Robin Westman, a 23-year-old male who identified as transgender, killed two children at Assumption Catholic School in Minneapolis earlier this week. Armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, he wounded fifteen other children and three adults while the victims were celebrating Mass.
With his mother's support, Robert Westman changed his name to Robin when he was 17 and declared he identified as female. Later, he regretted that decision.
The New York Times deferentially referred to Westman as "Ms. Westman," and darkly observed that "some conservative activists [had] seized on the shooter's gender identity to broadly portray transgender people as violent or mentally ill . . ."
Two observations about the Times's characterization of Robin Westman. First, all American school shooters are young men. There is not a single school shooting perpetrated by a female.
Second, all schoolground assassins suffer from severe mental illness and a psychopathic disregard for human life--including their own lives.
Westman's writings suggest he was antisemitic and anti-Catholic, but basically, he was just nuts. For the legacy media to insinuate that his transgender ideation had nothing to do with his homicidal rage is disingenuous.
How would I feel if I were a 23-year-old man who'd changed my sexual identity as a teenager and realized I'd made a mistake? The prom I missed, the girl in my algebra class I didn't date, the varsity track team I didn't try out for.
I would be furious at anyone who encouraged me to identify as a woman and at the school that tolerated this charade. Indeed, I might be angry enough to start shooting people--although not so angry that I would shoot a child.
