Writing on the Oath Keepers’ website, the group’s founder Stewart Rhodes reacted to Sunday’s mass shooting at a church in Texas by tying it to the supposed “civil war” that he thought far-left activists would try to start on Saturday and by urging all men to go armed at all times and station armed security teams outside of every church.

Rhodes, like others on the far-right, speculated that the shooting was perpetrated by “a Christian hating leftist terrorist,” connecting it with the violent left-wing uprising he and others predicted might occur on November 4, saying, “we may see hardcore leftists become discouraged by the failure of Nov 4 then decide to go full on Weather Underground style terrorist and target conservatives and anyone else they see as being on the political right.”

“But whether he had planned this for some time or was reacting to the failure of the Nov 4 launch of a supposed mass movement to remove Trump, our response must be the same,” Rhodes wrote. That response being to be armed “at all times, in all places,” including church:

1. Go armed at all times, in all places, and be ready for it when (not if) the attack comes. That must be the physical practice and the mental state of all patriotic Americans. As I said in my Friday write up, expect it, and prepare for it, and that means a handgun and knife on your person, and a rifle or shotgun in your vehicle. It was a private citizen with a long gun who put a stop to this killing spree. You must be ready to do the same. It is a tragic shame that there was apparently nobody with a firearm among the victims in the church. I have heard nothing about anyone in that church returning fire, and it is most likely they were all unarmed. 2. Go armed in church! See #1. Be armed AT ALL TIMES, IN ALL PLACES. And especially while in church or at any gathering of people that can be attacked by some jihadist or leftist terrorist (who hate the same people). If your pastor has an idiotic “policy” of no guns in church, give him till this next Sunday to change that policy (and teach him why he must) or go find a new pastor and a new church. Do NOT let yourself be disarmed in church. How many fathers and husbands died unarmed in that church while they watched women and children slaughtered around them? How many mothers where helpless to stop their loved ones from being shot again and again? Do NOT be disarmed by anyone, anywhere. Just one gun in the hands of a good guy inside the church could have stopped the slaughter, just like a gun in the hands of a good guy outside the church prevented the terrorist from being able to get away and kill more people somewhere else (it now looks as if he had explosives in the vehicle as well as more guns and ammo, so he may have intended to carry out other attacks elsewhere).

After stating that “every church needs a dedicated armed security team,” Rhodes urged his readers to prepare for “a wave of left wing terrorism targeting conservatives, libertarians, Christians, police, military, veterans, etc… in case this does lead to a full blown civil war”: