Weapons Are Part Of My Religion

About

Weapons Are Part Of My Religion refers to a scene from a 2019 episode of The Mandalorian where protagonist Din Djarin says "I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion" in response to a request to drop his rifle. The catchphrase, as well as a captioned image of Djarin using it from the show, became popularized in image macros and memes that year, particularly on pro-gun meme pages and ironically to mock pro-gun sentiments across social media.

Origin

On November 15th, 2019, season one, episode two^[1] of the Star Wars spinoff series The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+. In the episode, Djarin is asked to lower his rifle by Kuiil so he doesn't scare a group of jawas. Djarin then responds, "I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion" (shown below).

On the day it premiered, Redditor RunDNA posted an image macro to /r/firearms^[2] showing captioned images with the dialogue from the episode, gaining over 1,900 upvotes in a year (shown below, left). On November 16th, 2019, Instagram^[3] page @8tech recreated the second panel of the meme, changing "Mandalorian" to "American," in a meme mocking pro-gun sentiments captioned "when you ask an American why they need guns," gaining over 2,600 likes in a year. It was reposted that day by Facebook^[4] page American Memes, gaining over 5,300 reactions and 5,100 shares in the same span of time.

Spread

The format continued to be frequently used among patriotic American meme pages and in pro-gun memes. For example, on November 16th, 2019, Facebook^[5] page Being Libertarian posted a version of the meme captioned "The Government: Turn in your guns. Me:" with "Mandalorian" edited to read "Libertarian," gaining over 11,000 reactions and 4,600 shares in two years (shown below).

On November 19th, 2019, Redditor CommieCrusader posted a meme to /r/memes^[6] using the caption over another image of Djarin's helmet, this one comparing what people think America is to what it actually is, using the image in both categories, gaining over 23,000 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On November 23rd, Imgur^[7] user ArmedNerd posted a meme using the image to compare Europeans to Americans, gaining over 80,000 views in two years (shown below, right).

The format remained prominent into 2021. On December 3rd, 2020, Instagram^[8] page jokezar posted a version of the meme that gained over 83,000 likes in a year (shown below). On May 6th, 2021, Facebook^[9] page Prequel Memes for Imperialistic Teens posted Redditor CommieCrusader's meme, gaining over 47,000 reactions and 22,000 shares in six months.

Templates

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References