The 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre falls on April 20, and April 16 marks two years since the devastating shooting at Virginia Tech, which claimed the lives of 32 people. That remains the deadliest shooting by a single gunman in United States history. But a series of eight gun attacks in March and early April killed more than 50 people and has again raised concerns about violence in American society and the morality of gun control.

There is a great deal of speculation about the reasons for these shootings, or whether any single factor or combination of factors can explain them. A number of recent stories and editorials have begun to address the questions. For example:

• This April 8, 2009, Washington Post story, “Some Link Economy With Spate Of Killings,” explores connections between violence and the recession.
• An April 8, 2009, New York Times editorial, “Columbine Plus 10,” argues that Congress, even under the Obama administration, is doing little if anything to promote gun regulation and decrease gun violence.
• In an April 12, 2009, 60 Minutes report about Americans stocking up on guns, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., seemed to bolster that argument when she said that the political climate isn’t right for more gun control.
• An April 8, 2009, online Times column from Timothy Egan is titled “The Guns of Spring” and calls gun violence “the cancer at the core of our democracy.”
• Reports of illegal weapons flowing from the U.S. to Mexico and fueling that nation’s widening drug wars have also added to the concern.

With 30,000 deaths annually in the United States from gun violence, many houses of worship see this as an obvious moral problem, and one that has not been sufficiently addressed. Others in more conservative traditions and regions of the nation support gun rights almost as strongly as they support religious freedom.

Houses of worship of all stripes are themselves not immune to gun-related threats. For example:

• In March 2009, a gunman walked into the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., and shot and killed the pastor with a .45-caliber gun.
• In November 2008, a gunman walked into a church in Clifton, N.J., and shot and killed his estranged wife and a worshipper who rushed to her aid.
• In July 2008, a man with an apparent grudge against liberals opened fire during a musical at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., killing two and wounding seven.
• In December 2007, a 24-year-old man opened fire at a missionary training center near Denver and then at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, killing four people in total before shooting and killing himself.

The best place to start looking for religion-related resources on gun violence in America is ReligionLink’s June 2008 edition, “Guns and God: faith groups and the politics of gun control.”

That RL edition was published on the eve of the Supreme Court ruling in the District of Columbia v. Heller case, in which the high court, by a 5-4 vote, decided that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm for private use. While that was viewed as a major victory for gun rights advocates, the ruling has not been seen as impinging on state and federal efforts to regulate guns.

• Also see a March 2009 Religion News Service story, “Shootings prompt uneasy talks about church security,” that was written in the wake of the church shooting in Illinois.
• An essay, “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammo,” posted March 12, 2009, at the “On Faith” site after the church shooting in Illinois, discusses an effort in Arkansas to pass a bill that would allow concealed weapons in churches. The author of the essay, “On Faith” editor David Waters, writes that “about 20 states permit houses of worship to decide whether to allow weapons inside.”
• See an April 7, 2009, National Public Radio report, “Gun Shop Owner Links Ammo Shortage To Obama,” which discusses an apparent ammunition shortage and a reported spike in gun sales, both due to concerns that the Obama administration will seek more restrictive gun laws.