Katherine Fung of Newsweek reports on an effort by LGBTQ+ activists to suppress the “manifesto” of the Nashville Christian school shooter:
Calls for police to release the “manifesto” that authorities say was written ahead of Monday’s Nashville school shooting has prompted concern among LGBTQ+ groups, who caution against the publication of such a document . . . . “It should not be published,” Jordan Budd, the executive director of Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), told Newsweek. “The focus should be on how this was able to happen in the first place. There should not be such easy access to deadly weaponry.” . . . Laura McGinnis, a spokesperson for PFLAG, agreed, telling Newsweek that publication of these documents could increase the risk of contagion. She said that while the manifesto could help law enforcement and policymakers identify potential warning signs to prevent future tragedies, ultimately, “the contents don’t change the outcome of the tragedy.” “Regardless of the shooter’s intentions, the real issue here is the ease of access to deadly weapons in Tennessee and elsewhere,” Budd said, adding, “All children, no matter who their parents are or how they identify, should feel safe and supported at school. That includes a world free from gun violence.”
Why are these groups taking this stance? They are plainly afraid that it would be bad to use the shooter’s words because this might cause people to blame other people who share some of the shooter’s ideas. But this is exactly what these groups, and their media advocates, would be doing if the tables were turned. Every sentient adult knows that if a conservative, biblically orthodox Christian shot up a transgender institution, these same people and groups would be pushing the press (which would not need the pushing) to publish the manifesto, precisely so that they could discredit people who shared some of the shooter’s ideas. No honest person could deny this.
Even more shamelessly, we have similar groups trying to capitalize on the shooting to make themselves the real victims here. From Matt Lavietes and Jo Yurcaba at NBC Out: “Fear pervades Tennessee’s trans community amid focus on Nashville shooter’s gender identity”
“We are terrified for the LGBTQ community here,” Kim Spoon, a trans activist based in Knoxville, Tennessee, said. “More blood’s going to be shed, and it’s not going to be shed in a school.” . . . Denise Sadler, a drag performer who is transgender, said she had already hired four armed guards before Monday’s shooting to secure a drag show she is hosting at a gay bar in Nashville this weekend. Following the anti-trans rhetoric spawned by the shooting, Sadler said she is now planning to hire eight. “You don’t know if [the shooter’s gender identity] is going to trigger a community of people who already hated us to come and try to shoot us to prove a point,” Sadler said. “At the end of the day, there’s a lot of hurt going on, there’s a lot of anger going on, there’s a lot of confusion going on.” . . .
Jace Wilder, the education director for the Tennessee Equality Project, a Nashville-based LGBTQ advocacy group, said the suspect’s gender identity “does not change the horror of what they did no matter their reasoning.” “It is unfair and inappropriate to ask trans people to speak on this person and the lives they took,” Wilder said in a message to NBC News. “We, just like all other Tennesseans, are mourning. There is no politics I could possibly care about right now when children are dead. End of story. I pray and will stand with the families of all the victims and for peace for our community and I hope we can all show up for them and each other in this time.”
Again: If the situation were reversed, would NBC write this about Christian parents? Is it even writing such a thing now about them? Of course not. Left-wing writer Oliver Willis tweeted about coverage of this shooting: “a few months ago i wrote about how der sturmer, a pro-nazi paper in 1930s and 40s germany, laid the groundwork for the holocaust by linking every crime to jewish people.” But let this be a police shooting of an unarmed black man, or an attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband just before a midterm election, or an attack on a synagogue by a MAGA type just before a midterm election, and Willis and his ilk will be in full flood-the-zone mode linking every crime to their own domestic enemies.
My own longstanding view on political violence is that we should not blame people who have political opinions, even very floridly expressed, when someone who shares those views goes off the deep end and chooses violence. I blame people only when they openly call forth mobs to seek personal conflict with their political enemies. And it is unquestionably true that school shooters and other perpetrators of random, nihilistic violence against strangers do so in very large part to gain the publicity the press predictably showers upon them. So, my preferred approach would be:
1. Do not use the shooter’s name.
2. Do not quote the shooter’s words.
3. Do not blame the victims.
4. Do not generalize about people who share ideas, identity, or characteristics with the shooter.
But if the media give in to these requests only in this case, then turn around — as we know they will — in future cases when there is political benefit to the Left . . . well, we all know what they’re doing, and we all know that the people making those decisions don’t give a damn about the body count caused by encouraging more shooters to seek this kind of publicity.