It is another tragic act among many that leaves traumatized children and families in their wake. A 28-year-old man shot and killed three children and three adults at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the 19th shooting that took place at a US educational institution in 2023. What we know so far.
Convenant Elementary School is a Christian private school in Nashville. According to the local newspaper “The Tennessean”, around 200 school children are cared for there. Nashville police report that a gunman broke into the Covenant Church/School around 10 a.m. local time Monday. The suspect is said to have been heavily armed, including two assault rifles. The video from a surveillance camera shows that she uses her weapons to gain entry through a glass door on the side and then walks through the school.
At 10:13 a.m., police received the first 911 call mentioning gunfire. Police officers then drove to the school and heard shots from the second floor. There, the 28-year-old person is said to have been caught and shot by the emergency services at 10:28 a.m. This prevented worse things from happening, Nashville Police Chief John Drake later made clear.
According to the police, three children aged nine were killed in the killing spree, two girls and one boy. Also three adult members of staff, a 61-year-old substitute teacher, the principal, 60, and the caretaker, 61. It is not yet clear whether other people were injured.
According to the police, the perpetrator is 28 years old and comes from Nashville, Audrey H. The police speak of a contactor, which is said to be a person who is said to have last identified himself as a male trans person. Trans people are people who do not identify or identify only with the gender that was documented at birth.
Audrey H. went to school there herself and is said to have planned the crime, as written and detailed maps that were found show. “We have a manifesto, we have some writings that relate to that day, that incident, that we’re evaluating,” said Police Commissioner Drake. A car parked near the school gave clues to the identity. The police are said to have already searched H.’s home and spoken to the father.
The motive is still unclear. “There’s a theory at the moment that we might be able to talk about later, but it’s unconfirmed,” said Drake. According to the police, Audrey H. bought the guns legally.
School shootings have increased in recent years. According to the Gun Violence Archive, an NGO that collects information about gun violence, 6,152 children and young people were injured or killed by gun violence last year. Firearms are now the most common cause of death in children and are therefore a sad part of everyday life for many families. According to the White House, more schoolchildren have been killed by guns in the past 20 years than police officers and active-duty soldiers combined.
The so-called Violence Project also collects data on nationwide shootings. As a result, 98 percent of the perpetrators are male. Further statistics show that the majority of the perpetrators are white and around 34 years old.
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the school on Monday evening. They prayed and laid flowers. Ashbey Beasley himself survived a shooting in Highland Park. Since then, she has been campaigning for stricter gun laws, speaking in front of Covenant School on Monday: “How can this still happen? How can our children still die, and why are we still abandoning them?”
Republican Andy Ogles sits in the House of Representatives for the district belonging to the school. He thanked the first responders and said in a statement that he was devastated: “As a father of three children, I am deeply shocked by this senseless act of violence.” He is following the situation and working with the authorities. At the same time, Ogles has been criticized as a political leader for posing with guns on a Christmas card with his family in 2021:
US President Joe Biden also expressed dismay and called on Congress to enact stricter gun laws: “We must do more to stop gun violence.” In addition, Biden again pointed to a bill (“assault weapons ban”) that would ban semi-automatic firearms like those used at the Nashville elementary school. The Democratic Party only passed the law in the House of Representatives in the summer of 2022. However, the bill did not make it through the Senate, the second chamber of the US Congress. Since the midterm elections in November 2022, the Republican Party has had a majority in the House of Representatives, which is likely to make it more difficult to tighten gun laws.
Sources: Nashville Police Department, New York Times, Vox News, Gun Violence Archive, The Violence Project, National Institute of Justice, with news agency information
