Living Church of God shooting

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[[File:050314 wisc shooting hmed 5a.grid-6x2.jpg|right|180px|thumb|To commemorate the shooting, small crosses were put in the snow across town.<ref name="hwa!">[https://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2015/03/10th-anniversary-of-living-church-of.html "10th Anniversary of the Living Church of God Killings and LCG Leaders Remain Silent"] - Banned by HWA! News and Observations About Armstrongism and the Church of God Movement. Published March 13th, 2015.</ref>]]
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On March 12, 2005 at the Living Church of God in Brookfield, [[Wisconsin]],<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/national/motive-still-unclear-in-milwaukee-church-shooting.html</ref> 44-year-old parishioner Terry Ratzmann killed a minister and six other churchgoers with a Beretta 9mm before committing suicide at a nearby Sheraton hotel. He was stated to have been upset with his professional life and reacted to a sermon he had heard at the church two weeks prior.<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-679761.html</ref>

==Why is this notable?==
While mass shootings in the [[United States]] are (unfortunately) not uncommon, there are several factors in the Living Church of God shooting that make it stand apart from other shootings, such as [[school shooting]]s like Columbine High School and the [[Sandy Hook massacre]] or the [[Jared Lee Loughner]] shooting in Tucson involving Gabrielle Giffords {{rep|D|AZ}}.

===Absence of religious [[pundit]]ry===
Do a [[Google]] search for "Terry Ratzmann" or "Living Church of God shooting", and what kind of results do you get? News articles and condolences. Do a search for any other shooting? Mass hysteria, [[moral panic]], outrage and [[manufactroversy]] from the [[religious right]], and all kinds of speculations and [[wingnut]]tery from idiots like [[Bryan Fischer]], [[Mike Huckabee]], [[Ann Coulter]] and the [[Westboro Baptist Church]].

School shooting? Oh, it must be because of the absence of [[God]], or school [[prayer]], or maybe [[gaysdidit]]. Church shooting? Crickets.

Interestingly enough, this would have been the perfect time to have made a [[True Christian]] argument, as the Living Church of God, being a rather [[extremism|extreme]] and [[Biblical literalism|literalist]] offshoot of the more extreme Worldwide Church of God, would be considered extreme even by the more extreme [[Christian]] sects. But no, not a chirp.

Some obscure fundies (namely, Pastor Bob Thiel) had a gripe to pick with how the community mourned, saying no "[[No True Scotsman|true Christian]]" would put up crosses (a supposedly [[pagan]] symbol, never mind the fact that the cross has been associated with Christianity since the 3rd century CE).<ref>[https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2009/february/when-did-cross-supplant-ichthus-fish-as-symbol-of.html "When did the cross supplant the ichthus (fish) as a symbol of the Christian faith?"] by Everett Fergusson at ''Christianity Today'' on February 26<sup>th</sup>, 2009.</ref> As of 2015, a full ''ten years'' after the massacre took place, there were hardly ''any'' memorials by the Christian community.<ref name="hwa!"/>

===Breaking the gun control arguments===
At the same time, you won't find any arguments or statements from [[gun nut]]s such as the [[National Rifle Association]] about how fewer people would have died if there had been an armed church member there to stop Ratzmann, because, well, there weren't any statements made.

On the other side of the [[gun control]] debate, the legally-acquired handgun that was used in the shooting has a standard 15-round clip. Furthermore, police reports indicate that Ratzmann fired 22 rounds at the church.<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-679823.html</ref> This means that he fired fifteen rounds, ''reloaded'', and then fired off seven more before ending the shooting spree by committting suicide.<ref group=Note>Note that this doesn't mean he missed fifteen times.</ref>

So the argument against restricting assault rifles falls apart here, but so does the argument that a 9mm is "really only used for [[largely defensive weapon of gun|self defense]]" and lacking the power to kill.

===Because it was in a church===
In ''[[The God Delusion]]'', [[Richard Dawkins]] mentions that for some reason [[religion]] receives an amount of [[The_God_Delusion#Undeserved_respect|undeserved respect]] when it comes to debate or argument, and for no real apparent reason. Topics such as how to best prepare children for adult life or which economic policies achieve the best results can be argued forever, but religion is out of bounds. Perhaps a shooting that occurs in church, the victims and location being religious in nature, unconsciously received some of that same respect.

Could it be that those who would have spoken out the loudest simply wanted to respect the tragedy and not judge people? Possibly. But that's never stopped them before.

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category: Civilian gun massacres]]

Categories:  Civilian gun massacres