I know there’s a school of thought that says we should ignore mass shooters, not name them, and that depriving them of attention helps prevent potential copycats. But, I think that’s an argument that has rapidly become obsolete. In today’s media and online environment, a lack of information doesn’t avoid attention. If anything, it allows commentators, bloggers, and anybody else with a following to project their own thoughts into the informational void, possibly with tragic results.
From some of the more unhinged people on the left, we’re seeing sympathy for the shooter who gunned down innocent children. The shooter’s parents or the school, their thinking goes, must have done something to bring this down on themselves, and the kids are just unfortunate collateral damage.
Some of the even more unhinged are calling for revenge against people who think like the victims supposedly did. I don’t think I need to waste any more digital ink explaining why that line of thinking is mentally diseased at best.
If you identify as transgender and/or are undergoing hormone therapy – you should NOT be allowed to legally purchase a firearm
— Kingsley Cortes (@KingsleyCortes) March 27, 2023
Some of the more unhinged people on the right are doing dumb things, too. We’ve seen everything from calls for more gun control (something I warned readers about before the shooting) to fearmongering about supposed armies of transgender people who are preparing for deadly revenge (and they’re buying guns this week, so they’ll be really good with them by next week, right?). Some are even trying to make it sound like transgender people have been behind most high profile spree shootings, and that there’s a budding terrorism movement afoot.
Trying to convince the kinds of people mentioned in the last two paragraphs to chill out and be reasonable won’t be easy, mostly because people in one paragraph are pointing at the people in the other paragraph. For example, a bunch of absolute idiots named a protest event the “Trans Day of Vengeance.” That gave people on far reactionary right who need a bogeyman, exactly what they wanted after a school shooting perpetrated by a transgender person.
Conversely, transgender militants (a very small part of the overall transgender and LGBT communities) have a much easier time spreading their violent anti-freedom message when prominent voices issue calls to “eradicate” transgenderism.
I am once again asking you to believe the left when they tell you who they are. https://t.co/TQoWJCZqUY
— Aimee Terese (@aimeeterese) March 30, 2023
People on both sides can and do argue all day long about what people really meant about any of the above (the “vengeance” event is allegedly supposed to be a peaceful protest, and the “eradicate” comment was apparently directed at the ideology, not the people), but it’s ultimately irrelevant.
While the average socially conservative Republican doesn’t want to murder transgender people and the average transgender person doesn’t want to murder Christians, the nuttier people on both sides of he spectrum and the media outlets who chase clicks don’t care about giving people any benefit of doubt. There are agendas to be pushed and money to be made, all consequences be damned (or even encouraged). They unhesitatingly paint with a very broad brush whenever it’s convenient or expedient.
So in the interest of public safety Hale’s manifesto must be made public. Like everything else about this shooting, what she may have written is being politicized. It’s been reported that trans activists are trying to keep the manifesto from being release. Meanwhile, according to the New York Post, it will be made public after FBI analysis.
The manifesto should be publicly released as soon as possible. By filling in the blanks surrounding Audrey Hale with actual information, we can shut down some of the idiots on both sides who are trying their best to promote violent conflict. Good community policing demands that this information be released before there are more tragedies.
We Need Details To Protect Churches and Children In The Future
Another reason the manifesto should be released — whatever it may say – is that it can help us understand what went wrong and allow us to try to prevent it from happening again. Understanding exactly how and why the shooter targeted the church school, what her motives were, and what planning she engaged in can be very valuable information for people who protect places like schools and churches.
While many people identify with one side or the other in this story, that’s a foolish way to look at it. Sometimes, tragic events have no “good guys” and “bad guys” involved…aside, of course, from the killer. Sometimes there are only bad people and innocent bystanders. Other times, everybody has some good and bad in them.
This kind of complexity may not be easy to deal and it might not support certain agendas, but digging deep and seeking truth is the only way forward, even if we don’t like what we find.
There may be a darker set of truths this time that we don’t yet know about. When I dug a little, I quickly found that the church connected to the Covenant School had been accused of not only having a child molester working for more than a decade ago, but also of allegedly engaging in a coverup to protect the reputation of both the church. You can find much more in-depth information here about the accusations here.
None of this may have any connection at all to this week’s shooting. But it’s possible we have a church that repeatedly placed other people’s children in the care of a known child molester and then worked hard to shield the pedophile and his enablers or accomplices from justice. Allegedly.
Again, we don’t know if any of those accusations are true, or if it has anything to do with the shooting. But we’d be fools to not demand that the police look further into this and reveal everything they know about Audrey Hale and her motives. If the manifesto is kept from the public, it will only result in more wild claims and conspiracy theories.
Releasing the manifesto could go a long way toward either restoring the church’s good name or protecting more children from evil.