crane The last one, on the whole, [most certainly was not](http://www.beliefnet.com/News/2003/03/Faith-Groups-Positions-On-War-With-Iraq.aspx). You seem to be confusing “some American ultra-Protestants” with “the religious community”, which is a much larger body. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470/53 "2013-01-20T21:23:13Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > :rolleyes: Yeah, the rabidly Christian nation with judges who want to show up in robes embroidered with the Ten Commandments is “anti-religion”. Really? How many judges are there in the United States? And how many of them have ever expressed any desire to show up in court wearing robes embroidered with the Ten Commandments? And how many have actually done so? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-government-should-study-the-role-of-religion-in-gun-violence/647470.md?page=2)