Senate chaplain: More than ‘thoughts and prayers’ needed after Nashville school shooting

In his opening prayer on Tuesday, Senate Chaplain Barry Black offered a plea for lawmakers to to take action against gun violence just a day after a shooter opened fire on a school in Nashville, killing six people.

“Lord, when babies die at a church school it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers,” Black said. “Remind our lawmakers of the words of the British statesman Edmund Burke: ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.'”

A 28-year-old heavily armed woman identified as Audrey Hale shot and killed six people, including three 9-year-olds, at The Covenant School on Monday. After arriving on the scene, police authorities said officers followed the sound of gunfire to the second floor where they engaged with Hale and ultimately shot and killed her.

“Lord, deliver our senators from the paralysis of analysis that waits for the miraculous,” Black continued. “Use them to battle the demonic forces that seek to engulf us. We pray in your powerful name.”

Black’s prayer echoed a similar sentiment of President Biden and other Democrats who are calling on Congress to pass more gun reform laws. Biden urged lawmakers to come together and ban assault weapons, but Senate Republicans have signaled that further gun legislation is unlikely even in the wake of another mass shooting.

“The Congress has to act. The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre, it’s a crazy idea. They’re against that,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday. “I can’t do anything except plead with Congress to act reasonably.”

Black, a retired Navy Rear Admiral, has been the senate chaplain for 20 years.