On March 27, Audrey Hale, a transgender mass shooter, shot and killed six people at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a story that was quickly suffocated because it didn't fit the narrative. NBC News published some puff pieces about how the transgender community in Nashville might face a backlash from this senseless act of violence. Activists later stormed the state capitol in a violent rebellion to demand more gun control, even holding up seven fingers in protest; they included Hale as a victim of gun violence. She was the perpetrator who got what she deserved when police gunned her down to end the rampage. Mia wrote about the autopsy report. Some were asking about the manifesto. We don't have it; neither does any news outlet.
Hale's parents possessed the documents but transferred ownership of the writings to the parents of the mass shooting victims. They want to keep the contents from being released (via NY Post):
Nashville shooter Audrey Hale’s parents have transferred ownership of her “manifesto” to the families of Covenant School students who are battling to stop them being released.
The move effectively means the parents reeling from the 28-year-old shooter’s rampage, which killed six, are now working with the killer’s family to stop her voluminous writings being made public.
Hale, who was transgender, blasted into the private elementary school on the morning of March 27, and carried out the killing spree before Metro Nashville police shot her down.
She had written diaries, journals and drawings which freedom of information advocates are seeking to make public, but the school is fiercely opposed to.
Several politicians, a newspaper and gun-rights groups are seeking the release of Hale’s writings, arguing any potential changes to firearm regulations based on the shooting would not be fair without knowing more about Hale’s motives and mental state.
The fight over Hale's scribblings has been raging for months. In May, a contentious court hearing had families making the case that releasing the manifesto could spark another massacre. Is that the case, or is it that the police passed the buck to avoid being dragged into a political maelstrom? When authorities refused to release the writings, it might as well have been announced that they were sealed indefinitely because that essentially happened.
For now, we can only speculate what Hale wrote, which is probably off the hinges to the point where it's incoherent. Or it's still insane but eloquently written like Ted Kaczynski's manifesto. It might be time for news outlets to file lawsuits, some of whom probably have already, but the public needs to know what Hale wrote before her rampage.
