Christian Nationalism and Gun Rights
Christian Nationalism and Gun Rights
Christian nationalism and gun rights intersect in a body of American political, sociological, religious, and historical research examining how firearms can become connected to religious identity, national identity, constitutional interpretation, political participation, and ideas about protection and social order. The research does not suggest that Christianity, firearm ownership, or political conservatism are synonymous with Christian nationalism. Instead, it examines a more specific worldview in which Christianity and American national identity are closely linked and asks how that worldview relates to attitudes toward firearms and the Second Amendment.
Studies in the uploaded research generally find that stronger adherence to Christian nationalist beliefs is associated with greater opposition to some forms of gun regulation and greater emphasis on the right to keep and bear arms. Researchers have also found that the relationship becomes more significant when firearm ownership develops into a social and political identity rather than remaining simply the possession or use of a firearm.
The literature also emphasizes important differences among racial groups, religious denominations, political communities, and individual gun owners. Consequently, researchers caution against assuming that all Christians, evangelicals, conservatives, or firearm owners understand gun rights in the same way.
Christian Nationalism and Gun Policy
One of the central findings in the research is an association between Christian nationalism and opposition to stricter gun regulation. Studies using national survey data have found that Christian nationalist beliefs can remain associated with gun-policy preferences even after researchers account for religiosity, political ideology, demographic characteristics, and other variables.
For some respondents, the Second Amendment appears to represent more than a conventional constitutional or political issue. Research and commentary in the source material describe a conception of gun rights in which the right to possess firearms is understood as a fundamental liberty that exists independently of government and, in some interpretations, as a right ultimately grounded in divine authority.
Other research examining how Americans rank constitutional protections finds that people scoring higher on measures of Christian nationalism tend to place particular importance on gun rights, religious liberty, and states' rights.
This connection should not be confused with constitutional law itself. Supreme Court decisions including District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. Chicago, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen established and developed modern constitutional protections for an individual right to possess firearms. The religious interpretation of those rights examined by scholars is a separate cultural and political phenomenon.
Gun Ownership and Gun-Owner Identity
A recurring distinction in the research is the difference between owning a firearm and identifying strongly as a "gun owner."
Research on gun ownership as a social identity finds that some people understand firearm ownership as part of a broader identity involving personal independence, constitutional rights, patriotism, self-defense, and membership in a politically threatened group. Scholars studying gun politics have argued that organizations such as the National Rifle Association helped develop and mobilize this identity over several decades.
Recent research specifically connecting gun-owner identity with Christian nationalism suggests that the two identities can reinforce one another. People who perceive Christianity as threatened may also perceive gun owners and gun rights as threatened, producing overlapping narratives about cultural loss, government power, and the need to defend established rights.
The research indicates that this identity dimension may sometimes be more important than firearm possession alone. A person who owns a gun primarily for hunting, sport, or household protection may hold very different political attitudes from someone for whom gun ownership represents a central component of social and political identity.
The Second Amendment as a Sacred Right
Several studies examine what might be described as the sacralization of gun rights: the process through which a political or constitutional principle acquires religious significance.
Research on National Rifle Association rhetoric has documented increasing use of religious and religious-nationalist language in discussions of the Second Amendment. Within this framework, constitutional gun rights may be portrayed not simply as protections created by law but as rights originating beyond government authority.
Scholars studying American gun culture have similarly distinguished the practical usefulness of firearms from what has been termed "Gun Sanctity." Practical gun ownership may involve hunting, sport shooting, collecting, or personal security. Gun sanctity refers to a stronger symbolic attachment in which firearms become associated with patriotism, personal control, social status, moral worth, constitutional liberty, and broader ideas about the American nation.
This symbolic dimension helps explain why disagreements over gun policy can become disputes over identity and morality rather than disagreements solely about the effectiveness of particular regulations.
Evangelical Christianity and Gun Culture
Research on religion and firearms predates much of the contemporary scholarship on Christian nationalism. Studies have examined relationships among evangelical Protestantism, theological conservatism, religious participation, gun ownership, and firearm-policy preferences.
Some research finds that evangelical Protestants have historically been more resistant than several other religious groups to certain firearm restrictions. Other studies investigate theological ideas that may influence firearm ownership, including beliefs about evil, human fallibility, protection of family, vigilance, personal responsibility, and the moral legitimacy of self-defense.
Qualitative studies of evangelical handgun owners describe firearms as being understood by some participants within a moral framework of protection and responsibility. Church security, concealed carry, household defense, and the perceived responsibility to protect vulnerable people appear repeatedly in this literature.
At the same time, the uploaded material documents substantial disagreement within Christianity. Christian pastors, writers, denominations, and organizations have advanced sharply different positions regarding armed self-defense, church security, gun regulation, and the relationship between Christianity and political power.
Christian opposition to Christian nationalism and to the religious elevation of gun rights is therefore an important part of the subject.
Guns, Threat, and Beliefs About Evil
Several studies investigate whether religious understandings of danger influence firearm attitudes.
Research on belief in supernatural evil has found associations between belief in Satan, demons, Hell, or similar concepts and support for some policies expanding firearm rights. One proposed explanation is that people who understand evil as an enduring feature of human existence may be more skeptical that social institutions can eliminate violence and therefore more receptive to armed self-defense.
Qualitative research among Christian gun owners similarly identifies themes of vigilance, preparedness, responsibility, and protection.
These findings do not establish that religious belief automatically produces a particular gun-policy position. Rather, they suggest that underlying beliefs about human nature, evil, danger, and responsibility can influence how people evaluate self-defense and firearm regulation.
Race and Christian Nationalist Gun Politics
The relationship between Christian nationalism and gun politics is not racially uniform.
Research using national survey data has found that Christian nationalism is associated with stronger opposition to gun-purchase permit requirements among non-Hispanic white Americans, while the relationship operates differently among Black Americans.
Other research describes Christian nationalism as potentially functioning as a form of in-group protection whose political consequences depend on which group feels threatened and which policies activate those perceptions.
Public Religion Research Institute data also indicate racial differences in the political importance assigned to gun access. In the source material, white Christian nationalist respondents are described as substantially more likely than Black or Hispanic Christian nationalist respondents to treat firearm access as a decisive political issue.
These findings complicate interpretations that treat Christian nationalism as a single ideology producing identical political effects in every population.
Public Opinion and Gun Access
National and state-level surveys provide another perspective on the connection between Christian nationalism and firearms.
Public Religion Research Institute surveys divide respondents into categories such as Christian nationalism Adherents, Sympathizers, Skeptics, and Rejecters. These surveys find differences among the groups on gun access, political violence, immigration, authoritarian attitudes, and other political questions.
Gun access appears particularly important among some white respondents classified as Christian nationalism supporters. Survey research also finds that Christian nationalism adherents differ from rejecters in how they assess the causes of political violence, including the role of easy access to firearms.
These survey categories describe patterns in populations rather than the beliefs of every individual within them.
Political Violence
One of the more consequential areas of recent research concerns Christian nationalism, gun-owner identity, and attitudes toward political violence.
Studies have found an association between Christian nationalism and greater acceptance of political violence under some circumstances. Researchers studying the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol have examined how Christian nationalism interacts with perceived victimhood, racial identity, conspiracy beliefs, and feelings of political threat.
More recent research suggests that the combination of strong Christian nationalist beliefs and strong gun-owner identity is associated with particularly elevated support for political violence compared with firearm ownership by itself.
Survey research from PRRI likewise finds differences among Christian nationalism Adherents, Sympathizers, Skeptics, and Rejecters concerning whether political violence can ever be justified.
These studies examine statistical relationships and attitudes. They do not establish that Christian nationalists, Christians, conservatives, or gun owners generally support violence.
Militias, Armed Politics, and Religious Symbolism
Journalistic and academic sources in the uploaded material document organizations and political networks that combine Christian nationalist language with firearms, militia imagery, survivalism, antigovernment themes, or ideas of spiritual warfare.
In some of these movements, political struggle is presented in religious terms. Prayer, biblical language, constitutional rhetoric, tactical imagery, and firearms may appear together at political gatherings or in online organizing.
Research on public ritual has examined how prayer and other religious practices can provide sacred meaning to political mobilization, particularly when religious symbolism appears alongside armed political organizations.
Investigations of contemporary militia-style networks likewise describe social-media imagery combining Christianity, rifles, tactical equipment, masculinity, patriotism, and narratives about defending the nation against perceived enemies.
These examples represent particular movements and should not be generalized to Christians or gun-rights supporters as a whole.
Rod of Iron Ministries and AR-15 Symbolism
One unusually explicit example of the fusion of religion and firearms is the Rod of Iron Ministries, associated with the Sanctuary Church movement.
The organization interprets the biblical "rod of iron" as referring to an AR-15-style rifle and has incorporated firearms into religious ceremonies. Its own materials describe participants as "Second Amendment Christians" and connect firearm possession with what the movement regards as God-given rights, constitutional liberty, self-defense, and resistance to tyranny.
News coverage documented ceremonies in Pennsylvania in which participants carried AR-15-style rifles during worship.
Scholars studying Christian nationalism and gun culture have cited the movement as an especially visible illustration of firearm sacralization. It is an unusual example rather than a representative description of American Christianity.
The NRA and the Development of Gun Identity
Research on the political history of gun ownership emphasizes the role of organized advocacy in transforming firearm ownership into a collective political identity.
Studies of the NRA argue that the organization did more than advocate particular firearm policies. It encouraged gun owners to see themselves as members of a social group whose freedoms, traditions, and identity were under political threat.
Research on NRA rhetoric also identifies increasing use of religious terminology and appeals to divine authority in arguments surrounding the Second Amendment.
This development overlaps with the rise of the modern Christian Right and broader political efforts to connect conservative Christianity with narratives about American national identity, limited government, personal liberty, and constitutional rights.
The resulting political culture created conditions in which religious identity, national identity, and gun-owner identity could become mutually reinforcing for some Americans.
School Shootings, Prayer, and Armed Protection
The relationship between religion and guns also appears in debates about school shootings.
Research in the source material finds that support for teacher-led Christian prayer in public schools is associated with greater support for security-oriented responses to school shootings, including armed teachers, armed administrators, police officers, security personnel, and metal detectors.
Public debates following mass shootings frequently reveal competing interpretations of the underlying problem. Some political and religious figures emphasize secularization, moral decline, inadequate security, or the absence of religion from schools. Others emphasize firearm availability, regulation, social conditions, or public-health approaches.
Christian responses are diverse. Some evangelical and denominational sources support armed protection or stronger church and school security, while others argue that Christian ethics require greater firearm regulation or reject the idea that gun rights should receive religious status.
Christian Nationalism Is Not Christianity
A consistent caution in the research is the importance of distinguishing Christian nationalism from Christianity itself.
Christian nationalism is generally studied as a political and cultural ideology connecting Christianity with a particular understanding of American national identity and political authority. Ordinary religious practice, patriotism, conservative political participation, or belief in constitutional gun rights does not by itself establish adherence to Christian nationalism.
The uploaded material includes evangelical, Baptist, Presbyterian, and other Christian voices criticizing Christian nationalism or challenging efforts to give firearms sacred significance.
Similarly, Americans who support the Second Amendment do so for many reasons unrelated to Christian nationalism, including constitutional interpretation, hunting traditions, personal protection, recreational shooting, skepticism of government regulation, or family and regional traditions.
Maintaining these distinctions is essential for understanding the research accurately.
Conclusion
The research on Christian nationalism and gun rights describes an intersection of religion, constitutional politics, social identity, and American gun culture.
A substantial body of survey research finds that stronger Christian nationalist beliefs are associated with greater opposition to some firearm regulations and greater prioritization of gun rights. Other studies show that gun-owner identity can become politically important independently of firearm possession itself.
Historical and cultural research helps explain how this relationship developed. Gun-rights organizations helped construct firearm ownership as a political identity, while religious-nationalist rhetoric sometimes framed the Second Amendment as reflecting a right that transcends government authority. In its strongest form, this process can produce what researchers describe as the sacralization of firearms or gun rights.
The evidence also demonstrates considerable variation. Race, denomination, political identity, theological beliefs, and perceptions of social threat all affect the relationship between religion and firearm attitudes. Christian communities themselves contain substantial disagreement about guns, self-defense, political power, and Christian nationalism.
Recent scholarship has increasingly focused on the intersection of Christian nationalism, gun-owner identity, conspiratorial thinking, perceived group threat, and political violence. These studies suggest that the political significance of firearms depends not simply on who owns guns, but on the meanings attached to them.
Taken together, the research portrays Christian nationalist gun politics not as a simple relationship between Christianity and firearms, but as a particular convergence of religious nationalism, constitutional identity, threat perception, political mobilization, and the symbolic meaning of guns in American public life.
Academic Research on Christian Nationalism and Gun Rights
1. | University of Kansas | KU News | 2026
University coverage of research by Donald Haider-Markel and colleagues examining the fusion of Christian nationalist identity with gun ownership. The study distinguishes firearm possession from the stronger political effects associated with identification as a gun owner.
2. | Scholars of religion and gun culture | Emerald Publishing | 2026
Visualizing Faith and Firearms. Qualitative analysis of imagery joining guns, Christian symbols, patriotism, and nationalist themes. The chapter examines how visual culture can sacralize firearms and communicate opposition to gun regulation.
3. | Donald P. Haider-Markel, Abigail Vegter, Brooklyn Walker | Religion in Public | April 30, 2026
The authors summarize their research showing that gun-owner identity and Christian nationalism can reinforce one another. They emphasize that simply possessing a firearm is analytically different from making gun ownership a central component of social and political identity.
4. | Donald Haider-Markel, Brooklyn Walker, Abigail Vegter | Social Science Quarterly | April 2, 2026
An Army for God: Gun Ownership, Christian Nationalism, and Support for Political Violence. Using a nationally representative survey, the authors examine Christian nationalism, gun ownership, gun-owner identity, and support for political violence. They find that Christian nationalism overlaps substantially with gun identity and that the combination is associated with particularly high acceptance of political violence.
5. | LaDarius Beck | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | January 21, 2026
Is Gun Ownership Racialized: An Examination Through the Lens of Denominational Affiliation. Examines the intersection of race, religious denomination, politics, and gun ownership and cautions against treating America's religious gun culture as racially uniform.
6. | Academic researchers | Terrorism and Political Violence | 2025
Christian Nationalism as a Social Practice: Prayer, Violence, and the Politics of Public Ritual. Examines prayer at militia-present political demonstrations and how religious rituals can confer sacred legitimacy on nationalist mobilization and militant political action.
Gun Problem or God Problem? Support for Teacher-Led Prayer in Public School and Solutions for School Shootings. Parents supporting teacher-led Christian prayer are comparatively more supportive of armed teachers, armed security, and other security-oriented responses to school shootings.
8. | Andrew S. Moore | Church History | June 25, 2025
Sheep, Sheepdogs, and the Good Shepherd: Gun Rights and American Evangelicals in the Recent Past. Historical analysis of the convergence between white evangelical political activism and a gun culture centered on an individual right to bear arms.
9. | Paul Froese, Ruiqian Li, F. Carson Mencken | ResearchGate | February 2025
Accessible research version of The Sacred Gun, including discussion of firearms as objects imbued with moral status, identity, control, and quasi-religious meaning.
10. | Paul Froese, Ruiqian Li, F. Carson Mencken | Politics and Religion | February 27, 2025
The Sacred Gun: The Religious and Magical Elements of America's Gun Culture. The authors distinguish ordinary feelings of security from "gun sanctity," in which firearms become linked to patriotism, identity, control, social status, and Christian-statist beliefs.
11. | Joshua T. Davis, Samuel L. Perry, Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociology of Religion | 2023/2024
Liberty for Us, Limits for Them: Christian Nationalism and Americans’ Views on Citizens’ Rights. The study finds Christian nationalism strongly associated with prioritizing gun rights, religious freedom, and states' rights relative to several other constitutional protections.
12. | Christopher H. Seto and Samuel L. Perry | Ethnic and Racial Studies | July 5, 2024
Lay Down Your Sword? Christian Nationalism, Race, and Opposition to Requiring Gun Permits. Using the 2021 General Social Survey, the authors find that Christian nationalism predicts greater opposition to gun-purchase permit requirements among non-Hispanic white Americans but operates differently among Black Americans, illustrating that the relationship between Christian nationalism and gun policy is racially conditional.
13. | Joshua T. Davis, Samuel L. Perry, Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociology of Religion | 2023
Full-text version of research examining how Christian nationalist beliefs influence Americans' rankings of constitutional rights. Gun rights emerge as particularly important among respondents high in Christian nationalism.
14. | Researchers using the Baylor Religion Survey | Justice Quarterly | 2023
Under God and Under Threat: Christian Nationalism and Conspiratorial Thinking as Links between Political Orientation and Gun Ownership. Finds Christian nationalism and right-wing conspiratorial beliefs help explain political differences in handgun, semiautomatic firearm, and self-protection gun ownership.
15. | Joshua T. Davis, Samuel L. Perry, and Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociology of Religion | 2023
Liberty for Us, Limits for Them: Christian Nationalism and Americans' Views on Citizens' Rights. Finds Christian nationalism is strongly associated with prioritizing gun rights, religious liberty, and states' rights over several other constitutional protections.
16. | Laura Upenieks et al. | Social Science Quarterly | January 14, 2023
Pictures of You: God Images, Gun Ownership, and Empowerment in the United States. Examines whether people's concepts of God relate to gun ownership and to feelings of security, status, identity, and empowerment derived from firearms.
17. | Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life | Columbia University | September 15, 2022
Christian Nationalists and Gun Culture in America. Academic panel examining such developments as religious symbolism surrounding AR-15s, the Rod of Iron Ministries, "Crusader" weapons marketing, and apocalyptic firearm rhetoric.
18. | Christopher G. Ellison et al. | Social Science Research | 2021
Peace Through Superior Firepower: Belief in Supernatural Evil and Attitudes Toward Gun Policy in the United States. Belief in Satan, demons, Hell, and related concepts is associated with greater support for policies expanding gun rights even after accounting for political ideology.
19. | Christopher G. Ellison et al. | Social Science Research | 2021
Publisher version of research examining supernatural-evil beliefs and gun-policy attitudes. It contributes to explanations of why some religious conservatives understand armed self-defense in strongly moral terms.
20. | Tarris Rosell | Review & Expositor | October 4, 2020
I Have a Gun and I Know How to Use It: A Phenomenology of Handgun Ownership by Evangelical Christians. Ethnographic research investigates the moral and theological reasoning of evangelical handgun owners, including church security and armed self-defense.
21. | Abigail Vegter, Margaret Kelley | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | July 24, 2020
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Gun Ownership. Qualitative research explores how religious ideas about evil, protection, duty, vigilance, and defense can become incorporated into the moral outlook of some Christian gun owners.
22. | F. Carson Mencken, Paul Froese | Social Problems | 2017/2019
Gun Culture in Action. Uses Baylor Religion Survey data to investigate the symbolic and emotional power firearms hold for some owners and how gun ownership can become connected to moral empowerment.
23. | Jessica Dawson | Humanities and Social Sciences Communications | July 2, 2019
Shall Not Be Infringed: How the NRA Used Religious Language to Transform the Meaning of the Second Amendment. Dawson traces how NRA rhetoric increasingly joined Protestant religious nationalism with constitutional gun-rights arguments.
24. | Benjamin Knoll | Religions | 2018
God and Guns: Examining Religious Influences on Gun Control Attitudes in the United States. National survey data show important religious differences in firearm ownership and gun-policy preferences, with evangelical Protestants particularly resistant to stricter gun laws.
25. | Andrew Whitehead, Landon Schnabel, Samuel Perry | The Washington Post | July 25, 2018
The authors explain their research linking Christian nationalism with opposition to gun regulation. They discuss the idea that some adherents understand the Second Amendment not merely as constitutional law but as protection of a divinely granted right.
26. | Andrew L. Whitehead, Landon Schnabel, Samuel L. Perry | Socius | July 23, 2018
Gun Control in the Crosshairs: Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Stricter Gun Laws. A foundational empirical study finding Christian nationalism to be a strong predictor of opposition to stricter federal gun laws even after controlling for religious, political, and demographic factors.
27. | David Yamane | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | 2016
Awash in a Sea of Faith and Firearms: Rediscovering the Connection Between Religion and Gun Ownership in America. Finds relationships among evangelical Protestant affiliation, theological conservatism, religious involvement, and handgun ownership.
Public Opinion, Surveys, and Religious Responses
28. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
Updates nationwide measurements of Christian nationalism using more than 22,000 interviews and provides demographic and political context for debates over issues including guns.
29. | The Revealer | New York University | February 4, 2026
Examines the continuing relationship between white evangelical Christianity, gun ownership, religious nationalism, and theological challenges to armed self-defense.
30. | PRRI | Public Religion Research Institute | January 2026
Detailed survey tables on political violence include breakdowns by Christian-nationalism category and attitudes concerning access to firearms.
31. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | January 16, 2026
Examines Americans' views about political violence, violent rhetoric, guns, and Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism adherents are substantially less likely than rejecters to identify easy access to guns as a major contributor to political violence.
32. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | June 18, 2025
Examines the relationship among Christian nationalism, charismatic religious beliefs, prophecy, and willingness to justify political violence.
33. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | September 10, 2024
Studies Christian nationalism, authoritarian attitudes, democratic norms, and willingness to accept political violence. Useful context for understanding armed-defense rhetoric within nationalist politics.
34. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 28, 2024
National and state-level survey analysis finds access to guns especially important as a political issue among white Americans who hold Christian nationalist beliefs. The report also measures attitudes toward political violence.
35. | PRRI | Public Religion Research Institute | 2023
Survey topline underlying PRRI's Christian nationalism research. Questions include whether respondents have threatened or used weapons and whether violence might be justified under certain circumstances.
36. | Baptist News Global | Baptist News Global | 2023
Commentary on the merging of firearm symbolism, biblical language, Christian nationalism, and claims that gun ownership constitutes a divinely granted liberty.
37. | Peter Smith | Associated Press | 2023
Two Pastors Worry for Their Congregants' Safety. Are More Guns the Answer or the Problem? Presents contrasting Christian approaches to armed church security, self-defense, gun violence, and firearm regulation.
38. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 8, 2023
Major national study of Christian nationalism that includes questions concerning threats and actual use of guns, knives, or other weapons as well as willingness to resort to political violence.
39. | Amanda Tyler and Holly Hollman | Baptist Joint Committee | 2022
Gun Culture and Christian Nationalism in America. Discussion of the ways Christian nationalism can transform gun rights from a conventional policy preference into an issue connected with religious and national identity.
40. | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
Explores what Americans mean when they call the United States a Christian nation. Open-ended responses illustrate how some people connect religious decline, schools, social disorder, and gun violence.
41. | Jeff Brumley | Baptist News Global | June 27, 2022
Reports on research and religious-liberty discussions concerning the belief that firearm ownership is a God-given right and the connection between gun identity and Christian nationalism.
42. | ABC News Australia | ABC News | June 1, 2022
Surveys religious differences over gun policy in the United States and discusses Christian nationalist beliefs that link firearm ownership to American identity and personal liberty.
43. | Samuel L. Perry and Philip S. Gorski | TIME | May 2022
The authors discuss survey research finding that white Americans who strongly support declaring the United States a Christian nation are particularly likely to oppose stricter gun laws and prioritize the right to bear arms.
44. | Kelsey Dallas | Deseret News | December 3, 2020
America's Gun Sales Are Booming. Does Faith Play a Role? Examines academic research on Christianity, gun ownership, evangelicalism, Christian nationalism, distrust of government, and firearm regulation.
45. | David Remnick | The New Yorker | 2019
Interview with Lucy McBath exploring America's intense cultural attachment to firearms and the characterization of gun politics as possessing quasi-religious qualities.
46. | Belinda Luscombe / Rob Schenck | TIME | February 21, 2018
Evangelical Pastor: Guns Are Not Christian. Presents a theological challenge from within evangelical Christianity to treating firearm rights as essentially unlimited or sacred.
47. | Baptist News Global | Baptist News Global | Various
Collection of reporting and commentary addressing Christian approaches to gun rights, gun regulation, firearm violence, and Christian nationalism.
Race, Religion, and Gun Politics
48. | Brooklyn Walker et al. | Religion in Public | October 16, 2025
Accessible explanation of research arguing that Christian nationalism's relationship with race depends on political context and perceived threats to religious or racial in-groups.
Religion Is Sometimes Raced: Christian Nationalism as In-Group Protection. Demonstrates that Christian nationalism can operate differently across racial groups depending on which policies activate perceived group threat.
Fellowship in the Fiery Furnace. Examines Christian persecution beliefs across racial lines, providing context for threat narratives that can influence attitudes toward self-defense and political conflict.
51. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 4, 2025
Reports that white Christian nationalists are substantially more likely than Black or Hispanic Christian nationalists to treat access to guns as a decisive electoral issue.
52. | PRRI | Public Religion Research Institute | February 2024
Full report includes detailed tables on Christian nationalist identification and whether candidate positions on access to guns function as electoral litmus tests.
Gun-Owner Identity, the NRA, and the Second Amendment
53. | Congressional Research Service | Constitution Annotated | Current
Official constitutional resource for the Second Amendment. Useful for distinguishing the text and legal doctrine of the amendment from religious or nationalist interpretations of its origin.
54. | Cornell Legal Information Institute | Cornell Law School | Current
Legal reference page presenting the text of the Second Amendment and links to relevant constitutional doctrine.
55. | Oyez | NYSRPA v. Bruen | 2022
Legal summary and oral-argument materials concerning the Supreme Court's modern expansion of Second Amendment protections.
56. | U.S. Supreme Court | New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen | June 23, 2022
Major Second Amendment decision adopting a history-and-tradition framework for evaluating firearm regulations. The ruling intensified political and cultural debates surrounding gun rights.
57. | U.S. Supreme Court / Justia | New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen | June 23, 2022
Supreme Court decision establishing the history-and-tradition methodology that reshaped contemporary Second Amendment litigation.
58. | F. Carson Mencken and Paul Froese | Social Problems / ResearchGate | 2019
Accessible research version of Gun Culture in Action, describing multiple American gun cultures and differences between practical firearm ownership and identity-centered gun attachment.
Gun Ownership as a Social Identity. Finds that gun-owner identity predicts policy attitudes, issue importance, and political participation beyond the simple fact of owning a firearm.
60. | Matthew J. Lacombe | The Journal of Politics | July 9, 2019
The Political Weaponization of Gun Owners. Historical analysis argues that the NRA deliberately cultivated a shared political identity among gun owners and used that identity to mobilize political participation.
61. | Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research | Northwestern University | March 20, 2018
Summary of Matthew Lacombe's research showing how the NRA encouraged gun owners to view themselves as a politically threatened social group.
62. | Wayne LaPierre / Conservative Political Action Conference | C-SPAN | February 2018
Archival speeches from NRA leadership illustrate claims that the right to keep and bear arms originates with God rather than government, rhetoric later analyzed by scholars of Christian nationalism.
63. | Southwestern Social Science Association | Social Science Quarterly / IDEAS | 2017
Index to the journal's gun-politics special issue, including research on firearm identity, gun-policy preferences, the NRA, state legislation, racial differences, and partisan polarization.
64. | Donald Haider-Markel and Mark Joslyn, editors | Social Science Quarterly | June 2017
Special issue on Gun Politics examining gun ownership, political identity, public opinion, NRA activity, state gun laws, race, gender, and partisanship.
Emerging Political Identities? Gun Ownership and Voting in Presidential Elections. Shows that firearm ownership became increasingly associated with political identity and voting behavior over several decades.
66. | David Yamane | Gun Culture 2.0 | February 23, 2017
Sociologist David Yamane reviews evidence concerning the historical relationship between Protestantism, religiosity, and firearm ownership.
67. | Oyez | McDonald v. Chicago | 2010
Accessible legal summary of incorporation of the Second Amendment against state and local governments.
68. | U.S. Supreme Court | McDonald v. Chicago | June 28, 2010
The Court held that the Second Amendment right recognized in Heller applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.
69. | U.S. Supreme Court / Justia | McDonald v. Chicago | June 28, 2010
Decision holding that the Second Amendment applies against state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.
70. | Oyez | District of Columbia v. Heller | 2008
Case summary, audio, and legal background for the landmark decision recognizing an individual firearm right.
71. | Cornell Legal Information Institute | Cornell Law School | 2008
Full text of District of Columbia v. Heller, providing the legal foundation against which religious and nationalist interpretations of gun rights can be compared.
72. | U.S. Supreme Court | District of Columbia v. Heller | June 26, 2008
The Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm for lawful purposes such as self-defense in the home. This constitutional ruling forms a central legal backdrop to contemporary gun-rights politics.
73. | U.S. Supreme Court / Justia | District of Columbia v. Heller | June 26, 2008
Full decision establishing an individual Second Amendment right to possess firearms for lawful purposes such as self-defense in the home.
Evangelical Christianity and Gun Culture
74. | Multiple authors | Sojourners | September/October 2024
Christian writers from several backgrounds critique weaponized Christian nationalism, including the use of violent and militaristic language in defining national identity.
75. | Brad East | Christianity Today | March 13, 2024
Discusses competing definitions of Christian nationalism and argues for careful distinction between conventional conservative Christianity and explicitly nationalist religious ideology.
76. | Christopher Ellison et al. | Social Science Research | 2021
Finds belief in supernatural evil associated with support for several policies expanding gun rights, suggesting a connection between religious worldview and perceptions of danger.
77. | Paul D. Miller | Christianity Today | February 3, 2021
Defines Christian nationalism from a conservative evangelical perspective and distinguishes nationalism from patriotism and ordinary Christian civic participation.
78. | Thomas Kidd | The Gospel Coalition | December 18, 2020
Historical and theological discussion distinguishing Christian nationalism from Christian patriotism, with attention to the role of war and national mission in American religious history.
79. | Christianity Today | Christianity Today | Various
Topic archive containing evangelical reporting and commentary on Christian nationalism, patriotism, political power, democracy, and church responses.
School Shootings, Prayer, and Armed Protection
80. | Samuel L. Perry and Andrew L. Whitehead | ResearchGate | August 2025
Accessible version of research examining the relationship between Christian prayer in public schools and preferred policy responses to school shootings.
81. | Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) | PCUSA | April 13, 2023
Presbyterian pastors responding to the Covenant School shooting explicitly discuss connections they perceive between Christian nationalism, gun culture, and the religious sacralization of firearms.
82. | Christianity Today | Christianity Today | 2022
Christian discussion of gun violence and theological responses following mass shootings, illustrating debates within evangelical Christianity rather than a unified Christian position.
83. | Newsweek Staff | Newsweek | May 2022
Reports calls by political figures for renewed religion and prayer following the Uvalde massacre and documents the recurring interpretation of school shootings as evidence of moral or religious decline.
84. | Christianity Today | Christianity Today | 2018
Evangelical discussion following the Parkland shooting concerning gun violence, firearm regulation, school safety, and Christian responsibilities toward public safety.
85. | Christianity Today | Christianity Today | November 2017
Coverage of debates over armed church security following the Sutherland Springs church massacre.
Rod of Iron, AR-15 Symbolism, and Armed Religion
86. | Rod of Iron Ministries | Rod of Iron Ministries | Current
The ministry explicitly identifies the AR-15 with the biblical "rod of iron" and describes firearm ownership as part of defending what it regards as God-given rights and constitutional liberty.
87. | Rod of Iron Ministries | Rod of Iron Ministries | Current
Primary-source material documenting a religious movement that explicitly combines Christianity, constitutional gun rights, firearms training, and opposition to perceived tyranny.
88. | History News Network | George Washington University | 2022
Examines the cultural symbolism surrounding AR-15-style firearms within Christian nationalist politics and discusses religious organizations that incorporate rifles into ceremonies.
89. | Rolling Stone | Rolling Stone | 2022
Profile of the Rod of Iron movement and its combination of apocalyptic Christianity, gun culture, conservative politics, and armed self-defense.
90. | The Guardian | The Guardian | August 7, 2019
Reporting from El Paso describes commercial imagery placing Christian symbols, patriotic motifs, and an AR-15 together, illustrating the visual fusion scholars describe as religious gun nationalism.
91. | Associated Press | AP | 2018
AP coverage and archival reporting document the Sanctuary Church/Rod of Iron movement and its incorporation of semiautomatic rifles into religious ceremonies.
Reporting on the religious movement that interprets the biblical rod of iron as an AR-15 and connects firearms with theology, self-defense, and American constitutionalism.
93. | The Guardian | The Guardian | February 28, 2018
Reports on a Pennsylvania religious ceremony in which AR-15-style rifles were incorporated into worship and treated as representations of the biblical "rod of iron."
94. | Reuters | Reuters | February 28, 2018
Reports on the Pennsylvania church ceremony involving worshippers carrying AR-15-style rifles shortly after the Parkland school shooting.
Militias, Armed Politics, and Political Violence
95. | Southern Poverty Law Center | SPLC | Current
Profiles Veterans on Patrol, an antigovernment militia whose founder promotes Christian nationalist ideas alongside vigilantism and conspiracy theories.
96. | WIRED Staff | WIRED | September 28, 2026
Investigation of candidates associated with far-right online networks. Researchers identified state-level political groups mixing militia advocacy, gun-rights activism, and Christian nationalism.
97. | PRRI and Meanings of Democracy Lab | PRRI | September 24, 2026
Examines Americans who reject or remain skeptical of Christian nationalism, providing a comparison population for studies connecting nationalism with gun and political-violence attitudes.
98. | PRRI Staff | PRRI | February 17, 2026
Updates national and state estimates of Christian nationalist adherence and examines relationships with religion, partisanship, media use, authoritarian attitudes, and cultural conflict.
99. | PRRI Staff | PRRI | February 17, 2026
Provides more detailed state-level demographic analysis for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
100. | David Gilbert | WIRED | 2025
Investigation of newer Christian nationalist militia-style networks using social media imagery of firearms, tactical equipment, Christianity, survivalism, and antigovernment politics to recruit followers.
101. | Jason Wilson | The Guardian | August 14, 2024
Investigation into combat and weapons training networks connected to individuals associated with Christian nationalist and American Redoubt politics.
102. | Bradley Onishi | TIME | 2023
Discusses modern Christian nationalist culture, including social-media imagery combining semiautomatic weapons, biblical quotations, apocalyptic narratives, and political conspiracy theories.
103. | Sky News | Sky News | 2023
Investigation of Christian nationalist rhetoric portraying American politics as spiritual warfare and examining the movement's political goals and institutions.
104. | Southern Poverty Law Center | SPLC | 2023
Report examining the overlap of antigovernment extremism, militia activity, white Christian nationalism, conspiracies, and political violence.
105. | PRRI | Public Religion Research Institute | February 2023
Full report presents detailed results concerning Christian nationalism, physical violence, weapons, authoritarian attitudes, and acceptance of political violence.
106. | Maya Yang | The Guardian | February 9, 2023
Reports findings from PRRI/Brookings research including attitudes toward political violence and personal use or threatened use of guns or other weapons.
107. | FRONTLINE / Associated Press | PBS | 2022
Reports on a Florida organizing hub connected with Flynn's movement that combined Christian nationalist political activity, constitutional education, survival preparation, and access to firearms training.
108. | Associated Press | CBS News | 2022
Reporting on candidates associated with Christian nationalist themes, including campaign imagery combining Bibles, firearms, spiritual warfare, and appeals to Christian political power.
109. | Michelle R. Smith et al. | FRONTLINE / Associated Press | September 2022
Investigation of Michael Flynn's post-government political movement, including Christian nationalist rhetoric and events where firearms became prominent political and religious symbols.
110. | Associated Press | PBS NewsHour | September 2022
Examines Flynn's Christian nationalist organizing network, including events blending Christianity, constitutionalism, political struggle, and assault-style firearm imagery.
111. | Lila Hassan | The Trace | September 19, 2022
Guns: At the Nexus of Christian Nationalism and the Far-Right. Investigation documents political rhetoric explicitly connecting Christian nationalism, gun rights, election conspiracy theories, and resistance to government.
112. | Michelle R. Smith | FRONTLINE | September 7, 2022
Summarizes an AP/FRONTLINE investigation documenting Flynn's effort to build a political movement combining Christian nationalism, election conspiracies, constitutional rhetoric, and gun-rights symbolism.
113. | Samuel L. Perry and Philip S. Gorski | The Washington Post | May 20, 2022
Draws on survey research showing overlap among white Christian nationalist attitudes, "good guy with a gun" beliefs, punitive political attitudes, and conceptions of social order.
114. | Miles T. Armaly, David T. Buckley, Adam M. Enders | Political Behavior | January 4, 2022
Christian Nationalism and Political Violence: Victimhood, Racial Identity, Conspiracy, and Support for the Capitol Attacks. Empirical study examining how Christian nationalism relates to support for the January 6 attack and political violence.
Broader Christian Nationalism Context and Interpretation
115. | Kettering Foundation | Kettering Foundation | September 11, 2025
Framework describing central elements of Christian nationalism and its approach to American civic life. Provides conceptual context for understanding why constitutional rights such as firearm ownership can acquire religious meaning.
116. | Sojourners | Sojourners | 2024
Collection of Christian responses to nationalism. Useful for documenting the existence of religious opposition to Christian nationalism and preventing gun-rights attitudes from being generalized to Christians as a whole.
117. | PBS | Evangelicals: From Faith to Power | 2024
Documentary segment examines opposition to Christian nationalism from within Christianity, including Christian activists who explicitly challenge the movement's embrace of the Second Amendment and gun culture.
118. | Ronald S. Cava | Baptist News Global | July 2, 2024
Baptist theological analysis of Christian nationalism and its emergence, useful for comparing nationalist political theology with other Christian approaches to citizenship and political power.
119. | Tim Alberta | Harper | 2023
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory. Examination of contemporary evangelical politics and conflicts within churches concerning nationalism, political power, cultural warfare, and American identity.
120. | Bob Smietana | The Washington Post | May 19, 2023
What Is Christian Nationalism Anyway? Surveys competing definitions and illustrates how spiritual-warfare narratives, national identity, and claims of divine political authority operate within the movement.
121. | Christian Theological Seminary | CTS | May 1, 2023
Seminary commentary directly addresses Christian nationalism, assault-style firearms, perceived persecution, government distrust, and religious arguments surrounding gun rights.
122. | Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry | Oxford University Press | 2022
The Flag and the Cross. Historical and sociological account of white Christian nationalism, including its relationship with hierarchy, violence, authoritarian politics, and conceptions of righteous force.
123. | Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry | Oxford University Press | 2020
Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Book-length analysis establishing the empirical framework later used in research on Christian nationalism and firearms.
124. | Kristin Kobes Du Mez | Yale University Press | 2020
Jesus and John Wayne. History of evangelical masculinity, militarism, political power, protection, and warrior imagery that provides background for the emergence of armed Christian political identity.
125. | Katherine Stewart | Bloomsbury / HarperCollins listing | 2020
The Power Worshippers. Investigation of organized Christian nationalist political networks and their broader policy agenda.
126. | Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry | Oxford University Press | March 19, 2020
Power, from Taking America Back for God. Examines Christian nationalism's effects on political attitudes including gun control, immigration, national symbols, refugees, and partisan identity.
127. | Jeff Sharlet | Harper / Basic Books | 2008
The Family. Investigative history of influential Christian political networks and the relationship among religious authority, American power, nationalism, and political leadership.
