According to this dispatch by CNN, Anastasia Boylan, one of the students wounded at yesterday’s mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, told her father before going into surgery that the gunman was targeting Christians. Boylan told her father that the gunman told the students to stand up and asked if they were Christians. Those who responded yes were told, “Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in about one second.”

At this point, it isn’t known if the shooter had any religious affiliation nor has there been any indication that he visited jihadist websites. His MySpace page did feature images of the IRA.  It does appear the shooter wrote about the ex-reporter who shot and killed two of his former colleagues on live TV in Virginia in August.

David French at NRO suggests we should not characterize the gunman as “crazy” barring any evidence that he was incapable of understanding right from wrong. It is entirely possible that the gunman fits the legal definition of sanity. But even if one is rational and knows exactly what one is doing, the desire to walk into a classroom and deliberately kill students is inherently insane.

Whatever his reasons, sane or insane, the gunman targeted Christians. In light of this development, I don’t think President Obama will now be so eager to speak about politicizing this tragedy.