Is our mainstream media downplaying a penchant for violence among so-called “transgender” individuals?

Last week, Maryland authorities arrested an 18-year-old female who identifies as male, accusing her of a plot to commit a school shooting. We briefly touched on this story Friday, and it follows in the footsteps of several incidents over the last few years where people who identified as the opposite of their biological gender committed mass murder, most heinously the Covenant School rampage last year in Nashville.

While the 18-year-old student in this latest case was purportedly enrolled in a local high school, she had not attended classes in person since the fall of 2022. Since then, she had participated in a “virtual learning program” when not hospitalized. Per a local news report, “The Associated Press says court records show the teen was hospitalized in December 2022 after threatening to ‘shoot up a school,’ and the following month clinicians reported that the teen was talking about ‘suicide by cop.’”

That same local news report also noted that Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich used the occasion to wax political. “Hopefully, it inspires people to make more investments in the mental health of our community because I think we’ve identified this as a lacking space for a long time,” said Elrich. “This could be a wake-up call that we need to take it more seriously now.” Elrich, a Democrat, also praised Maryland’s gun-grabbing efforts, noting, “Maryland has some of the strictest gun laws, and it may be a helpful thing that he [sic] found our gun laws an impediment to getting armed.”

There are a couple of things to ponder with this case. If you consider that the student’s plot has been incubating since the point at which she decided to make her feelings known via her “manifesto” — in her case, a third-person narrative and a technique to work out a plot and eventually gain fame after the act similar to that of the Covenant School killer — there was plenty of time to secure a gun.

What’s more chilling and enlightening, though, is how the would-be assailant sought fame and compared herself to others in her school. “Truthfully, would rather become a serial killer than a mass shooter. Serial killers are romanticized a lot more. They get tons of love letters and Netflix documentaries about them. Mass shooters are brushed off unless they are truly unique or good-looking,” court documents read. “It’d be hard to tell me apart from the hundreds of other Asian guys at my school in police lineup. My school is mostly Asian and white. It’s in upper-middle-class Rockville. It’s a suburban city in Maryland where almost everyone goes to college.”

So instead of standing out for academics or athletic prowess, something told this girl — who, by the mugshots provided, had obtained a somewhat masculine appearance and manner of dress — that she needed to rebel by acting out as a boy and emulating a transgender school shooter. While we haven’t heard from the girl’s parents, it’s apparent they tried to give her help, but perhaps those “helpers” tried to make her more secure in a transgender identity rather than encourage her to work her way out of it. (As in most states, so-called “conversion therapy” is against the law in Maryland — a major irony in the age of “gender-affirming” care.)

Worse still, though, are the enablers in the press and judicial system. Readers may have noticed that the accused was commonly referred to in news reports by male pronouns and her assumed name rather than her birth gender and given name. And when pressed on the subject, Elrich snapped: “Why are you focused on it being a transgender is beyond me. It is not a news story. It is not a crime to be transgender.”

Indeed, it’s not a crime to be “transgender,” and no one said it is. But it’s a symptom of a mental disorder that has led to shootings and murders often enough to become a red flag and worthy of investigation. Perhaps it was only this young lady’s conscience that won out and stopped her before she went too far, as she wrote: “I do recognize that my plan is fully unethical. It’s selfish and evil.”

Regardless of the reason she held off, it was sheer luck and timing that saved students at the accused’s high school. Next time, we may not be as fortunate.