GOP lawmaker ties movie shooting to ‘attacks’ on Christianity

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on Friday tied the shooting at a Colorado movie theater to “the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs.”

“You know, what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place," Gohmert said in an interview with the Heritage Foundation.

At least a dozen people were killed and 50 injured after a gunman stormed a midnight showing of the new Batman movie in Aurora, Colo. Authorities arrested James Holmes, 24, as a suspect.

"Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important," Gohmert said. “Whether it's John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people ... Ben Franklin, saying only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters. I mean it goes on and on. ... We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country."

Gohmert is one of five Republicans embroiled in a controversy over claims that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the State Department. The lawmakers, led by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), sent a letter to the inspectors general at several government agencies raising questions about whether Huma Abedin, the deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), could be using her position to aid the group.

"People say, you think there was a God, where was God in all of this?" Gohmert said. "We've threatened high school graduation participations, if they use God's name, they're going to be jailed, we had a superintendent and a principal that were threatened with jail because they said the blessing at a voluntary off-campus dinner, that kind of stuff. Where was God? What have we done with God? We don't want him around. I kind of like his protective hand being present."

Gohmert said the casualties at the theater could have been limited had someone in the theater brought a gun to the movie and fought back. He said in Texas he found “over and over again” that when people are able to carry concealed weapons, “the guy would’ve been stopped before he killed so many people.” 

"It does make me wonder, with all those people in the theater, was there nobody that was carrying a gun that could have stopped this guy more quickly?" he asked.

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