In the Wake of Another Public Shooting

Debra Saunders on Aug 29, 2025

WASHINGTON -- In the wake of the public shootings of strangers, especially when innocent children are the victims, there are lies that we tell ourselves and true things some dare not say.

Two children were killed, and 18 other people were injured in the Wednesday mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. A Minnesota Star Tribune headline got it right: "This is evil."

I'll tell you the phrase that no longer works: "We have to do something so that this never happens again." It is the chant most often heard after these senseless slaughters. It does not and cannot ward off the evil in this world. It only serves to showcase how helpless adults feel in the aftermath.

We have to do something -- the phrase often used as a prelude to calls for tougher gun laws. Minnesota ranks 14th in the country for the state's strict gun laws, which include background check requirements for all gun sales, an extreme risk law and laws blocking access for domestic abusers under restraining orders, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

The state has relatively low firearm violence, according to Everytown, with a gun death rate below the national average. But laws can only do so much against evil.

The church reportedly had locked its front doors, and that might well have helped to protect some of the children.

When police and TV talking heads say that they, we, do not understand the motive, I want to scream. I know the answer. The shooter was evil.

Robin Westman, 23, nee Robert Westman, was a pusbag of hate.

At age 17, Robert changed his name to Robin. Because he was transgender, and so politics intrude.

CNN did repeated segments about what police knew about the shooter, while tiptoeing around his gender identity. Or should I say her gender identity? I am sticking with "him" because becoming Robin didn't do much for Robert or the children of Minnesota.

Westman's identity practically paralyzed CNN. Among Thursday night segments looking at "What we know about the shooter," anchors and reporters repeatedly left out the fact that Westman was transgender -- though the New York Post and Fox News had reported that news.

It was a sorry spectacle, watching veteran journalists speak as though it was their job to not inform the public about a child killer.

Eventually CNN talent and experts started calling Westman "he."

Good call, except calling Westman "he" goes against The Associated Press Stylebook. Westman changed his name to Robin, so in big media world, Westman has to be a "she." In almost any other circumstance, that could be the pronoun of choice with big media.

Or, CNN could follow The Associated Press Stylebook, which advises, "As much as possible, AP uses they/them/their as a way of accurately describing and representing a person who uses those pronouns for themself." (Themself is not a typo.)

To use the term "they" for a single person is inaccurate. It's the pretzel logic that transgender politics and good intentions concocted at times to help people fool themselves as to who they really are. And it has consequences.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.

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