Another Fucking Mass Shooting At US School

[Politesse]

It is not as though anti-Catholic violence is ever unexpected. This has been a part of American culture from Colonial times.

But if this was in fact a case of a trans kid being tortured into insanity, I hope the church doesn't take the wrong lesson from it. As they usually do.

 

[southernhybrid]

I just read that the shooter attended the Catholic school where the shooting occurred and his mother asked that his name be changed to a female name when 17 and her request was accepted, so it does appear as if the young person was a trans female. Apparently he has some serious mental health issues. I've also wondered if he felt unaccepted and even hated by Catholics which might have influenced him to do such a horrible thing. I've never understood why so many people feel the need to take out others before they commit suicide, but this is another case of that.

I was glad to see the mayor of the city speaking out about our insane gun laws. Too many people own guns who should never have that right. Thanks to SCOTUS it's easier than ever to own a gun legally. I hate guns but if they are going to be legal, people should at least be required to have a back ground check and a make sure they have no history of a mental health disorder, imo. It used to be that one had to have a background check to carry concealed in Georgia, but our asshole governor did away with that requirement, so now any idiot can carry concealed legally. It's no longer on one's driver's license if one is carrying concealed. That used to be a requirement as well. Way to go Kemp!

 

[Politesse]

So, not at the school, but at the adjacent church where mass was being held. I hope this wasn't religious based, Trump will go nuts.

Go nuts? From what other state?

 

[Toni]

The shooter is reportedly a former student and the mother a former employee.
Whether or not the shooter was transgender is still uncertain, in my opinion.

Why do you doubt that the shooter was trans?

In any case, this reminds of the shooting in Nashville.
 2023 Nashville school shooting
Both shooters attacked a religious school they were students of, both of them were trans (Hale was FTM though) and both had mental health issues.

Calling this domestic terrorism against Catholics is a bit difficult given the near certainty that the shooter was apparently Catholic.

I could see it if th shooter was angry at the Catholic Church over its stance on LGBTQABCXYZ issues.

As sick as this is, initially I assumed that this was a case of someone shooting up a building to give Trump cover to try to occupy Minneapolis. Something I believe will still likely happen, with this as a pretext.

This shooter certainly seems to be anti-Trump though.

Minnesota is heavily Catholic and heavily Lutheran, with increases in other denominations in more recent years.

Especially Islam.

I think that trans is the new right wing catch all boogeyman.

Funny what never comes up is the vast overwhelming number of people who shoot up schools (and churches and concerts and shopping malls) are white and male. But nope, that’s not the problem AT ALL. Nor is the easy access to firearms an issue. Nosireebob. One person puts a bomb in his shoe and we all have to take our shoes off to get on an airplane but hundreds of kids are murdered by guns and…..crickets.

Minnesota population is about 3% Muslim. The largest growing religious groups is none or unaffiliated.

 

[bilby]

It is not as though anti-Catholic violence is ever unexpected. This has been a part of American culture from Colonial times.

But if this was in fact a case of a trans kid being tortured into insanity, I hope the church doesn't take the wrong lesson from it. As they usually always do.

FTFY.

 

[bilby]

So, not at the school, but at the adjacent church where mass was being held. I hope this wasn't religious based, Trump will go nuts.

Go nuts? From what other state?

Florida.

It's a very short trip.

 

[bilby]

Especially Islam.

Please feel free to fuck off somewhere else with your completely irrelevant hobbyhorse.

 

[southernhybrid]

https://wapo.st/4mCpPED

You can read the entire article if you want, but it clearly states that the mother had her kid's name changed because she identified as female. And, the guns were purchased legally. I always wonder why when someone posts a violent manifesto on social media, why nobody realizes the person is a threat and likely needs helps. Didn't anyone realize this person was a very troubled. youth?

The person who opened fire at a Catholic school in Minneapolis on Wednesday has been identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, police said. They said the shooter posted a manifesto on YouTube to coincide with the violence and that web postings showed Westman’s mother had worked at the school.

Minneapolis police said the shooter acted alone, did not have an extensive criminal history and legally purchased the guns used in killings. The shooter’s mother successfully petitioned to change the assailant’s name from Robert to Robin in 2021, saying her biological son identified as a woman.

Mary Westman, Robin Westman’s mother, worked as an administrative assistant in the business office at Annunciation Catholic School in 2016, according to a web posting. It was unclear whether she still worked at the school at the time of the shooting.

She had applied for a name change for her child in 2019 from Robert Paul Westman to Robin M. Westman because her child “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification,” according to court records in Dakota County, Minnesota.
At the time, Robin was 17. Mary Westman wrote in court documents that the teenager did not have a felony record.
Robin Westman was the youngest of three children whose parents divorced in 2013, according to court records. The family lived in Hastings, Minnesota, at the time, and all three children attended private school.

 

[Politesse]

Abuse is what they do to help "troubled youth". It was so at my Catholic high school, anyway. Tough love was God's love. No place to cone out the closet, that's for sure.

 

[crazyfingers]

Violance is never the right answer.

But I think that if half the population blamed me for everything from the price of eggs to natural disaster to higher crime and made it legal to fire me for being atheist and didn't let me use public bathroom that would make me a little crazy too.

Trump and his MAGAs are out to blame everything under the sun or clouds on trans and to make their lives a living nightmare. It must be very hard to stay sane under intense, irrational, bigoted cruelty.

 

[Politesse]

Poorly directed violence never solves a thing. The killer probably imagined something more poetically justifiable than the murder of two little kids and her own death. But that's all she achieved, and the only thing she will ever be remembered for. Pointless.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

So which things are conservatives going to do in response to this?

A. Whine about company logos.
B. Continue to defend the pedophile child rapist they worship.
C. Claim slavery wasn't that bad and force that to be taught in schools.
D. All of the above.

(I also forgot blame trans people and continue to raid schools with ICE agents and traumatize children). Oh, and the other one, which was send children to concentration camps.

 

[ZiprHead]

So the shooter was an extreme right wing douche bag. He had anti-black, anti-Jew, anti-hispanic, anti-LGBT slogans written on his guns like the Christchurch New Zealand shooter did.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Abuse is what they do to help "troubled youth". It was so at my Catholic high school, anyway. Tough love was God's love. No place to cone out the closet, that's for sure.

Not certain about that. I mean half the clergy sleep in the closet.

*rimshot*

That said, having went to a Catholic College (as an atheist), it really comes down to the order running the show and the individual. I know at least a few Brothers at my school that could have easily been talked to without any judgment.

 

[southernhybrid]

I found an article that I will gift that has more information about the shooter. Sure sounds like she was a fucked up mess.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/0...e_code=1.hk8.nYvZ._rMEu4OiuZkq&smid=url-share

The attacker’s social media accounts revealed a fascination with guns and school shooters and clues that the attack had been planned in advance, including a drawing of the church’s interior. They also included antisemitic and racist language, threats against President Trump, transgender flags and the slogan “Defend Equality.” Parts of an extensive journal, posted on YouTube, were written in Cyrillic, the alphabet used in many Slavic countries, including Russia and Ukraine.

The shooting on Wednesday during an all-school Mass at the Annunciation Catholic Church in south Minneapolis killed an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old in the pews.

City officials said on Thursday that they had identified another child who was wounded in the shooting, bringing the total number of injured children to 15. Three adults in their 80s were also injured, the police said. A dozen people remained hospitalized on Thursday morning, including several in serious or critical condition.

The suspect, Robin Westman, 23, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the police said. According to court papers, when the shooter was 17, she identified as female and legally changed her name to Robin from Robert. Investigators believe she was a former student at the school, where her mother once worked.

Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, said on Thursday that investigators were open to all possibilities as they look for a possible motive and try to determine if there was a “triggering event” that led to the shooting.

I find it especially strange that sadly it seems as if nobody tried to give this person any help. Did her mother realize how messed up she was? Did many people read all of her ranting on social media? If so, why didn't they take it seriously or at least report it to someone. I can understand the hatred towards Trump, especially due to his own hatred of trans folks among other things, but why all the other hateful things? This person must have been on the verge of some type of breakdown which might have triggered the shootings, but apparently nobody realized it. I do wonder if any family members realized how sick she was. it's all so tragic for all involved.

 

[southernhybrid]

I just found more in the link that was in the article. The right wing is using this as a way to condemn trans folks. I guess the haters are going to hate.

The right-wing uproar over Ms. Westman’s gender identity echoed the politicized reaction to a 2023 mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, which was carried out by a former student whom the police said was transgender.

In a news conference, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, a Democrat, urged the public to avoid scapegoating transgender people in the wake of the tragedy.

“I’ve heard a whole lot of hate directed at our trans community,” he said. “Anybody that is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community — or any other community out there — has lost their sense of common humanity.”

 

[Derec]

I think that trans is the new right wing catch all boogeyman.

That does not mean that the shooter wasn't trans in this case.

Funny what never comes up is the vast overwhelming number of people who shoot up schools (and churches and concerts and shopping malls) are white and male.

Ah, yes, white males, the evergreen left-wing catch all boogeyman.
Never mind that white people are actually underrepresented among mass shooters.

But nope, that’s not the problem AT ALL.

To the left, white men are ALWAYS the problem.

Nor is the easy access to firearms an issue. Nosireebob. One person puts a bomb in his shoe and we all have to take our shoes off to get on an airplane but hundreds of kids are murdered by guns and…..crickets.

I think we need better gun laws. Too bad the Dems go-to prescription is about banning certain guns based on how they look.

Minnesota population is about 3% Muslim.

Which is much higher than the national average (~1%). And it was nearly 0 a few decades ago, before the floodgates of Somali mass migration were opened in the 90s. And these Somalis tend to have a lot of children, which means that they breed exponentially.

The largest growing religious groups is none or unaffiliated.

[citation needed]

 

[Shadowy Man]

I think we need better gun laws. Too bad the Dems go-to prescription is about banning certain guns based on how they look.

I don’t think that’s the limiting factor getting better gun laws through Congress.

What gun laws have the Republicans proffered that you think are more sensible?

 

[laughing dog]

I think that trans is the new right wing catch all boogeyman.

That does not mean that the shooter wasn't trans in this case.

Funny what never comes up is the vast overwhelming number of people who shoot up schools (and churches and concerts and shopping malls) are white and male.

Ah, yes, white males, the evergreen left-wing catch all boogeyman.
Never mind that white people are actually underrepresented among mass shooters.

Your site says white makes make 31% of the population and commit 51% of the mass shootings.

Which is much higher than the national average (~1%). And it was nearly 0 a few decades ago, before the floodgates of Somali mass migration were opened in the 90s. And these Somalis tend to have a lot of children, which means that they breed exponentially.

And this is an issue at all, let alobe relevant to this thread, because…?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Shooter is allegedly transgender.

FBI head Patel says they are treating this as domestic terrorism against Catholics. Not certain whether they found anything so quickly to justify that conclusion. Shooter had a parent that worked at the school.

The shooter is reportedly a former student and the mother a former employee.

Whether or not the shooter was transgender is still uncertain, in my opinion.

Looks like they probably were. I rather suspect this is going to turn out to be where they had suffered abuse for being trans.