DESPITE RIGHT-WING HYSTERIA –THERE IS NO 'EPIDEMIC' OF TRANS SHOOTERS

Jason Parsley

If you believe right-wing activists you’d think there is an epidemic of transgender shooters. After it was reported the shooter in the recent Nashville school shooting was trans – conservative pundits went nuts.

HERE ARE A FEW OF THE CLAIMS THEY MADE:

“There is a clear epidemic of trans or nonbinary mass shooters.”

— Donald Trump Jr., in a video post, March 28

“One thing is VERY clear: the modern trans movement is radicalizing activists into terrorists.”

Kid Rock made his transphobic views well known in a recent video on social media that has gone viral, where he’s wearing a MAGA hat and shoots up cases of Bud Light. The offense?

The company teamed up with social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who is openly trans.

Nic Zantop, the deputy director of Transinclusive Group, reacted to the video telling SFGN, “Throughout our history, there have always been voices who choose to utilize their platforms, power, and privilege to advocate for equality and a more just society, and others who fuel their desire for attention and relevance by sowing hate and division.”

Mulvaney has partnered with the beer company for a clever social media campaign to promote a sports-related contest where she hugs cans of Bud Light and shows off a one-of-a-kind can with her face on it.

The video is light, tongue-in-cheek fun. Rock response is not.

He posted the video saying, “Grandpa’s feeling a little frisky today,” and then proceeds to destroy four cases of Bud Light using an automatic rifle. He ends the video saying “Fuck Bud Light and fuck Anheuser-Busch. Have a terrific day.”

While Rock, whose real name is Robert James Richie, avoids making a verbal connection, the message was clear to his followers who posted anti-trans comments in support of Rock. Over eight million people viewed the video in the first two days.

Rock is known for his conservative views and support of former president Donald Trump.

Mulvaney’s video has made waves among right-wing pundits and media. Anheuser-Busch responded the outrage with a statement to Fox News:

“Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points,” the statement reads.

Jason Isbell, a Grammy winner and former member of Drive-By Truckers and, came up with a better way to take on Rock.

“This is finally how we get him. Leave no bigoted beers to drink,” Isbell tweeted in reference to the fact that Rock’s beer of choice Coors Light has had an anti-discrimination policy including sexual orientation since 1978 and started offering domestic partnership benefits to its employees in 1995. In fact, they have an entire web page on their website dedicated to the company’s efforts to promote diversity and equality.

Mulvaney hasn’t responded to Rock’s video, but has posted, “If you are in a position of power to hire someone trans or non-binary, please do! We need to exist in every space. I want to see trans people doing allll [sic] the brand deals.”

Zantop echoed those feelings.

“In a world that is increasingly hostile to trans people, our visibility, leadership, and representation are all powerful forces that advance the fight for equality. In 2023, faced with mounting attacks on our community’s safety, health, and well-being, we need more equality, not less.”

— Benny Johnson, production chief at Turning Point USA, in a tweet, March 27

About 80% of the time these schools shooters are transgender and the media tries to cover it up

– From the March 28, 2023, edition of Infowars’ The Alex Jones Show

Multiple news outlets covered this disinformation campaign including the Washington Post: “The data is clear: There is no ‘clear epidemic’ of transgender mass shooters” and Associated Press: “FACT FOCUS: No ‘incredible rise’ in transgender shooters.”

In Johnson’s tweet he referred to four shootings:

“The Colorado Springs shooter identified as non-binary. The Denver shooter identified as trans. The Aberdeen shooter identified as trans. The Nashville shooter identified as trans.”

James Alan Fox, a statistician and professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University told the Associated Press: “There are a lot of mass shootings, hundreds of mass shootings, and to cherrypick four of them and say here’s a trend, that’s wrong. You can’t make a conclusion that’s significant. It is not significant in any statistical sense.”

The earliest of those four shootings, Denver, happened in 2018.

In a response to Johnson’s tweet Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, tweeted “!”, which has been viewed 7.7 million times.

Some of these shooters may be trans or gender non-conforming but it’s not definitive.

For instance, as the Washington Post reports the Colorado shooter claims to be non-binary, but a police detective “testified earlier this year that the shooter ran a neo-Nazi website, used gay and racial slurs while gaming online and posted an image of a rifle scope trained on a gay pride parade.”

Of course, it’s also true this shooter could very well be non-binary and a neo-Nazi. But even if all four are trans and/or nonconforming there still would be no epidemic of trans people committing mass shootings.

As the Post points out there is no universal definition of mass killing/shootings. They define a mass killing as an event in which four or more people, not including the shooter, have been killed by gunfire.

Under that criteria only one of the four shootings would be classified as a mass killing.

According to the Post: “The Violence Project counts 188 mass public killings since 1966. So with 0.6% of the population, transgender people would expect to be involved in about one shooting.”

As for mass shootings, the Gun Violence Project has counted 2,697 since 2018. They define a mass shooting as “4 or more shot or killed in a shooting incident, not including the shooter, in any circumstance.”

Using that criteria, the Aberdeen and Denver cases cited by Johnson, would also be counted.

“With 0.6% of the population, one would expect at least 16 mass shootings to be conducted by people identifying as transgender,” the Post writes. “Instead there are just three possible cases cited by conservatives.”

“This is capitalizing on tragedy for political purposes,” Fox said. “One should not conclude that being trans or non-binary, they should be more likely to commit a crime like this.”