MSU gunman’s note was just the same old song
Recently, Michigan State University Police released a partially redacted note that was found on 43-year-old gunman Anthony McRae. On the night of February 13th, McRae shot and killed 20-year-old Alexandria Verner, 20-year-old Brian Fraser, and 19-year-old Arielle Anderson on the campus of MSU in Lansing. When police caught up to McRae five miles away from the campus, McRae produced one of his guns and shot himself.
After the shooting, police in Lansing noted that McRae had a note in his possession that indicated he felt ‘slighted’ in his life. At that time, police only said that the note mentioned two schools in New Jersey, a church in Lansing, and McRae’s former employer where he was fired.
Now that the full note has been released, McRae’s motives seem clearer. Not justified in any way, shape, or form, but clearer.
McRae, who was African-American, said he didn’t want to be “a American african”. He also mentioned a church in Lansing and two other potential targets in Lansing and called them “rasist mother fuckers”. I’m sure that somewhere in his life, Anthony McRae experienced racial discrimination. It probably didn’t help that it appears McRae has a potential learning disability along with mental health issues. However, if we drill down further into the note, I don’t think discrimination was the reason behind the shooting.
I know. Some of you are probably thinking, ‘Great, another middle-aged white guy telling people of color how they should feel.’ That’s a fair criticism, actually. I can never know what it’s like to go through life as a black man. However, after reading McRae’s note, a number of things jump out at me that are common among most school shooters.
The note itself looks like it was written by a teenager. It even has stick figure like sad faces on it with tears coming out of their eyes. Again, I attribute that to a possible learning disability. In the content of the notes, McRae talks about being alone more than anything else.
McRae said he was tired of being rejected and called himself a loner and an outcast. He said people hated him and no one noticed him. He wondered why people hated him and why they never accepted him.
These are the thoughts of many a school shooter. If I was going to make a bad made-for-TV movie about a school shooting, this is what the shooter’s manifesto would look like. But just like a school shooter character from central casting, McRae blames his problems on everyone else. In the middle of the note, McRae wrote, “They made me who I’m am today a killer.” There’s always a ‘they’ with these kinds of killers. Whether it’s jocks or Chads, there’s always a ‘they’.
Speaking of Chads, in one of the last lines of McRae’s note, he wrote that it had been 10 years since he had sex. I think that this could be the main reason why McRae went on a shooting spree. He’s essentially a born-again incel.
Due to that and his perceived immaturity for a man his age, I wonder if McRae frequented any of the typical online incel hangouts. The reason I ask this is also in McRae’s note. He claims to be a leader of 19 other killers who were going to attack other targets from Colorado to New Jersey. No such attack took place. Now, that could be chalked up to mental illness, but I could see a scenario where incels may have egged him on.
At the main incel forum, where the little troglodytes like to gather, they’re not the most inclusive bunch of weirdos. They refer to black men as ‘Tyrone’ instead of ‘Chad’. Is it possible that 19 other incels ‘befriended’ McRae and told them they were going to go on attacks too? Maybe, but this is pure speculation on my part.
Typically, when I write about school shootings, I have two issues in mind, gun control and better mental healthcare access. I already addressed the gun problem in my previous post about MSU. So, now it’s time for me to talk about mental health.
I almost feel sorry for McRae if he wasn’t a murderer. It’s obvious he was suffering from mental health issues. The police even said as much. If mental healthcare was less stigmatized in this country and was more affordable and easily accessible, we’d have less Anthony McRaes and even less dead students.
(Sources)
