Robin Westman, the deeply disturbed individual who shot through a stained glass window at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis a few days ago, murdered two children and injured eighteen other people before, of course, shooting himself. He fit the classic mass shooter profile: Young. Male. Aggrieved. Loner. Violent fantasies. Suicidal. And of course, that classic mental illness that defines primarily the right and the far right: An obsessive love affair with guns.
Social media, as always, thinks it knows what’s behind the shootings and Westman’s ‘transgender’ status (which even he called a ‘charade’) is their primary scapegoat. Except that ‘trans’, genuine or not, had nothing to do with this. Nor did, likely, his political opinions, which straddled both sides of the fence. His primary motivation appears to have been something way, way darker.
ChatGPT’s nine biological women identified as mass shooters up through 2024, defined as having killed and/or injured four or more victims (copied and pasted):
Sylvia Seegrist — Oct 30, 1985 — Springfield Mall, PA — 3 killed, ~7–10 wounded.
Laurie Dann — May 20, 1988 — Winnetka, IL (school + earlier attacks) — 1 killed, several wounded (total shot ≥4).
Jennifer San Marco — Jan 30, 2006 — Goleta, CA (USPS) — 7 killed (also qualifies for section B).
Amy Bishop — Feb 12, 2010 — Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville — 3 killed, 3 wounded.
Jody Herring — Aug 7, 2015 — Barre/Berlin, VT (multiple locations) — 4 killed (also qualifies for section B).
Tashfeen Malik (co-perpetrator with her husband) — Dec 2, 2015 — San Bernardino, CA — 14 killed, 22 wounded (also qualifies for section B).
Snochia Moseley — Sep 20, 2018 — Aberdeen, MD (Rite Aid warehouse) — 3 killed, 3 wounded.
Audrey Hale — Mar 27, 2023 — Nashville, TN (The Covenant School) — 6 killed (also qualifies for section B).
Borderline but often mentioned: Nasim Najafi Aghdam — Apr 3, 2018 — YouTube HQ, San Bruno, CA — 3 shot (no victims killed). Frequently called an “active shooter,” but does not meet 4+ shot.
