Republican leaders across the nation have pinpointed the real culprit behind this week’s mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis: the dreaded “woke, transgender agenda.” According to sources who apparently missed the part about guns, mental distress, or hate, the issue is now settled.
On August 27, 2025, a gunman identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman opened fire during a school Mass, killing two children and wounding 17 others before taking their own life. Authorities are investigating the incident as a hate crime and domestic terrorism, citing anti-Catholic sentiment and extremist ideology. Mayor Jacob Frey warned that anyone “using this as an opportunity to villainize our transgender community has lost their sense of common humanity.”
Two days before the tragedy, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison had vowed that his office “is not going to scapegoat our transgender community”. But apparently, GOP officials believed it was time for more creative scapegoating.
House GOP Whip Tom Emmer delivered a solemn policy proposal: repeal Minnesota’s 2023 “trans refuge” law, which protects individuals seeking gender-affirming care from out-of-state legal action. Emmer argued the law promotes confusion and allowed the shooter to “impede necessary intervention.”
Meanwhile, commentators like Donald Trump Jr. chimed in with the hard policy statistics—labeling trans people as a “most violent domestic terror threat”. And Melania Trump offered her measured, nuanced solution: nationwide behavioral threat assessments on social media and at home. Not guns, clinics, or hate—but early warning signs.
The juxtaposition in official rhetoric is nothing short of lyrical: while public health experts and local leaders called for gun control and mental health reform, GOP responses pivoted to moral panic. A prosecutor urging legislative restraint became an opening for anti-trans rhetoric—not as a distraction, but apparently as main strategy.
This rhetorical move mirrors a broader pattern. Experts have documented how tragedy is routinely followed by a rush to blame transgender individuals—even when no factual basis exists.
That familiarity has not dampened the glee. GOP officials are reportedly celebrating the clarity of their target—now identified as ideological, moral, and distinctly trans. In comment threads, supporters of the new scapegoat approach seem reassured: they’ve found someone else to fear. After all, gun access? Mental health care? Those are too boring.
But Minneapolis Mayor Frey persists in mentioning inconvenient truths—like bullets, assault weapons, and thoughts alone proving insufficient.
With congratulations to the GOP on unifying behind a single policy fix, one anticipates the next step: a taxpayer-funded task force to root out “woke, transgender ideology” everywhere, from hospitals to history books—because if history teaches us anything, it’s that deranged misdirection is America’s default setting.
