AOC condemns Marjorie Taylor Greene’s transphobic Nashville school shooting tweet
Marjorie Taylor Greene at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference. (Credit: Getty Images)
US House representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has slammed far-right politician Marjorie Taylor Greene for her “disgusting” comments following the Nashville school shooting.
Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted the vehemently transphobic remarks following news that a shooter was shot dead by police after opening fire in a Nashville school.
Shooter Audrey Hale, who reportedly used he/him pronouns, shot and killed six people, including three nine-year-old children, at Covenant Presbyterian School on Monday (27 March).
Police reported that the shooter was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun and was formerly a student at the school.
In her tweet, Georgia representative Greene immediately tried to blame the shooting on “hormones like testosterone” which there is no evidence that the shooter was taking at the time of reporting.
She wrote: “How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking?”
Greene then tweeted, with seemingly no self-awareness, that “everyone can stop blaming guns now” in a post that has had politicians, activists, and those affected by gun-based violence united in angry bewilderment.
New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, widely known by her initials as AOC, told The Independent that Greene’s comments are “disgusting”.
“She should be looking into a mirror as to why she’s defending and posing with the same weapons that are being used to kill children, teachers and educators,” she said.
Several others joined AOC’s outrage, with Democratic activist Kevin Gaither asking Greene if she would consent to “the list of hormones all US representatives are taking for comparison?”
Additionally, author Meena Harris wrote: “There is a special place in hell for people like Marjorie Taylor Green who use children being murdered as an opportunity to promote transphobia.”
A BBC report from February showed that nearly 53 people are killed each day by firearms in the US. Provisional data also suggests that nearly 49,000 people died from gun-related deaths in 2021.
Furthermore, there is no concrete evidence to suggest that administering testosterone increases violent tendencies.
In her Twitter tirade following news of the shooting, Greene said sarcastically asked if, because the shooter “identifies as a man”, people should “blame white men again?”
Research from nonprofit charity The Violence Project suggests that a staggering 98 per cent of public mass shootings since 1966 have been committed by men.
It also found that 35 of the deadliest shootings in history have taken place in the last decade.
“Shootings motivated by hate and fame-seeking have increased since 2015,” it read.
“Hate comes late along the pathway to violence and so-called ‘motives’ can become labels used to explain away the problem of mass shootings.
“Mental illness, for example, is not a motive. If a mass shooter has a mental health diagnosis, this doesn’t mean that their every action is related to that diagnosis.”
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