Being transgender did not cause a school shooting and a good guy with a gun shoots an innocent (More on the STEM School shooting)
This has been a difficult post to try to write as I’ve been trying to find the perfect words to express my thoughts on this but they haven’t been coming. Part of the problem is the anger I’ve been having over the ignorance and hate that people seem to have against a marginalized group of people like there’s a limited amount of rights to go around. It’s as if the rights that should be afforded to trans people will somehow take their weapons of cowardice away.
But before we get to my ranting which I may just save for the podcast let’s get to the news at hand. A couple of weeks ago, affidavits were unsealed which gives us a somewhat clearer picture of what led to the school shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch. The shooting left 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo dead after he threw himself at one of the shooters.
The most recent news stories have focused on 16-year-old Alec McKinney. The more recent reports are trying to paint the younger McKinney as the ringleader. McKinney allegedly claims the shooting happened because he was bullied for being trans. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Devon Erickson supposedly claims that he had no idea what McKinney was planning up until the last minute. Both of these claims are bullshit and I’ll tell you why.
First off, as you should know by now, the tale of the bullied school shooter is largely a myth. More often than not, the shooters are bullies themselves. I think I’ve pummeled that bereft-of-life stallion enough times. Am I saying that trans school students never get bullied? Not on your life. However, let’s not forget that Devon Erickson reportedly went around the school constantly talking about school shootings…
He would enter the classroom and say, “when the pencil hits the floor I’m going to start shooting.” Then, he would spend the rest of class sporadically dropping pencils, [student] Cole said of the suspect.
“He would just get really close and kind of hunch himself over your shoulder as you were sitting down, and he would just whisper in your ear ‘don’t come to school tomorrow’ and just kind of crack a smile and walk back to his seat,” [student] Cole said.
Let’s also not forget the reported drug use. Erickson and McKinney allegedly used cocaine the morning of the shooting. Cocaine isn’t something you just pick up for the first time on a whim. McKinney was also said to have previously given Xanax to a girl who overdosed but thankfully survived.
But no, let’s blame everything on the fact that one of the suspects is trans. As one Denver Post commenter put it…
This is the profile of almost every school shooter. Polar opposite of the stereotypical NRA member the left tells you to worry about.
Ignoring the evidence that more shooters in recent history have turned out to be MAGA hat-wearing imbeciles.
And speaking of shooters, it turns out there was a ‘good guy with a gun’ at STEM School Highlands Ranch. So what did this heroic gun-toting red-blooded 2nd Amendment upholding God-fearing American do? STEM School’s private security guard allegedly shot a student after shooting at a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant. Way to go there, Jesse James. Only by the grace of God did this not turn into an even bigger bloodbath due to the itchy trigger finger of a rent-a-cop.
The gun nuts do have one point in their favor though. The suspects had to use an ax and a crowbar to wrest the guns from a gun case. So in retrospect, even I will admit that the guns were stored securely.
But back to the matter at hand. Do I think that McKinney is any less culpable of the crimes he’s accused of because he’s trans? Absolutely not. He should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as any murderer should, but his gender has no bearing whatsoever on this crime.
