An NRA board member is under fire for saying the pastor at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine people were shot dead by a lone gunman Wednesday night, is to blame for their deaths because he didn't want them bringing guns to church.

See also: Charleston church pastor was a senator and civil rights leader

Charles Cotton, a longtime NRA board member, wrote in a gun-rights forum that the murdered church members "might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church."

"Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue," Cotton wrote in the post, which was first reported by Think Progress.

Image: Mashable screenshot of texaschlforum.com

Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the pastor killed in the shooting, also served as a legislator in South Carolina's State Senate, and had a record of supporting gun control. He pushed for a bill that would require police officers to wear body cameras, in the wake of the shooting death of Walter Scott, The State reported.

The desk of S.C. Sen. Clementa Pinckney is draped in black cloth, with a single rose and vase in an empty chamber, prior to a Senate session, Thursday, June 18, 2015, at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. Image: Rainier Ehrhardt/Associated Press

The message on TexasCHLforum.com, which includes the tagline "The focal point for Texas firearms information and discussions," has been deleted, but continues to be referenced in ongoing discussions between forum members.

One critic, an outsider with a newly registered account, accused Cotton of "victim-blaming."

"Isn't the murderer in fact the one to blame for the nine dead folks being dead?," the person wrote.

"The height of lunacy is that thinking that the answer to gun violence is more guns," another person wrote. "But have fun with this ... maybe if you are lucky there will be more massacres."

But other members, many with usernames such as "baldeagle", "tomtexan," "ShootDontTalk" and "GeekwithaGun," were undeterred by the mounting criticism.

"Look at the bright side," one wrote. "Charles is reaching an audience that would never visit this forum or consider his positions in other venues. While many will be offended, because they don't think, some will consider his words and possibly even change their minds."

A "spotlight" on an NRA website credits Cotton, a "dedicated NRA Board member for 13 years," as an "integral component in passing several bills protecting the rights of shooters in Texas."

He also spends his time teaching kids how to shoot guns, according to the website.

Mashable reached out to the NRA for comment, and received an automated response that said, "Due to the volume of emails we receive, we are not always able to respond to your message immediately."