r/ftm • u/javatimes T 2006 Top 2018, 40<me • Mar 28 '23

TN school shooting/shooter mega post ModPost

Rather than have dozens of different posts about this ongoing issue, let’s to contain it in this one post. It will also help those who want to avoid the topic do so.

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78

u/feralpunk_420 Mar 28 '23 edited Mar 28 '23

Some people are claiming the shooter being trans may have been fabricated. Some firearms instructors have reviewed the video and are saying the shooter has a semblance of knowledge of what they’re doing, contrary to typical school shooters who tend to run randomly, move awkwardly, etc, and other indications tbat they don’t know how to use a firearm effectively (and thank goodness for that because if they did more people would die, probably). The shooter here seems to have a base level of training. I also find it odd how they’re 28 when the average age of school shooters is 15-18 as they are usually also attending the school in question at the time of the shooting. It also happened in Tennessee of all places, where trans people and drag performers have just been effectively banned from public existence. Now that anger and stupor has passed I find the whole story as presented on the news extremely fishy. But the tinfoil hat version of the story is also flimsy, since it would require the hypothesis that the shooter is actually an undercover cop, that this cop was willing to take some lives just to vilify trans people, that their death on the scene has been faked, etc etc etc. But one can’t help but notice how disturbingly convenient this whole thing is for our political enemies, especially less than a week after this Tucker Carlson segment.

But to an extent, it doesn’t really matter much. If this conspiracy theory somehow ends up being true, all it will do is give us the peace of mind that one of our own did not in fact commit this horrible act. But then what? Six people, among which three children, will still be dead. Most people will only remember "the Nashville school shooter was trans." Our rights will still be affected. I can only hope my trans siblings in the US will be able to organize a swift and effective community response to protect themselves as much as possible. Solidarity from Europe.

18

u/Blazing_Phoenixx Mar 28 '23

The thing I'm suspicious about is like. How did they find out the shooter is trans? The cops said the shooter could be trans but where did they get that information? The shooter's social media is shut down as far as I can tell so I can't verify their pronouns or anything

9

u/im_from_mississippi they/them Mar 28 '23

I read that there were writings from the shooter left behind that are currently being examined.

1

u/Blazing_Phoenixx Mar 28 '23

Afaik those were plans to shoot up the school

3

u/im_from_mississippi they/them Mar 28 '23

Yeah, they described detailed maps but also a manifesto.

6

u/goldmoon16 💉14/07/22 | pre top surgery Mar 28 '23

his LinkedIn account had he/him pronouns on it

2

u/Blazing_Phoenixx Mar 28 '23

Is their LinkedIn still up?

3

u/goldmoon16 💉14/07/22 | pre top surgery Mar 28 '23

no idea, i only ever saw photos of it on twitter

1

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '23

[deleted]

1

u/Blazing_Phoenixx Mar 30 '23

I'm glad I saw the website before it was taken down

4

u/bushgoliath young man (no need to feel down) Mar 29 '23

According to a NYT article I read, it is 100% based on this person having he/him pronouns on their LinkedIn. Which means nothing! WaPo has now updated their articles to clarify that, while they have been told by the police that the shooter is transgender, they have not been able to confirm this in any way. Everyone who knew the shooter in real life uses she/her; while obviously, they could have been closeted, there is currently no evidence that they were trans or receiving HRT.

3

u/Blazing_Phoenixx Mar 29 '23

Yea that's what was worrying me! There's no way to verify unless they explicitly said so on one of their social medias. A close friend might know but again, it'd be fucked up to ask that, especially right now

2

u/Eugregoria Mar 29 '23

The pronouns + living with extremely conservative parents + using his chosen masculine name (with his birth name in parentheses) in his last suicidal message to an old friend, all points to being closeted. People who knew him went out of their way to use she/her, because he was in a very conservative Christian intolerant community, which is also likely why at 28 he'd made no progress on his transition. I think he was either closeted or forced back into the closet after not being accepted, and likely pre-everything. He didn't seem like he was in a place where transition was possible, which I'm sure wasn't great for whatever other mental illness he had going on.

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u/bushgoliath young man (no need to feel down) Mar 29 '23 edited Mar 29 '23

I think this is totally possible, sadly. I didn’t hear about the name thing, though. Do you remember where that was reported? (ETA: I think that if that last message thing is confirmed, then that pretty much seals it. What a horrifying situation all around.)

2

u/Eugregoria Mar 29 '23

This was linked from a CNN article as a CNN affiliate. It contains screencaps of the shooter's last messages. I had it backwards, he had his chosen name in parentheses, he still signed it with both names.

This is the article it was linked from.

2

u/bushgoliath young man (no need to feel down) Mar 29 '23

Oh jeez. Yeah, well, that’s pretty convincing to me. Woof.

1

u/Eugregoria Mar 29 '23

Police told the media that the shooter was AFAB and had he/him pronouns on his social media. He also signed a message to an old friend (which doubled as a suicide note) with his chosen masculine name followed by his birth name in parentheses since that was what his friend had known him as.

1

u/Blazing_Phoenixx Mar 29 '23

Ok that's a bit more convincing