OPINION:
A man pretending to be a woman killed two children and injured 17 others while they attended Mass at a Catholic church in Minneapolis last week. Many “journalists” covering the tragedy have done their best to downplay or even conceal facts about the perpetrator’s identity that are relevant to this anti-Christian act.
The word “transgender” doesn’t appear in many of the online articles by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, Politico or The New York Times. The Gray Lady even claims ignorance of any motive for the despicable deed while taking care to refer to the assailant as Robin Westman using the pronoun “her.”
“Since she identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification, it’s now Robin Westman,” CNN host Jake Tapper solemnly intoned on his show.
It’s strange for institutions that preach about the overriding importance of self-identification to choose to withhold identity-related details that shed light on an unthinkable crime. Here, there’s no mystery about what fueled the hatred.
The gunman left a manifesto announcing hostility toward Donald Trump and Christianity. “Where is your God” and “Kill Trump Now” were written on the implements of malevolence that fired through a window at defenseless students gathered in prayer.
This is not the first incident involving a gender-swapping assassin. The 2018 shooting in Aberdeen, Maryland, the 2019 shooting in Denver, and the 2023 shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, were perpetrated by people posing as members of the opposite sex.
Mental illness is a common theme in these monstrous offenses. A National Institute of Justice review of 172 multiple homicides from 1966 to 2019 found “nearly all persons who engage in mass shootings were in a state of crisis in the days or weeks preceding the shooting.”
It’s entirely possible those crises were at least in part accelerated by chemical cocktails. As a Food and Drug Administration scientist wrote in an internal 2022 email: “We did find increased risk of depression and suicidality” among children using puberty blockers.
Yet these ideologically driven researchers didn’t care about the enhanced potential for violence among those using these substances. “There is definitely a need for these drugs to be approved for gender transition, as they are typically not covered by insurance and are expensive out of pocket,” the FDA researcher said.
America First Legal obtained those government communications last month after it filed a lawsuit seeking clarity on how such drugs were approved on President Biden’s watch. Having this information is critical for the public to evaluate what should be done to address societal problems that result in disturbed people lashing out against the innocent.
In many cases, a significant slice of the electorate hears only half the story. Whenever someone from one of the left’s most privileged classes of “victims” commits a crime, compliant media outlets quickly move on to something — anything — else. They bury inconvenient findings and encourage parents to overlook the warning signs. That’s a dangerous habit.
First lady Melania Trump offered advice to prevent future horrors on X. “The tragic mass killing in Minnesota illuminates the need for pre-emptive intervention in identifying potential school shooters. Early warning signs are often evident, with many individuals exhibiting concerning behaviors and making violent threats online prior to their actions,” she wrote.
Instead of affirming the choices of troubled young minds, we need to adopt a more sensible stance toward mental illness that recognizes the reality of biology.
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