A day after a gunman killed six people at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Sen. Josh Hawley took to the Senate floor to denounce the shooting as a hate crime against Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe must also tell the truth about what happened yesterday in Nashville,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cThis murderous rampage, this taking of innocent life, was a horrific crime, but more specifically, it was a hate crime. A crime that according to\u00a0Nashville\u00a0police, specifically targeted, that\u2019s their word, targeted, the members of this Christian community, the members of this religious institution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under federal law, a hate crime is one motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nashville\u00a0police have said the shooter \u201ctargeted\u201d the\u00a0Covenant School, which is a private Christian school,\u00a0according to the Tennessean<\/a>, and are reviewing a \u201cmanifesto.\u201d But police have not offered specific details about the reasons the school was targeted. The shooter, who police say was a 28-year-old transgender man, attended the school when he was a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Nashville shooter was killed by police, and is therefore unable to face legal charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hawley\u2019s comments are part of the deadlocked debate over gun laws in America, where the aftermath of a shooting often feels as if it\u2019s playing out according to a script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gun control advocates, and many Democratic members of\u00a0Congress, renewed their call for more restrictions on guns after reports that the shooter used two assault-style weapons (a pistol and a rifle) and a handgun. There have been 130 mass shootings already this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Republicans have remained steadfast in their opposition to efforts to tighten gun laws, like the assault weapons ban being pushed by President Joe Biden. In 2021, Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, introduced a bill called the Disarm Hate Crimes Act, which would prevent someone who has been convicted of perpetuating a hate crime from owning a firearm. The bill had no Republican co-sponsors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, Hawley appears to be adopting the rhetoric often employed by\u00a0Democrats\u00a0after a shooter targets a minority community \u2014 like shootings at\u00a0an LGBTQ club<\/a>, or in a neighborhood with a\u00a0high population<\/a>\u00a0of Asian Americans \u2014 and placing it in the larger context of the culture war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would call on those corporate partners, who are so quick to weigh on social issues,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cNow make your voice heard, condemn this crime as the hate crime that it is. This is a time to be heard, this is a time to be clear about what has happened and is unfolding before our very eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with sponsoring a resolution to denounce the shooting as a hate crime, Hawley wrote a letter<\/a> to the Department of Homeland Security and FBI, calling on them to investigate the shooting as a hate crime. He said people need more evidence and facts about the motive of the shooter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0FBI\u00a0pointed to a Monday tweet from its\u00a0Tennessee\u00a0field office that it was assisting local law enforcement, but it did not comment directly on Hawley\u2019s request.\u00a0DHS\u00a0also did not respond to Hawley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n