Minnesota school shooting

Headline (probable paywall):

What We Know So Far About the Minnesota School Shooting
‘The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,’ Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

A shooter killed two children and injured 17 others when he opened fire during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school on Aug. 27, officials said.

The shooter, Robert “Robin” Westman, who law enforcement said is a man in his early 20s, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound moments later. Fourteen of the 17 people injured were children, police said, two of whom are in critical condition.

Here is what we know so far.

• Shooter Opened Fire in the Middle of Mass
• Victims Mostly Children
• Shooter Identified: Robert "Robin" Westman—left a letter to family
• Catholic School, Grades Pre-K to 8th
• Investigation Underway
• Shooting Followed One at Another Catholic School

From what I've read and seen, Westman killed himself before the police got to him. He was found in the back of the church where the kids were at Mass.

Some righties are making a big deal about this being yet another trans shooter, like in Nashville, but the vast majority of mass shooters are not trans, so I wouldn't make much of this. At the same time, I also reject the community leaders who've come out to immediately say, "Don't blame the trans people" instead of first focusing on the shooting victims.

Now, as we all know, there's a "fog of war" dynamic whenever major incidents occur, so we should wait a few weeks for the initial noise to die down before anyone attempts to make any pronouncements. For the moment, it's enough to know that two kids are dead and 17 people were injured. I did read Westman's several-page letter (some call it a "manifesto"); the tone sounded eerily rational and very family-oriented. He's at pains not to blame his parents for what he'd become, assuring them that they weren't failures. He apologizes to his siblings, who will have to carry the burden of his actions into the future with them. He apologizes to his friends and asks them to find their own ways of coping with his acts, and to "forget the pain I've caused." The letter also sounded as though he planned to kill himself at the end.

In terms of the larger cultural/political discussion, you know who has most loudly put forth the "murderous homosexual" stereotype? Hollywood. Yes: that bastion of self-righteous, limousine-and-champagne liberalism made God-knows-how-many films featuring murderous homosexuals, from decades ago to now (think: 1987's "No way Out" and 2012's "Skyfall"). You think it's just the right that's obsessed with mentally unstable gays and "trannies" who murder or are villainous? Think again. Hollywood has long had an unhealthy fascination with mental/emotional/sexual deviancy. I'm not saying that being gay or trans automatically makes you deviant, but coupling those traits with a fixation on death does. And I'm not saying that the topic of gay/trans villainy/murder should be off the table for Hollywood. People can make whatever movies they want. The villain in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" turned out to be trans (though, uh, incompletely so), and that movie was hilarious. But Hollywood's darker side includes this constant need to return to the trope of the gay/trans antagonist.

Well, it's yet another shooting. The anti-gun groups will once again scream and flail about in an attempt to repeal the Second Amendment. Gun-rights groups will respond defensively, and "GunTubers" will keep happily making videos about the "zombie apocalypse" while showing off how effective various weapons are against ballistics-gel targets. Another week in America.