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""We have to look evil in the face if we want to defeat it," the right-wing commentator says of the case, in which the shooter is said to have been transgender.
Right-wing commentator Candace Owens is once again demonizing transgender people, this time using a manifesto purported to be from mass shooter Audrey Hale, who killed six people at Covenant School in Nashville in March before being shot to death by police. Police and others have said Hale, 28, a former student at the school, was a trans man who sometimes went by the name Aiden.
Another far-right media personality, Steven Crowder, posted pages Monday on his social media feeds that he said were from Hale’s manifesto. They include such statements as “I hope I have a high death count” and “I’m ready … I hope my victims aren’t,” and refer to Hale’s intended victims as “crackers” with “white privlages,” according to various news outlets. Several social media sites appear to have removed Crowder’s posts.
The pages also referred to victims as "f*ggots."
Owens shared her views on X, formerly Twitter, writing that she initially hesitated to comment as she was unsure if the pages were actually from Hale’s manifesto or from the shooter’s notebook. Then one of Owens’s followers asked if it was appropriate to “give the shooter more attention” and said, “Maybe it’s better if the words of a psychopath are not amplified.”
Owens replied, “As a mother I disagree. As an advocate against the mental illness that is transgenderism, I disagree. We have to look evil in the face if we want to defeat it. I want to know everything there is to know about a trans person that ruthlessly murders Christian schoolchildren — up to and including the pharmaceutical drugs she was on. Every page of every notebook. Every text message. Everything.”
However, the overwhelming majority — far more than 90 percent — of mass shooters in the U.S. are cisgender men.
“The number of known suspects in mass shootings which are trans is under 10 for the last decade” in 4,000 shootings tracked by the Gun Violence Archive, Executive Director Mark Bryant told Reuters shortly after the Nashville tragedy.
The Covenant School is a Christian institution affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America, a conservative denomination that is separate from the liberal, LGBTQ-friendly Presbyterian Church (USA). Three children and three adults died in the shooting at the school.
Nashville city officials are outraged at the leak of the purported manifesto. Mayor Freddie O’Connell ordered an investigation of how it happened, and he released a statement saying, “I am deeply concerned with the safety, security and well-being of the Covenant families and all Nashvillans we are grieving.”
Police Chief John Drake also put out a statement Monday. “I am greatly disturbed by today’s unauthorized release of three pages of writings from the Covenant shooter,” he said. “This police department is extremely serious about the investigation to identify the person responsible. This action showed a total disregard for Covenant families, as well as the court system, which has control of the shooter’s journals at the present time due to litigation filed earlier this year. It is now pending in Davidson County Chancery Court and the Tennessee Court of Appeals. We are not at liberty to release the journals until the courts rule. Our police department looks forward to the ultimate resolution of the litigation concerning the journals.”
The litigation he referred to is a lawsuit filed by parents of the victims seeking to keep Hale’s writings private. “This Court can shield [the parents] from a lifetime of abuse and harassment by the shooter from beyond the grave,” the lawsuit says. “The Parents believe that the large tranche of documents they do not object to will provide the public with the information needed to understand this horrific crime. … There is no compelling state interest in giving voice to a horrendous criminal.”
