In the aftermath of yet another devastating school shooting in America, misinformation spread rapidly across social media, falsely claiming the alleged 15-year-old school shooter in Wisconsin — identified as Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha — was transgender. Law enforcement officials in Madison are pushing back, emphasizing that these baseless claims only distract from the lives lost and the urgent need to address gun violence.
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The shooting at the private Abundant Life Christian School left three people dead, including Rupnow, and six others injured, two critically. The tragedy unfolded in a study hall classroom Monday morning, with survivors describing scenes of chaos and terror as teachers and students sought safety. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes rebuked the harmful rhetoric emerging online during a Monday evening press conference.
Related: Gay Dem who represents district of Wisconsin school shooting demands action, not just ‘thoughts and prayers’
Barnes was responding to a reporter’s question that specifically pointed to Moms for Liberty as a source of false claims that the alleged shooter was trans. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated Moms for Liberty as an anti-government extremist group. “I don’t know whether Natalie was transgender or not, and quite frankly, I don’t think that’s even important,” Barnes said. “What happened today has nothing to do with how she or he or they may have wanted to identify, and I wish people would leave their own personal biases out of this.”
Yet, almost immediately, a now-familiar pattern emerged. A prominent user on X (formerly Twitter), with 1.4 million followers, falsely claimed, “The Wisconsin school shooter has been identified as a 17-year-old trans identified male. Another mentally ill girl on testosterone.” The account referenced a locked Google Doc “manifesto” allegedly linked to the shooter. Another widely followed account wrote, “They cannot tell if the shooter is male or female. So my guess, it’s a mentally unstable transgender, because, let’s be real, it’s always them.” These inflammatory claims spread like wildfire despite the absence of evidence.
The reality is that mass shootings are overwhelmingly committed by cisgender men—96 percent of shooters are male, and more than half are white, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
A Madison Police Department public information officer did not respond to The Advocate’s questions about the alleged shooter’s gender identity.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
In recent years, far-right commentators and anti-trans groups have seized on mass shootings to push false narratives about transgender people. Even before the facts are clear, transgender individuals are scapegoated and blamed, further stigmatizing an already marginalized community.
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis condemned the exploitation of the tragedy for political gain.
“An entire community is again grieving the senseless and shocking deaths of children, and the focus should remain on the injured and on helping students, families, and staff members heal from this devastating trauma,” Ellis told The Advocate in a statement. “Gun violence remains the number one cause of death for children, yet social media extremists routinely exploit these horrific crimes to distract from that fact with more of their harmful rhetoric about vulnerable people.” Ellis called it “unacceptable and despicable that children around the country endure active shooter drills.”
Democratic leaders in Wisconsin have renewed calls for meaningful action on gun control. Gay U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who represents Madison, urged his colleagues to move past platitudes and implement commonsense reforms.
“‘Thoughts and prayers’ offer comfort to the families and communities affected but have not changed our unique reality as Americans,” Pocan said in a statement on Monday. “It’s time for action.” Pocan highlighted his co-sponsorship of several gun violence prevention and youth mental health bills, calling on Republican lawmakers to put “our children above the gun lobby.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that gun violence is the leading cause of death and injury for children in the United States.
Mass shootings remain a near-daily occurrence in America. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA’s Law School, transgender people are already four times more likely to be victims of violent crime.
Law enforcement officials are still searching for answers in Madison. The alleged shooter, a student at Abundant Life Christian School, reportedly died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities continue to investigate a motive while examining evidence collected from her family’s home.
