It is circulating online that the shooter was transgender, if that turns out to be true, I fear for what this crime will be used to justify.
From the New York Times:
Investigators have identified the attacker as Robin Westman, 23, who is believed to be a former student at the school, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. The suspect’s mother is a retired employee of the school, the official said.
and
According to court records, Robin Westman’s mother, Mary Grace Westman, submitted a petition to change her child’s name in November 2019. A judge granted the petition in January 2020 and wrote in an order making the name change official, “Minor child identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.” At the time, Robin Westman was 17.
Charlie Kirk has been shot and killed in Utah. (For those who might not be aware, he was the founder/leader of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that advocates for conservative views on college campuses, and he was an unofficial advisor to the Trump administration.) He was in the middle of a public event, answering questions about how many trans people have committed mass shootings when he was shot in the neck.
A couple of years ago, he said:
I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.
-- Source: Snopes
The shooter hit the carotid artery from 100-200 metres away - must be a professional hit. Clearly gun violence in red states is out of control and they should deploy the National Guard in Utah.
A nasty piece of work who should have been locked up for inciting hatred by public statement of his views. But, the last thing we need in any of our nations is for any of these vile, dangerous scum to become martyrs (especially, as in this case, being shot but even prosecution in courts and fines/imprisonment has that unfortunate effect).
I was pretty shocked by how he was represented in the news last night - you'd never know he's said a controversial thing let alone some of the extremist hate and prejudice he's come out with. I knew because I had a social media timeline full of Americans talking about it but if you weren't following American politics you'd have no idea from that coverage what sort of person he was.
Comments
A couple of years ago, he said:
As Alan said, a nasty piece of work.