March 27, 2023, at the Covenant School in Nashville, TN, Audrey Hale killed three elementary-aged students and three staff, before Nashville police officers, not as hampered as were the Uvalde responders, killed her, ending her rampage. It’s an event I’ve continually covered since that day. 

Graphic: X Screenshot

The media briefly covered the attack, focusing as always on the AR-15 Hale carried. “Carried” as in carried, but apparently did not use. Available surveillance photos all depict Hale wielding and firing a common 9mm carbine. I’ve not been able, to date, to find any information on which weapon was used to kill Hale’s victims. As one might expect, when the AR-15 angle didn’t seem to pan out, the media quickly lost interest, but they also lost interest for a more compelling—for them—reason: Hale was trans, a pretend male.

Graphic: X Screenshot

Hale left behind a manifesto, and Steven Crowder was able to obtain and release several pages of that manifesto. It was not complimentary to Hale or to the trans movement.

The FBI immediately got involved, which is odd indeed. The FBI has no jurisdiction over purely local murder investigations, but the FBI is apparently no longer restrained by obedience to the law, if indeed it ever was. The Nashville Police and FBI have thus far refused to release the manifesto and the other writings Hale left behind.

Note that police records are public records. They can be withheld from the public only under limited circumstances, such as if their release would compromise an ongoing investigation or could cause injury to witnesses. That’s not the case here, but authorities continue to refuse to release the materials:

Attorneys representing Nashville, Tennessee argued Tuesday in court that police were still investigating aspects of the shooting committed at the Covenant School last March, when a transgender-identifying shooter murdered six people, and, therefore, the city is unable to release documents related to the case such as the shooter’s writings. [skip]

During the hearing, Lora Fox, an attorney for the city of Nashville, indicated that the city’s police were still investigating the shooting, including probing whether the transgender-identifying killer had any accomplices. The shooter was shot dead by authorities on the scene of the crime, and there has thus far been no indication that anybody else was involved.

This is blatant stonewalling. Any competent investigator could quickly—usually within days or weeks—determine if there were accomplices. This is particularly true in a case with multiple local, state and federal investigators and all their resources.

Obviously, they’re desperate to keep Hale’s writings from the public, and that desperation is extending to nonsensical lengths:

In what [attorney Eric] Osborne described as “an act of amazing grace,” the shooter’s parents transferred ownership of several documents to a trust controlled by the Covenant parents. 

“That ownership is a paradigmatic change in this case your honor,” said Osborne, who argued that copyright law should give them some say in whether the documents are released. He believes copyright was established the moment the writings were created.

However, Richard Hollow, who is among the attorneys representing those arguing the documents should be released, contested Osborne’s claims, saying they have no grounds to keep the writings, which are public records, private.

“You can’t have a legal copyright until you demonstrated that you have the necessary prerequisites of originality, and content whatever else it may be,” Hollow said. “Until you ask her all of those questions, we don’t even get into the sphere of copyright law is a red herring here.”

A red herring indeed. Those trying to hide Hale’s manifesto and other writings have claimed they would provide a “blueprint” for other school shooters, and more honestly, that they might inflame public sentiment against trans. Neither claim is honest.

Hale shot out some glass, entered the school and shot whoever she found. That’s not otherwise unobtainable, unimaginable knowledge of classified tactics. The public sentiment they’re trying to avoid is more widespread knowledge that trans are mentally ill, and that specific mental illness often leads to violence.

Why is the FBI involved? They’re the enforcement arm of the Democrat Party, their not-so-secret police. Supposedly their behavioral analysis unit is carefully analyzing Hale’s writings, but they’ve had them for more than a year. Their real focus is likely to keep anything that would tend to reveal the truth about Hale, and trans in general, under wraps. Their mandate also likely extends to pressuring Nashville authorities to do the same.

Graphic: X Screenshot

How can we be sure of this? The Biden Administration, which has essentially ignored the victims, immediately warned about potential anti-trans backlash, a posture they haven’t changed.

Something else that doesn’t change is the fact we need whatever government would deny us.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.