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(LifeSiteNews) — During a press conference on Tuesday, police revealed that the gender-confused woman who killed six people in a Christian school this week had seven guns, unbeknown to her parents, who didn’t want her to have weapons due to an “emotional disorder” for which she was being treated.
Tragedy struck the Nashville community when 28-year-old Audrey Hale opened fire at a private Presbyterian elementary school on Monday morning, killing three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members. The shooter was fatally shot by police less than 20 minutes after receiving the call from the school.
Hale, who was already identified by police as a former student at The Covenant School and self-described “transgender man,” was reportedly undergoing treatment and monitoring for an unspecified “emotional disorder.” After speaking with her parents, the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) “determined that Audrey bought seven firearms from five different local gun stores here, legally.”
The guns were kept hidden at her parents’ house in the Nashville area, where the shooter resided.
“Three of those weapons were used yesterday in this horrific tragedy that happened,” Chief John Drake said during the press conference. “She was under care, doctor’s care, for an emotional disorder. Law enforcement knew nothing about the treatment she was receiving.”
The police chief added that “her parents felt that she should not own weapons” due to the unspecified disorder for which she was being treated. “They were under the impression that when she sold the one weapon that she did not own any more. As it turned out, she had been hiding several weapons within the house.”
Drake told reporters that authorities have yet to identify the shooter’s motive but shared that they believe “the students that were targeted were randomly targeted.”
Asked if police had the legal authority to confiscate a person’s weapons if he or she showed signs of mental instability, Drake explained that “we would have tried to get those weapons” had the police been informed that “she was suicidal or that she was going to kill someone.”
An anonymous source who is close to Hale’s family told The Daily Beast that the shooter was “high functioning” but autistic and had “relatively recently announced she was transgender.” Police were unable to verify this testimony.
Hale’s parents did not provide further details, telling ABC News that “it is very, very difficult right now.” In contrast to the shooter’s self-described “transgender” identity, her mother said, “I think I lost my daughter today” in the brief phone call with ABC News. The family’s neighbor described her parents as “very nice” and “very religious.”
The New York Post also noted that Hale’s mother had previously advocated for keeping guns out of schools in response to mass school shootings and expressing the need to protect children.
After the heartbreaking incident, conservatives pointed to mental instability as a key contributor to the violence incited and committed by gender confused individuals. LifeSiteNews’ John-Henry Westen commented that by pushing for acceptance of transgenderism, society is “fostering” mental health issues such as gender confusion and “creating total insanity.”
As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson commented on Twitter that this is not the first instance of gender-confused people committing mass shootings.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wondered what role cross-sex hormones played in Hale’s rampage, indicating that medical intervention for gender confusion held some responsibility for the shooting.
Others have noted the suspicious timing of the murders, which took place days before the “Trans Day of Vengeance” to protest legislation banning child mutilation in the name of “gender transitions.” However, it is unknown whether Hale was connected to the organization planning the protest, and the manifesto found in her home has not yet been released by police.
LGBT activists have given no indication of canceling the protest despite Monday’s shooting. The act of resistance is scheduled to take place in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on Friday and Saturday.
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