Well, Steve, there is a small but vocal minority in the U.S. who think that carrying guns and executing criminals are the Will of God - it definitely does seem tied to their religious beliefs. I live in a county where that kind of thinking is very common.

Mind you, that's not the thinking of all religious people - I certainly don't think that, and I'm religious. Almost all the Catholic priests and nuns I know, oppose guns and capital punishment. But if you go to the Baptist or Mormon churches down the road, you will find very few people who oppose guns or capital punishment. We do have atheists who are gun-totin' execution advocates, but that sort of thinking is far more prevalent in the born-again religions.


-Joe-