A Republican lawmaker in California who disagrees with President Barack Obama’s effort to prevent mass shootings says that guns are an “absolutely essential” part of God’s plan.

“Guns are used an average of 3 million times a year according to the Clinton Justice Department,” Assemblyman Tim Donnelly told the Christian talk radio show The Bottom Line on Wednesday. “That’s like 6,900 times a day. That’s the high end of the statistics, other people say it’s only 200 times a day.”

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“Whatever that number is, they are used to defend human life,” he explained. “They are used to defend our property and our families and our faith and our freedom, and they are absolutely essential to living the way God intended for us to live.”

Following the president’s proposal to curb gun violence on Wednesday, Donnelly blasted Obama for “politicizing this tragedy to impose an anti-Second Amendment agenda that would have done nothing to prevent the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.”

“All his plan will do is make it more costly and more difficult for law-abiding citizens to exercise their Constitutional right,” the assemblyman said. “We must hold criminals, not inanimate steel objects, accountable for their actions. And we must not criminalize responsible, freedom-loving citizens exercising their natural right as criminals… The purpose of the Second Amendment is to defend freedom against tyranny.”

Donnelly has proposed a “school marshal plan” modeled after the air marshals program that would allow teachers in California to carry concealed weapons.

“In light of the incredible bravery and selfless heroism of teachers like Vickie Soto, it would be morally wrong to leave the next teacher confronted by a deranged killer defenseless,” he insisted. “As the president said, he is happy his daughters are protected by armed guards at school. I hope he will support the rest of us protecting our children too.”

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Listen to audio from The Bottom Line, broadcast Jan. 16, 2013.

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[Photo: California State Assembly]