Zach W. Lambert

Because as a Christian pastor, I believe Christianity shouldn’t be, “How can I protect my guns?” and instead be, “How can I protect my neighbors?”

I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz because we need to pass an assault weapons ban and make schools safer for children and teachers. Both my kids and spouse spend every day of the week in a public school. There is not a morning that goes by when I don’t send them off to school praying that it will not be the last time I see them alive.

I am also a Christian pastor who believes Christianity should sound a lot less like, “How can I protect my guns?” and a lot more like, “How can I protect my neighbors?” The best way to protect our neighbors, especially the most vulnerable among us, is by getting weapons of war off the streets and out of classrooms.

I believe we can take the presidential and vice-presidential candidates at their word on this issue. After the latest school shooting in Georgia, JD Vance said, “This is a fact of life.” After a recent mass shooting in Iowa, Donald Trump said, “We have to get over it.” School shootings do not have to be “a fact of life” and we don’t need to just “get over” them. We need to pass meaningful legislation. These shootings may be common in our country, but they should never be normalized.

Compare that with the responses from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz after the Georgia school shooting. Harris said, “We have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all.” And Tim Walz said, “I defend the Second Amendment, but our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”

The assault weapons ban of 1994 was on the books for ten years. After Bill Clinton allowed it to expire in 2004, there was an immediate and drastic rise in mass shootings. In the twenty years since, mass shootings have quadrupled. The risk of a person in the United States dying during a mass shooting is 70 percent higher than it was during the decade-long ban.

Both Kamala Harris and Tim Walz support an assault weapons ban and are working to create a more peaceful world for our children—that’s one of many reasons I am casting my ballot for them this November.

Zach W. Lambert is the lead pastor of Restore Austin and cofounder of the Post-Evangelical Collective.