On March 27, 2023, Audrey Hale, a transgender person, entered Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, and shot and killed six people, including three children. Hale had left behind a manifesto that included plans to attack another school. The shooter was armed with an AR-style rifle, an AR-style pistol, and a handgun. The police found a map of the school and a manifesto during a search of Hale’s home.
Hale was described as a quiet student who had recently graduated with a degree in illustration and graphic design from Nossi College of Art. Hale used to design logos for businesses. According to a report by the Daily Beast, Hale was an ‘autistic’ but highly functioning student. The Nashville police chief John Drake called Hale a ‘transgender woman,’ but Hale’s LinkedIn profile shows that Hale used the pronouns ‘he/him.’
Hale obtained the guns locally and drove to Covenant School in a Honda Fit. Hale shot through the locked door to enter the school and killed Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged 9, as well as head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and school custodian Mike Hill, 61.
The manifesto police found after carrying out a search in Hale’s home said that she felt angered that she was sent to a Christian school. Audrey Hale’s mother Norma Hale was a gun control activist and shared several social media posts and even carried out a mini-campaign in 2018 and 2019 to sign a petition calling to keep firearms out of schools.
The Nashville school shooting has sparked a debate between left-leaning and right-leaning activists on Twitter. While right-wing intellectual and writer Matt Walsh accused radical trans activists of being violent and threatening those who do not subscribe to their ‘ideology,’ left-leaning individuals like Aaron Rupar and Brian Krassenstein have pointed out that not having a ban on assault rifles and certain GOP lawmakers like Andy Ogles who batted for lesser regulations on owning guns.
Observers have pointed out that the Nashville school shooting was the 129th mass shooting of 2023. The police are investigating if Hale’s gender identity had something to do with the attack.
