I guess the Abundant Life school shooter might have been a Columbine ‘fan’

7 min readDec 18, 2024

As I’m sure many of you heard, there was a school shooting this past Monday at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. On Monday morning local time, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow opened fire with a 9mm handgun during study hall. A teacher and a fellow student were tragically killed by gunfire, before Rupnow ended her own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators stated that the victims appeared to have been chosen at random and were not specifically targeted. As of the time I am writing this, the deceased victims have not yet been identified.

The school was not equipped with metal detectors. As I have said way too many times in the past, metal detectors are not the be all and end all to school security. While they might occasionally catch a student carrying a weapon, their effectiveness depends on individuals being screened one at a time. Considering that most schools have hundreds, if not thousands, of students, implementing such a process would be a logistical challenge at best and a nightmare at worst.

The school did not have a resource officer either. Again, as I have said in the past, it’s basically a coin-toss if SROs will stop any potential shooter.

It was widely reported that Rupnow went by the name of Samantha for some reason. I don’t find this as odd because when I was in school, many kids went by their middle names. I don’t know if Samantha is Rupnow’s middle name or not. It may not be. She may have just liked the name. There was that time in grade school I tried to get everyone to call me Rick. Spoiler alert: no one did. But I digress.

My point is, since Rupnow ‘identified’ as Samantha, the online ‘transvestigators’ took to social media to assert that Rupnow is trans. Because, you know, these social media troglodytes think trans people are driven to school shootings just because they’re trans. That’s obviously not true, but the truth is largely subjective these days.

The trans ‘question’ was even raised during one of the press conferences held by the Madison police.

Madison’s chief of police was asked about comments online that suggest the shooter may have been trans.
“I don’t know whether Natalie was transgender or not,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said at a news conference tonight.
“I don’t think that whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may have wanted to identify,” he said. “And I wish people would kind of leave their own personal biases out of this.”
He said he has seen things on social media that “frankly are incorrect, that are not true.”
“So, whether or not she was, he was, they were transgender is something that may come out later — but for what we’re doing right now, today, literally eight hours after a mass shooting in a school in Madison, it is of no consequence at this time,” Barnes said.
“And so I would encourage people to be responsible with your social media,” he said.

Yeah, good luck with that. For those who remember the pre-internet days, do you recall how a rumor or urban legend would spread through your school or town, often taking years before the truth finally came to light? Now, imagine that same phenomenon amplified on a global scale. That’s the dark side of major social media platforms. Hate and ignorance fuel engagement, and engagement is the currency these platforms thrive on.

In a change of pace, we’re not getting the ‘we didn’t think it could happen here’ quotes. In fact, we’re getting quite the opposite.

Another father said, “We’ve joked around about how safe a 400 student body school, Christian private school is, right? If it can happen here, it can literally happen anywhere.”

Finally, someone gets it.

There has been a ‘manifesto’ that’s been circulated online, but investigators have yet to confirm its authenticity.

Again, Chief Barnes weighs in…

“Social media is something that quite frankly I can’t control and neither can anyone in this room.”

He’s not wrong.

As far as Rupnow’s connection to Columbine goes, it’s pretty tenuous so far. The ever irritating ‘online sleuths’ found a picture on Rupnow’s social media where she is wearing a t-shirt from the industrial band KMFDM. The exact same shirt Eric Harris once wore. *Le gasp!*

For those who may not know the history, the Columbine cowards of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were fans of the band. KMFDM received a lot of unwanted hate after the shooting when people erroneously assumed they were into school shootings and Nazism since the Columbine shooters were, and the fact the band is German.

As far as where Rupnow obtained the gun, while investigators have not said where the gun came from, we may have a case of the Crumbleys. Rupnow’s father is said to have joined a sporting club, where his daughter was photographed shooting clay pigeons. In her KMFDM T-shirt, no less.

He’s also believed to have encouraged her to practice her weapons-handling skills.

I’m not going to name the guy since he’s not accused of a crime yet, but the one picture I saw of the dude was taken in his vehicle while he was wearing a ball cap, wraparound sunglasses, and an American flag tank top. He also sent his daughter to a Christian school. If he’s not a Trumper, he sure is wearing the uniform. Another Crumbley correlation.

Now, we’re going to talk about the supposed manifesto, which leads us into rumor and innuendo territory. As far as I’ve seen, only less than reputable media outlets are giving it any attention, for now.

Allegedly, Rupnow had a Discord account where she referred to the patriarchy as the scourge of society, which led to women’s oppression. Oh boy, are the incels going to go nuts over that one.

Now, as for the manifesto itself, someone claiming to be her boyfriend has posted a portion of it on social media. It’s titled ‘War Against Humanity’, where Rupnow supposedly says she’s grown to hate people, and society, and calls her parents scum. She also claims she got the gun through lies and manipulation, and her father’s stupidity. More indication of the Crumbley Curse, possibly.

It goes on to say that she has an admiration for Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the Finnish gunman who killed eight at Jokela High School in 2007.

The manifesto also says that a school shooting is better for evolution rather than just one stupid boring suicide.

Now, I’m not going to say the manifesto is legitimate until investigators do. However, if it is a hoax, it’s a really good one. Auvinen is a pretty obscure school shooting to have an affinity for, even though Rupnow wasn’t even born when it happened.

Additionally, her supposed talk about a school shooting being better for evolution mirrors opinions held by Eric Harris.

Whoever wrote the manifesto knew their stuff when it came to school shootings. Then again, most columbiners do. What’s a columbiner you ask? Columbiners are people who identify with the shooters from Columbine High. They’ve been around since the day after Columbine, and each generation since has produced their own crew of Columbiners. Here are two good posts to catch you up. [1] [2]

Rupnow is believed to have a Tumblr account, which is where most columbiners congregate. The Tumblr is said to have included…

…images of guns and other school shooting-related content, including a profile picture showing what appears to be a screenshot of surveillance footage from a shooting.

Gee, I wonder what surveillance footage they could be talking about. Probably the same one that almost every columbiner uses as their profile pic. If you know, you know.

Again, everything about the manifesto and Rupnow’s social media posts should be taken with more than a grain of salt, for now.

I’ll post more as details become available and time allows.

(Sources)

I guess the Abundant Life school shooter might have been a Columbine ‘fan’

Written by Trench Reynolds

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