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On Sunday, September 28, 2025, what should have been a quiet worship service at a Mormon church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan turned into another American tragedy. A man drove his vehicle straight through the church doors and opened fire on worshipers with an assault rifle before setting the building on fire. At least two people were killed and eight others wounded in the attack. The shooter was identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, a white male, former Army veteran, and registered Republican. He was killed in a shootout with police at the scene.
Sanford fits the profile we have seen again and again in America’s long history of mass shootings. He is white, middle-aged, politically affiliated, and with a military background. The same characteristics keep popping up in story after story, yet no one seems willing to face the pattern.
His attack was not only violent, it was calculated. Driving through the front of the church was meant to shock and trap those inside. Setting the fire was an added layer of destruction. Witnesses said chaos spread instantly as people scrambled to get out of the burning sanctuary while bullets rang out. For those who made it out alive, this Sunday service will never be forgotten.
The question now is why this keeps happening. Shootings in places of worship, schools, and other public spaces are no longer shocking, they are becoming disturbingly routine. Every time another community is torn apart, we ask the same questions. Why here? Why now? And most importantly, why so often? There are always theories. Some point to ideological radicalization, others to the availability of firearms, while many say it is the nonstop flood of inflammatory rhetoric online that fuels these acts.
That is why some are already asking whether incidents like this have any connection to the most recent case involving Charlie Kirk. His death, the divisive commentary that followed, and the heated online battles surrounding it have added to the toxic climate. When someone like Sanford, who served in the Army and should have known discipline, chooses to channel his anger into mass violence, it raises the possibility that our political and cultural wars are pouring gasoline on unstable minds.
It is not proven that this shooting has any direct tie to Kirk’s death or the fallout that followed, but the timing and the climate cannot be ignored. Sanford’s background and choices suggest he was not a random drifter. He made a choice, and it fits a pattern America has seen too many times before.
For the families who lost loved ones, these questions do not matter today. They are grieving lives stolen inside a house of worship. But for the rest of the country, the questions cannot be avoided. Why are mass shootings happening so often? Why do people like Sanford feel emboldened to carry out such evil? And if this is not tied directly to Charlie Kirk, are we still living in an environment where the rhetoric, the division, and the anger are fueling the next Sanford waiting to act?
Churches are supposed to be sanctuaries. Instead, they are becoming crime scenes. Until this country reckons with why that is happening, we will continue to count the bodies Sunday after Sunday.
