Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes identified Natalie Rupnow, 15, as the shooter at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, WI, on Monday morning..
Rupnow went by the name Samantha:
Natalie Rupnow was identified as the shooter who opened fire inside a study hall inside Abundant Life Christian School, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. Responding officers found Rupnow with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She died on the way to a hospital.
Police were speaking with Rupnow’s father and other family members, who were cooperating, and searching Rupnow’s home, Barnes said. He declined to offer additional details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.
“He lost someone as well,” Barnes said of Rupnow’s father. “And so we’re not going to rush the information. We’ll take our time and make sure we do our due diligence.”
They do not have a motive or a manifesto or anything. The police believe Rupnow was already at the school as they did not detect a breach.
Rupnow used a handgun.
A brave second-grade student made the 911 call just before 11 AM CT.
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obviously a disturbed teen. That being said, it would be extremely premature to trans or any other malady based on what is publicly known at this time.
Except for people who said they knew her
Except don’t believe any unverified claims you read on the internet.
There is a good chance that she is already on Biden’s new pardon list.
My question is where did she get the gun?
Assuming the shooter was trained and there was no reason not to trust the shooter, the gun should have been accessible for self-defense in the home.
A firearm is merely a tool for self-defense.
If my 15-year-old daughter was being attacked, I would want her to have a gun.
Hopefully, you wouldn’t have a blind eye to see whether your daughter is mental or not.
In one of her social media posts, she implies it’s a ‘present’ in a caption of a photo of her holding her gun. In that photo, it’s a POV of her hand holding the firearm, so it’s impossible to say with any certainty it’s actually her holding the weapon. BUT, the hand in the photo strongly resembles her hands which are visible in several other photos. Presumably it was a birthday present because the post was made earlier this year. I suspect a 15-year old girl with no ties to the criminal underworld received the weapon from one or both of her parents rather than the ‘black market.’ She also has several photos of her at a range shooting a long-gun. Ranges won’t allow minor children to shoot w/o adult supervision, so another presumption is at least one of her parents took her shooting.
Some good information from Newsweek here…
https://www.newsweek.com/natalie-rupnow-wisconsin-school-shooting-2001913
…the last photo posted to her father’s facebook page (from earlier this year) is of her daughter at a skeet range with the caption: ‘ “We joined NBSC this spring and we have been loving all every second of it!”
The bigger question is how she got it in to the school. Where was security or what security was in place to check students as they came in?
The “how did she obtain the gun” will be a big part of this event.
Particularly as her social media seems to be overly focused on the Colorado school shooting that “started” the recent trend. People knew she was disturbed.
The black t-shirt she’s wearing in that photo is from ‘KMFDM,’ a German ‘industrial’ band that gained some notoriety in this country in 1998 as it was a favorite band of one (or maybe both?) of the Columbine shooters. In several other social media posts, she venerates a number of known spree shooters including the Columbine murderers and Adam Lanza.
The child had a robust social media presence where she embraces and even celebrates school shooters. And yet, her parents kept at least one weapon in the home that was accessible to this nut-job. These school shootings won’t stop until parents are forced to take responsibility for the actions of the minor children. Like so many teenage spree-shootings, this was a parenting failure, not something that can be fixed by gun control.
Agreed, parents can’t be giving guns to their minor disturbed children
And social networking is so detrimental to children.
I’m surprised a 2 nd grader had a phone, in this case , if it was hers, it may have saved lives
My son in law 10 years ago had a gun stolen out of his car. He hadn’t locked his car or the gun.
I just couldn’t believe he had no repercussions for this idiotic behavior
It’s time parents and idiots pay for their decisions .
Of you give a kid a gun, it should be locked up unless you are present target shooting
Teens are nuts, just as a rule.
If there wasn’t a firearm and they instead stole the car, took a joyride and ran over some neighborhood kid at play would that be the same? Should the car owner be held liable? What if his wife drove it last and left it unlocked?
My dad took me hunting and target shooting at age 8. The rifle and ammunition I used was readily available — never locked up. I never considered harming any innocent person with that or any other weapon at any time, through grade school, high school, college, or adulthood.
But that was long before social media. Long before chat rooms, TikTok, and what passes for society today.
It was a different world. I miss it.
And obviously a different person with a different personality. If I may speculate, I’m guessing your dad would never give firearm access to a kid like this. Culture is important but doesn’t determine everything.
Kids were less likely to go psycho without social media toying with their psyche.
Same here. A different world indeed.
Heck, I had my childhood shotgun in my dormitory locker when at school as I was on the shooting team!!
Well before social media though!
It is federally illegal for anyone under 18 to possess a handgun, except in defined circumstances, none of which apply to this case.
No manifesto, per se. But plenty of evidence on social media indicating that the shooter despised ALL men — with a vengeance. She was a radical feminist to the point of being unhinged.
And yet, the same 15 year old can go for irreversible surgery without the parents’ consent.
I’ve owned a shotgun since Jan 9, 1965 followed by a Remington .22LR on my ninth birthday with quite a few Ruger MkII pistols, a S&W model 66 .357 and various long arms since.
My father taught us to respect a firearm and that it’s only purpose was to end a life.
I blame her parents.
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