Charles “Chas” Cotton, a dedicated National Rifle Association board member for the past 13 years, made the remark on the Texas Concealed Handgun License (TexasCHL) forum. The site bills itself as “the focal point for Texas firearms information and discussions.”
Cotton is listed as a moderator on the site and made the derogatory remark in a discussion thread concerning the mass shooting in Charleston. In a reply to a comment on the thread about the shooting, It was noted that Sen. Clementa Pinckley was also the reverend at the church. Cotton wrote: “And he voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”
Pinckney was the head pastor at Emanuel AME Church for five years, and a member of the South Carolina State Senate since 2000. The bill being referred to was proposed in 2011. It would have allowed gun owners to carry a handgun in churches, day care centers, and restaurants, but it failed.
Mr. Cotton, a Texan, is also very outspoken, especially on the TexasCHL Forum. Earlier this year, he argued that teachers should be allowed to spank students so he wouldn’t have to “put a bullet” in them. According to Raw Story, the NRA member’s remarks were aimed at black female Democratic State Rep. Alma Allen and her family.
Allen had proposed a bill that would outlaw all corporal punishment in primary and secondary schools in Texas. Cotton is quoted as saying: “I’m sick of this woman and her ‘don’t touch my kid regardless what he/she did or will do again’ attitude,” Cotton fumed in a post on the TexasCHL forum. “Perhaps a good paddling in school may keep me from having to put a bullet in him later.”
The following facts might put the Reverand Pinckney’s stance on being against allowing people to have guns in a church into perspective. South Carolina has the ninth-highest rate of handgun murders in the nation, according to the FBI. Fully 68 percent of murders in the state are the result of people using guns.