“We will not be releasing specifics of the social media accounts at this time,” Madison WI Police Chief Shon Barnes announced at a Tuesday press conference to update the media and public on the murders at the Abundant Life Christian School.*
Why not? What doesn’t he want the people who pay for him and his department to know? Especially at as time when, before facts are known, Democrat politicians and gun prohibitionist groups are out there screaming the solution is more citizen disarmament edicts.
Add to that the natural suspicion that information inconvenient to the “progressive education agenda is being suppressed, much as in the case of the infamous Nashville shooter “manifesto”:
Barnes also addressed speculation online that the shooter was transgender in response to a question, but he stressed how the shooter’s identity was not important. “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,” he said.
Others are saying, “Accounts being linked to Rupnow online show an obsession with possible white supremacist ideologies and infamous past school shooters, as well as a chilling message from the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.”
That’s not something legitimate to know, but jumping to gun grab conclusions is? If the rumors are unfounded, releasing the killer’s unredacted social media would help squelch irresponsible suspicions. If it turns out to have a legitimate basis, then it’s a valid point to raise when what to do that could bring changes to law, is being discussed.
And it doesn’t help bolster trust when this is followed by Chief Barnes pledging that he is “committed to transparency.”
This is exactly why, unlike some “gunfluencers” who advocate suppressing shooter names, I’m against keeping them held back. When government takes away access, government controls the narrative and steers the population to the conclusions it wants believed, or at least accepted, without mass pushback. Since when do my colleagues, who know full well the depths of government deception to advance a political agenda, trust that?
Covering tracks under force of law is nothing less than motivated political censorship by those in power and has no place in the discourse of a supposedly self-governing people. As much as notoriety might be a goal of morally diseased killers, the larger one is success.
The prime objective should be to deny that success, and that will only be done when we can stop the freedom deniers from also denying the reality of harder targets capable of repelling and overcoming evil. Do that and the motivation for attacks will fade dramatically, and those who aren’t dissuaded will rack up lesser scores before they’re put out of all our misery.
* Case in point: the video that contained the lede quote has been replaced since I found that story link. I also see an alleged quote from Chief Barnes being repeated by influential gun prohibitionists on X.com (and some pro-gun YouTubers) saying, without a substantiating link:
“Stop asking why schools don’t have bullet proof glass & metal detectors at all the doors. Ask why schools HAVE to. That’s the question that needs to be asked”
(I can’t find those words in any Google News search. He may have said them, but I can’t steer you to a credible source—yet. If I find one, I’ll add a comment below.)
“Stop asking why schools don’t have bullet proof glass & metal detectors at all the doors. Ask why schools HAVE to. That’s the question that needs to be asked” https://t.co/NuNj5d59Zw
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) December 16, 2024
A more important question is “Why are responsible adult citizens prevented by law from defending themselves and their precious charges?”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
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