by Mark Schwendau
Most Americans, like myself, were really confused when they heard “transgender male” had shot up a Nashville area Christian school, killing three students and three adults. The immediate question came to mind, “Was the Nashville shooter a biological male?” House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) GA took to Twitter with a tweet pondering the same question that triggered an immediate online backlash.
“How much hormones, like testosterone and medications for mental illness, was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking? Everyone can stop blaming guns now.”
Greene made a valid point, as many mass shooters have been found to be under the influence of mind-altering drugs at the time of the shooting. Most of them are registered voting Democrats. But these two factors won’t ever be reported by the legacy news media, but when one does a deep dive into this issue, both are often true.
The reason why this is important to Greene and many other thinking people is that even if Americans were so stupid to allow our Government to disarm us of our firearms in violation of our Second Amendment right to bear arms, people with the mindset to kill others would find another method to do so. A good case in point was the Waukesha, Wisconsin parade mass killings, where a vehicle was used by a deranged individual who killed six as well and did so much faster than the Nashville, Tennessee incident of yesterday.
The reason why birth gender was important to me as I was a vendor to a number of Illinois prisons many years ago. That means I got to go into them and make my deliveries with installations (computer systems) as part of the contract. Over lunch periods with the inmates and wardens, I came to learn a lot I never knew as the naturally curious person I am. I learned that there were not very many prisons for women compared to men.
As a matter of fact, there has always been a significant “gender prison gap” at both the federal and state levels of the US. Last year records showed 1.1 million men incarcerated in America, with only about 80,000 women serving time. This makes for a ratio of about thirteen to one.
Another thing I was thinking about as this story unfolded, mass shootings are distinctly white male phenomena, and nobody seems to know why or can explain why. Our political leaders are more hell-bent on taking away all of our guns as a solution rather than actually drilling down to the root of the problem, the individual pulling the trigger.
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So what this means as to the event of yesterday is most unusual. Here you had a biological white woman acting out as a white male in a role that is almost exclusive to white males in a crime statistic.
Rep. Greene defended her initial tweet by adding:
“It’s not about their identity. It’s the question of is this what kind of hormones are they on? What kind of medications are they taking for mental illness? What is causing this aggression in this biological female who identifies as a male for them to go in and murder children?”
Again, Greene is right, and her critics and trolls are wrong. Most women have a natural mothering or nesting instinct that shows a high degree of compassion and empathy towards others, even strangers. Many men lack any connection to their fellow mankind.
The other thing that confused the issue of gender in the news stories was twofold:
The name Audrey Hale is traditionally thought of as a female name and not a male name. In fact, it is an Old English female name that means “noble strength,” but these days is also used as a name for males. It is not a very common name, and therein was the first problem.
The second issue was the media (apparently) adopted the pronouns this criminal individual wanted to be used as they/them. Police referred to Hale with the female pronouns she/her as well as her full name Audrey Elizabeth Hale. The shooter’s own mother referred to the mass shooter as “my daughter” in brief comments to ABC News.
Another oddity of this event was how rapidly police released security videos of the event taken inside the school leading up to Hale’s own death.
“Nashville school shooting video released by police | LiveNOW from FOX.”
Another issue of this shooting is motive. Why did this woman pretending to be a man feel compelled to do this? The public is demanding to see the “manifesto” she wrote, found in her place of residence by local police but that document has yet to be released.
And still another troubling issue is the news media makes a point to label the school “a private Christian school” without making mention that Audrey Hale was once a student there herself. To the credit of the video above from a Fox affiliate, they do mention this fact.
A final troubling issue is Metro Nashville Police just recently released body camera video footage of their sweep of the school building to the moment they encounter the shooter at a second-floor window and take her out. This video was just posted about an hour ago at 9:00 AM ET.
Viewer discretion is advised:
“Covenant School Active Shooter Case–MNPD Body Camera Footage”
OPINION:
As a teacher of 40 years and acting as a surrogate parent of all of my students as is so often required by law, I have been saying for many years this insanity will not stop until more good guys are allowed to carry guns to stop the bad guys (girls?). I even wrote former President George W. Bush about this idea in a snail mail after the Virginia Tech shooting but never got a response. If more law-abiding citizens were concealed carry-armed, the new age concept of “soft targets” (public places with few defenses) would be obsolete.
If one thinks about this scenario logically, if they do not value their own life as well as the lives of others, they are doing it for publicity after the fact, sometimes called martyrdom. The best way to destroy that objective and persona is to take them out before they get their first kill. This is not about the guns which are simply the tools. This is about people who are under some kind of influence such that they no longer hold any regard for any form of human life.
My own main theory as to why this is happening is from years of violent video gaming which trivializes death to the point of it becoming a simple loss of a game. I have made this observation as both a teacher and a parent. These shootings have nothing to do with the types of guns and everything to do with what has gone into the shooter’s mind.
A secondary theory I have had is on school shaming, bullying, or shunning. When students and adults target an individual to shame, bully or shun them, they need to realize that students will grow up to become an adult and if that adult has no forgiveness in their hearts, that individual can become a ticking bomb. The victim can return to make victims.
It is important that we all treat one another with dignity and respect regardless of our backgrounds in politics, religion, race, creed, sexuality, and any other variables that might be used to divide us.
Copyright © 2023 by Mark S. Schwendau
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Mark S. Schwendau is a retired technology professor who has always had a sideline in news-editorial writing where his byline has been, “Bringing little known news to people who simply want to know the truth.” He classifies himself as a Christian conservative who God cast to be a realist. His personal website is www.IDrawIWrite.Tech.
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