Monday’s tragic Nashville Christian school shooting at the hands of a transgender shooter is being billed by several U.S. congressmen as a hate crime against Christians.
U.S. Representatives Lance Gooden (R-TX), whose district includes part of eastern Dallas, and Andy Ogles (R-TN) sent a letter Wednesday urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the Nashville shooting as a religious hate crime.
“This week, America watched while a mentally ill shooter brutally massacred Christian schoolchildren in Nashville, Tennessee,” the letter reads. “The [shooter] was a former student at Covenant school and specifically chose to terrorize this school because of their Christian faith.”
The congressmen described Garland’s refusal to open a hate crime investigation as “appalling” and claimed the shooter’s motive is “clear as day.”
A hate crime, according to the Justice Department, is a crime committed because of the victim’s race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or religion.
Monday’s mass shooting, as indicated by police reports, was likely a “targeted assault” against the shooter’s former school because of its religious affiliation, according to Gooden and Ogles.
Their letter notes that Nashville police have “reported ‘writings’ at Hale’s home that suggest a ‘calculated and planned’ attack.”
Gooden and Ogles urged Garland to open a hate crime investigation into the shooting and “forcefully condemn anti-Christian bias.”
When questioned by U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) on Tuesday, Garland refused to commit to a hate crime investigation.
“As of now, motive hasn’t been identified,” Garland said. “We are certainly working full-time with them to try to determine what the motive is, and of course, motive is what determines whether its a hate crime or not.”
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has also called for federal law enforcement to investigate the shooting as a religious hate crime, referencing police reports that described the shooter as having “targeted” the Christian school.
“It is commonplace to call such horrors ‘senseless violence.’ But properly speaking, that is false,” the senator wrote in a Tuesday letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“Police report that the attack here was ‘targeted’ — targeted, that is, against Christians,” Hawley argued.
Hawley concluded his letter by urging Wray and Mayorkas to “open an investigation into this shooting as a federal hate crime.”
“Hate that leads to violence must be condemned,” wrote Hawley. “And hate crimes must be prosecuted.”
Others have echoed the claim that the Nashville shooting was a hate crime against Christians.
“Christians are under fire … not just in Nigeria or around the world, but right here in the United States,” said filmmaker and political commentator Dinesh D’Souza on his podcast Thursday.
“The incident in Nashville, the mass shooting, has got to be understood for what it is — an anti-Christian act,” he said. “An act of terrorism against a Christian school, and by the way an accompanying Christian church, by a transgender shooter who appears to have been motivated by transgender ideology.”
D’Souza noted that the shooter left a manifesto that is being withheld from the public.
He said that officials know the motivation behind the shooting and that, as of yet, “They’re just not telling us what it is.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Trans Radical Activist Network has promoted a “Trans Day of Vengeance” to take place on March 31 and April 1.
But others have claimed that Republicans are simply trying to use the Nashville shooter’s transgender identity to rile up the conservative base.
“They’re not trying to fix the problem. They’re trying to weaponize it and exploit these senseless deaths,” said transgender activist Charlotte Clymer on MSNBC. “Just for their own bottom line and the ballot box.”
“As a Christian, I find it offensive that they would leverage Christ’s teachings in such a heinous way against innocent people,” Clymer added.
The Dallas Express reached out to the office of Rep. Gooden for comment on his letter to Attorney General Garland but did not receive a response by the time of publication.