Surveillance camera footage of the shooting has been released, as has body cam footage from police. Details have continued to emerge about the FBI searching the home of shooter Audrey Hale, coming out with masses of guns.
Still, the manifesto has not been released. Speculation abounds as to what that manifesto may contain, and it has sparked what Newsweek calls "major concerns" from LGBTQ groups, who don't want the shooter's words released at all.
After the shooting, Nashville Police Chief John Drake spoke to reporters, revealing the existence of the manifesto. Drake also revealed that there was a map detailing the specifics of the plan of attack.
Tucker Carlson has called for the release of the manifesto. And many want to see what motivation Hale had for taking the lives of three children and three adults, and knowing full well before embarking on this murder spree that she, too, would likely end up dead.
Many are curious to know what reason Hale could have had for shooting up the school she used to attend. Hale was an adult, only a few years from 30, when she took up a considerable amount of arms to attack her alma mater.
Why was this? Were her motives anti-Christian? Was she trying to make a point about recent legislation that has passed in Tennessee, as trans activists have declared, that prevents children from attending drag shows and prohibits the medical mutilation of minors in service to the lie that sex can be changed? Was she seeking vengeance against harm she may have experienced at the school?
As pundits and politicians jockey for position in an effort to determine which narrative world view the facts of this case uphold, there is no motivation yet realized. If Hale detailed her reasons, it serves to reason that the public deserves to know what caused this troubled girl, who stated that she used he/him pronouns and who was reportedly suffering from emotional issues, to pick up a gun, destroy 6 lives, and in turn destroy her own.
But activists and advocates for the trans community do not want Hale's words to see the light of day.
"It should not be published," Jordan Budd, the executive director of Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), told Newsweek. "The focus should be on how this was able to happen in the first place. There should not be such easy access to deadly weaponry."
"Regardless of the shooter's intentions, the real issue here is the ease of access to deadly weapons in Tennessee and elsewhere," Budd said.
"All children, no matter who their parents are or how they identify, should feel safe and supported at school. That includes a world free from gun violence," he went on to say.
Charles Moran, the national president of Log Cabin Republicans, a gay conservative group, said that there would be "serious consequences" should the document be released. His concern is that Hale's motivations could be glorified.
"While it would certainly give insight into the motivations of this deeply troubled individual that could help shed light into root causes, we know from tragedies like this that additional glorification of the shooter could inspire others to take similar violent acts for attention," Moran said.
A spokesperson for PFLAG said "the contents don't change the outcome of the tragedy," though she admitted that it could provide an understanding of Hale's reasons for the massacre. They also used the tragedy to call attention to what they believe is a need for more gun control.
"The tragedy of gun violence is overwhelming, and it is the ready access to guns to inflict irrevocable pain that cannot be undone that is the problem," PFLAG said.
The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for trans ideology, said "We still don't know all the facts about what happened in Nashville. We do know that every study available shows that transgender and non-binary people are much more likely to be the victims of violence, rather than the perpetrators of it."
In essence, HRC is referring to what is basically a myth about so-called trans genocide. There is not an epidemic of transphobic murders of trans people across the US. HRC advocated for gun control as part of their statement, saying "Regardless of the reason for this shooting, the use of violence is reprehensible and we renew our call for common-sense gun safety legislation."
Gays Against Groomers, however, has called for the manifesto to be released.
James Lindsay said "That manifesto is damning and they know it."
The police, however, have no plans to release those documents while the investigation is ongoing. "We will not be releasing the manifesto during an open investigation," a Nashville police spokesperson said.
Others were concerned that the documents' release could spark additional violence. It stands to reason that there is fear behind the inclination to deny the release of these documents. There could be concern among activist groups that what Hale has to say is so diffuclut to swallow that it could hurt their cause.
Perhaps these groups that do not want to see Hale's words in the public eye are concerned that their inflammatory, hyperbolic, incendiary rhetoric will be revealed to have played a role in Hale's warped view of the world and her place in it.
