I think this goes above and beyond ostracization. The mother sticking this person in a Christian school is probably as close to old school conversion therapy as you can get these days. Also, the gap in time from when Hale had to be in that school being educated and the shooting is much greater than we typically see. 16-17 years from the time they aged out of the school and when entering it with a gun is a long time. Entirely different set of students, and likely very few of the same staff from 16 years ago. This isn't simply some kid that nobody wanted to hang out with. Were they in a another school, they might have made a friend, and been able to be themselves. Instead, for up to six years, they were put in place they had to try hide everything about themselves because Christians don't love thy neighbor without exception. They should, but they don't.
Holy fucking shit... Tell me again that all cops are bastards? God bless every single one of them there yesterday.
I happen to dislike ACAB as a concept, and I spend (too much) time in the r/badcopnodonut sub. I think it only serves to disincentivize Good Policework. The Good Police who know of it have little reason to care for a people that hate them, and the taxpayer who'd otherwise cooperate to solve a situation instead comes in predisposed and biased, which feeds right back into point #1. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
I don't know the circumstances of the three children that were murdered, but the people that developed and implemented their active shooter safety plan should be commended, as well. All the other children and teachers were locked down. The adults murdered were the Head of School, a janitor and a substitute teacher. I'm sure the professionals can find some areas for improvement, but that plan and the cops that responded seem to have done their jobs almost perfectly. I hate that there even has to be a plan. Please stop murdering children.
It's just so heartbreaking. I have two young kids and the prospect of having to even worry about an active shooter guts me. I don't really care whether it's a disaffected white male that can't get laid or a transman that had whatever shitty motivation. It's also irrelevant if you have to bury your child.
I hope to be homeschooling our kid by 6th grade. Hopefully on a boat in the islands. He's in third grade this year. It is heartbreaking, and I don't mean to sound like I'm defending the shooter. This wasn't really an attack on people, it was an attack on an institution. An institution, biblically focused education, that affected the shooter so meaningfully and negatively that they snapped 16+ years later. Shit, regular education is shitty enough for sexual and gender minorities. And I'm not saying trans people can't be christian, I'm saying typical christians won't be good to trans people, and the shooter should never have been subjected to that. I just know that all people need to do better. The shooter's family need to do better, probably their whole life. Staff and peers needed to do better 16+ years ago. We might not be having this conversation.
Kind of fucked up you assume it had to do with the institution because it is religious organization. Jumping to a conclusion that has no basis in reality yet (not released the manifesto yet as far as I know). Could easily be she was molested by someone in the school and had nothing to do with her being trans or how Christians aren’t as tolerant at all. You’re falling into the narrative that has to be connected and the reason. A lot of times these people that snap have warped perceptions of reality as it is and even what they allege as their reasons were skewed by their mental health. Pretty sure the Columbine case fit this. They weren’t bullied anywhere near the extent they claimed and most of it was how they perceived others perceived them. Since logically bullying was the easy explanation that is what was ran with in society.
Weird bit of trivia: The actress who plays Nancy on Stranger Things graduated with the shooter. I don't envy her the questions she's going to get while trying to do press for the final season.
Things I’ve read throughout the day: -another target considered by the shooter was a nearby mall, which I’m assuming would be Green Hills Mall, which is a block or two down the street. It’s the “rich” mall. Restoration Hardware and a Cheesecake Factory. Supposedly that target was abandoned due to higher security presence. Also @Aetius I'm not sure if the “Stranger Things” connection is true? I tried to google it for shits and didn’t find anything. The actress went to Nashville School of the Arts and the shooter to Nossi College of Art.
It is my understanding that Nashville School of the Arts is a high school, and Nossi College of Art is a college. Reporting could be off, but I saw it here: https://www.tennessean.com/story/ne...about-28-year-old-female-shooter/70053679007/
Y'all Qaeda will never surrender their guns, and fuck if the liberal minded will leave themselves with nothing to shoot back. So it is what it is, MAD on a local scale.
It's not just Y'all Qaeda. You think the Mafia/Gangs/Thugs are just going to turn in their heaters? There has to be other solution. We don't get rid of alcohol, because there are alcoholics, we don't ban cars after vehicular homicides, we aren't going to get of school or mall shootings by trying to get rid of guns.
A mass shooting is a form of suicide, unless specifically stated (by the shooter, usually) otherwise as a form of terrorism/political/social statement. AFAIK, those are the two categories: a form of American seppukku, or the emphatic end to a manifesto. So...the guns are part of it. There are over 300 million guns (I want to say 390m?) in circulation in the US, and that's not going anywhere. Practical gun control at this point is like trying to stop the circulation of porn on the internet. Even the versions that shouldn't exist, say 3d printed guns (if you agree with that notion) or military hardware that shouldn't be held by private citizens is already out there, and proving ridiculously hard to control (similar to child porn on the internet). Every gun control measure I've seen in my lifetime is a political grandstand and has no basis in reality, logic or even is supported by gun owners themselves, minus (perhaps) the Brady Bill. The bump stock ban is a great example. I think there's a fundamentally flawed premise behind "we need gun control to stop a mental health epidemic", because those two things are simply not connected in any other policy/legal context. Mass shootings are the last cry of the disaffected in an unwell, violent and hostile society. A gun ban isn't going to stop the root cause, which in my opinion is mental health issues. Mass violence isn't constrained to guns, it can emerge in the form of bombs, cars, knives, poisons, etc. I think eventually the piles of corpses overwhelm the flimsy 2A arguments, and gun culture becomes increasingly associated with toxicity (masculinity, trans or what the fuck ever). If guns aren't as easily accessed, sure it will help. I just don't think legislation gets us there. I think it will require a culture shift that neither party is capable of leading. In my darker moments, I will admit that this sort of thing is one of the reasons I don't want children. Just too horrific to think about.
I think right around the point of the Capitol riots, I stopped talking about my guns and really associating myself with that culture. Toxicity, like you say. I have guns, sure, and I enjoy shooting, but I wouldn’t say I’m a “gun dude.” At least not anymore. The implications became too horrifying for me to accept. weirdly, it’s like when you stop drinking — you lose some “friends.”
This shooting was, in essence, a suicide mixed with some backstory that the supposed manifesto might shed some light on. The shooter sent some DMs to a middle school classmate that she kept in sporadic contact with, basically saying “you’ll hear about me, I’m gonna go die now.” the classmate called the non-emergency police line, was on hold for seven minutes before talking to someone who said an officer would be there to get more info/see the messages. This occurred as the shooting started (10:15ish AM). The officer arrived at the classmate’s home after 3:00PM. Now, I don’t think the classmate did anything wrong there, she only kinda kept in touch with the shooter, and she reached out to police. I will say, from personal experience, calling the non-emergency number for police in Nashville is not even worth it. They aren’t coming any time soon. I get it, there’s more pressing matters to attend to, especially that day…but five hours later don’t really do shit. It was one of the reasons we moved away - Nashville is a great place to visit. But it’s growing so fast and the infrastructure in multiple areas is not keeping up at all. This also, interestingly, has given some news outlets the ability to simultaneously commend the quick police response while blasting the late response to the classmate.
Perhaps we could stop using terms such as "lone-wolf" and "manifesto"? Terms like that kind of elevate these animals as somehow being bad ass or noble, when in reality they are craven animals.