Blame Tennessee lawmakers, right-wing publications and even the victims. Whatever you do, don't award the perpetrator any responsibility for her crime. In America, membership in an oppressed class justifies violence for the cause, and the reaction to the March 27 shooting at a private Christian school offers yet another example of this disturbing trend. Whatever the alleged oppression, Americans must stop justifying or excusing violence.
Flip the script just months before when a shooter gunned down five people at a Colorado LGTBTQ club. President Joe Biden said Americans “cannot and must not tolerate hate.” Where's the condemnation now? Instead, the White House blames an epidemic of gun violence for Monday's shooting.
The mantle of responsibility for hate crime shifted all too easily from perpetrator to right-wing Americans and Christians. Shooter Audrey Hale's parents rejected her for her gender identity. The Nashville school's curriculum is to blame for its allegedly hateful content. As parents mourn the senseless loss of their children, the trans community frets about backlash after a crime committed by one of their own.
Despite the horrific attack on The Covenant School in Nashville by a manifesto-driven transgender shooter, the radical group Trans Radical Activist Network will move forward with Saturday plans for a “Trans Day of Vengeance” outside the Supreme Court as victims of a “cycle of hate.” Just hours after the school shooting, Arizona Democrat Governor Katie Hobb's press secretary called for violence against “transphobes” in a controversial tweet later removed and leading to her resignation.
Six Christians murdered, three of them children and the White House elevated sympathy for the transgender community ahead of Trans Visibility Day. But this isn't the first time that acts of violence have been excused by righteous anger and oppression.
Rewind to the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in 2020 and the race-baited fallout in cities across America. Black Lives Matter riots that occurred on the heels of Floyd's death go down as the costliest in U.S. history with city residents and business owners reeling from widespread looting and arson. Academics and media alike passed off the destruction as just and representative of a rightfully angry black community standing up to decades of alleged police injustice.
It's a sentiment that extends across society. “Although i do not advocate violating federal and state criminal codes, I think it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic, or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down,” Wayne State University professor Steven Shaviro said of right-wing speakers on campus.
Racism isn't the only victim narrative shrouding the morality of violence as revolutionary. On abortion, restrictions and bans on abortion are said to oppress women, or birthing people, to be politically correct. Again, justifying violence because of so-called oppression.
Co-hosts on “The View” similarly laughed off Jane Fonda's suggestion of murder as a solution for pro-life activists. At least 83 pregnancy resource centers nationwide have been attacked and vandalized since the leaked SCOTUS draft last May, according to Catholic Vote's tracker.
Sitting Supreme Court justices faced a barrage of death threats on social media in the weeks before Roe v. Wade's reversal, prompting the issuance of a Department of Homeland Security memo bracing for a surge in violence. Instead of explicitly condemning violence, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dismissed journalists' questions on death threats leveled against Supreme Court justices and protests outside the justices' homes. She appealed to the “passion,” “fear” and “sadness” felt by Americans ahead of Roe v. Wade's end.
Is it any wonder that when it comes to the transgender agenda, we see people regularly attacked and even spit on for advocating simply for the regulation of life-altering surgeries on minors? These same groups, who often claim the moral high ground on the basis of “inclusivity,” now minimize violence against those they disagree with. The repeated societal and political failure to unequivocally condemn violence rather than excuse it sends a message that reverberates across a divided nation. It was evidenced again last week.
We've come to blame the victim rather than the perpetrator, and we didn't get here overnight. This isn't progressive. It's destructive. By all means, fight against injustice, but don't justify violence. Don't excuse horrific tragedies in the process. Nashville deserves better.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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