Home Christian News Manufacturer of Guns Used in Texas Shooting Previously Tweeted Images of Assault...

Manufacturer of Guns Used in Texas Shooting Previously Tweeted Images of Assault Weapons Alongside Bible, Cross, Small Child

Daniel Defense
Screengrabs from Twitter: @JosiahHawthorne (left); @BCDreyer (right)

Daniel Defense, the Georgia-based gun manufacturer whose rifles were used in the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has a history of connecting guns to Christianity via their Twitter account. 

The tragic slaying, which took place on Tuesday (May 24), resulted in the deaths of 21 people, including 19 elementary school children and two teachers. The 18-year-old gunman was also killed. 

Following his 18th birthday, the assailant legally purchased two AR platform rifles manufactured by Daniel Defense on May 17 and May 20. On May 18, he purchased 375 rounds.

Later reports of the shooting indicated that a tactical team took roughly an hour to arrive on the scene after the officers who first responded to the call were driven back by gunfire. During that hour, parents pleaded with police to do something but were rebuffed. 

RELATED: ‘This Is Horrific’—Church Leaders Express Heartbreak Over School Massacre in Texas

At a press conference on Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said that police at the scene had determined the situation had “transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject,” and that no more children were currently at risk. 

McCraw admitted that that determination was wrong, saying, “There were children in that classroom that were at risk, and it was, in fact, still an active shooter situation.” 

Daniel Defense’s tweets went private shortly after they began garnering negative attention, but the tweeted images were captured via screenshots before Daniel Defense moved to protect them.

On at least two occasions prior to the tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School, the company paired love of guns with love of the Bible, featuring Christian imagery alongside military grade weaponry. 

In one image, an assault weapon is laid atop a Bible opened to the 16th chapter of Mark, with a metal cross laid on the magazine of the gun. 

RELATED: SBC’s Willie McLaurin Practices ‘Ministry of Presence’ in Wake of Buffalo Massacre

In another image, tweeted roughly a week before the mass shooting, a small child can be seen holding an assault rifle on his lap with the magazine clip nearby and a man, presumably depicting the boy’s father, standing over the child and pointing at him. Alongside the image, the tweet reads, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” a quotation from Proverbs 22:6