From January 1998 to the present, 69 killers have committed 66 mass public shootings in the US. Each of these attacks claimed four or more lives. Of the attackers, four have been identified as Christians, with just three clearly being regular churchgoers. With 70% of Americans identifying themselves as Christians and over 33% going to church at least once a week, those numbers fall far short of what one might expect.
Five other killers were raised as Christians, but apparently moved away from the faith as they got older. The media goes into great depth about all sorts of aspects of these killer’s lives and religious views if they can find any information on them. If interviews with the killer’s family and friends don’t reveal anything about their religious views and the press can’t find the killer’s being affiliated with any religion, at the very least they don’t have significant religious views.
Muslims make up a disproportionately large share of these attackers. Although only about 1 percent of the US population is Muslim, 8.7% of these killers (6 in total) are Muslim. They outnumber Christian mass public shooters.
Three killers are known to have been belligerently anti-Christian, making them nearly as common as their Christian counterparts. One of those killers perpetrated the 2015 massacre at Oregon Community College, where he reportedly asked people if they were Christian and shot them if they answered in the affirmative.
Year | State | City/Locality | Name of Perpetrator(s) | Religion |
1998 | Arkansas | Jonesboro | Mitchell Scott Johnson, Andrew Douglas Golden | Mitchell Johnson attended church, Christian, childhood dreams of becoming a minister (Source 1, Source 2) |
1998 | Connecticut | Newington | Matthew Beck | No mention of Religion in any news article |
1999 | Hawaii | Honolulu | Byran Koji Uyesugi | No mention of Religion in any news article |
1999 | Texas | Fort Worth | Larry Gene Ashbrook | No mention of Religion in any news article |
1999 | Georgia | Acworth | Mark Barton | No mention of Religion in any news article |
1999 | Colorado | Columbine | Eric Harris/Dylan Klebold | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2000 | Massachusetts | Wakefield | Michael McDermott | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2000 | Pennsylvania | Pittsburgh | Richard Scott BAUMHAMMERS | No mention of Religion in any news article. Anti-semitic (Source 1) |
2001 | Illinois | Melrose Park | William Baker | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2001 | Texas | Houston | Ki Yung Park | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2003 | Illinois | Chicago | Salvador Tapia Solis | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2003 | Mississippi | Meridian | Doug Williams | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2003 | Alabama | Huntsville | Emanuel Burl Patterson | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2004 | Ohio | Columbus | Nathan Gale | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2004 | Wisconsin | Birchwood | Chai Soua Vang | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2004 | Kansas | Kansas City | Elijah Brown | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2005 | Wisconsin | Brookfield | Terry Ratzmann | Christian. Regular churchgoer “people with whom he had worshiped for years at the Living Church of God,” not a very orthodox Christian church (Source 1, Source 2) |
2005 | Minnesota | Red Lake | Jeffrey Weise | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2006 | Pennsylvania | Nickel Mines | Charles Carl Roberts IV | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2006 | Washington | Seattle | Kyle Aaron HUFF | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2006 | California | Goleta | Jennifer San Marco | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2007 | Colorado | Arvada | Matthew Murray | anti-Christian (Source 1) |
2007 | Utah | Salt Lake City | Sulejman Talovic | Muslim (Source 1) |
2007 | Nebraska | Omaha | Robert A. Hawkins | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2007 | Wisconsin | Crandon | Tyler James Peterson | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2007 | Virginia | Blacksburg | Seung-Hui Cho | No mention of Religion in any news article. Raised Christian, resented parents’ strong Christian faith (Source 1) |
2008 | Kentucky | Henderson | Wesley Neal Higdon | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2008 | Missouri | Kirkwood | Charles Lee Thornton | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2009 | Texas | Fort Hood | Nidal Malik Hasan | Muslim |
2009 | Washington | Parkland | Maurice Clemmons | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2009 | New York | Binghamton | Jiverly Wong | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2009 | North Carolina | Carthage | Robert Stewart | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2010 | Connecticut. | Manchester | Omar Sheriff Thornton | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2010 | Florida | Hialeah | Gerardo Regalado | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2011 | Arizona | Tuscon | Jared Lee Loughner | Atheist (Source 1) |
2011 | California | Seal Beach | Scott Evans Dekraai | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2011 | Nevada | Carson City | Eduardo Sencion | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2012 | Minnesota | Minneapolis | Andrew Engeldinger | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2012 | Wisconsin | Oak Creek | Wade Michael Page | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2012 | Colorado | Aurora | James Eagan Holmes | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2012 | Washington | Seattle | Ian Lee Stawicki | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2012 | California | Oakland | One L. Goh | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2012 | Georgia | Norcross | Jeong Soo Paek | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2012 | Connecticut | Newtown | Adam Peter Lanza | reportedly “became obsessed with religion” while attending Catholic middle school, but “There’s not really been a lot of information related to Nancy or Adam and their religious involvement in the church that I’ve seen.” (Source 1, Source 2) |
2013 | D.C. | Washington | Aaron Alexis | Buddhist (Source 1) |
2013 | New York | Herkimer | Kurt Myers | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2014 | Missouri | Springfield | Scott Goodwin-Bey | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2014 | Washington | Marysville | Jaylen Fryberg | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2014 | California | Alturras | Cherie Lash a.k.a Cherie Roads | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2015 | Oregon | Roseburg | Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer | “Not religious, but spiritual.” Allegedly shot victims who answered that they were Christian, anti-Christian (Source 1) |
2015 | California | San Bernardino | Syed Rizwan Farook; Tashfeen Malik | Muslim |
2015 | Tennessee | Chattanooga | Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez | Muslim |
2015 | South Carolina | Charleston | Dylann Storm Roof | Christian, Lutheran faith, went to church camp and worshiped regularly, reveals pastor as family attend church services and pray for massacre victims (Source 1, Source 2) |
2016 | Texas | Dallas | Micah Xavier Johnson | No longer Christian, lost his Christian faith after serving in the military (Source 1, Source 2) |
2016 | Washington | Burlington | Arcan Cetin | devout Sunni Muslim (Source 1) |
2016 | Florida | Orlando | Omar Mateen | Muslim (Source 1) |
2016 | Michigan | Kalamazoo | Jason B. Dalton | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2017 | Nevada | Las Vegas | Stephen Craig Paddock | no religious affiliation (Source 1) |
2017 | California | Rancho Tehama | Kevin Janson Neal | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2017 | Florida | Orlando | John Robert Neumann, Jr. | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2017 | Florida | Fort Lauderdale | Esteban Santiago | raised in a Christian home, but doesn’t appear to have been going to church. “His brother told him to go to a church” (Source 1) |
2017 | Texas | Sutherland Springs | Devin Patrick Kelley | vocally anti-Christian/anti-religious (Source 1) |
2018 | Florida | Parkland | Nikolas J. Cruz | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2018 | Pennsylvania | Melcroft | Timothy O’Brien Smith | No mention of Religion in any news article |
2018 | Tennessee | Antioch | Travis Reinking | raised in a Christian home, but no evidence the 29-year-old had continued going to church (Source 1) |
2018 | Texas | Santa Fe | Dimitrios Pagourtzis | Greek Orthodox church (Source 1) |
Can we really gather much insight to the religions of mass shooters when a vast majority of them, their religious beliefs are unknown? In the end, does it really matter?
The point is that if your family and friends don’t know anything about your religious views and the press can’t find you being affiliated with any religion, at the very least you don’t have significant religious views.