Activists question why Nashville shooter’s manifesto remains secret after 5 months

The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue called on law enforcement to release the journals and drawings of Audrey Hale, who went on a killing rampage March 27 at Nashville’s Covenant School and was gunned down by police.

“What’s the reason for balking? The fear, as expressed by school officials, Covenant School parents, the media and LGBT activists, is that the public may learn the real reasons why Hale did what she did,” Mr. Donohue said in a statement. “In other words, if she made vicious anti-Christian remarks, they don’t want to deal with the fallout.”

Little is known about Hale’s motivation to kill at the school after being a student there. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Republicans in the state Legislature called for the release of what many have called the Nashville shooter’s manifesto before any gun reform legislation in the state is passed.

The writings includes a detailed plot written over several months to shoot up the school, according to reports immediately after the incident from police who viewed it.

Although no writings have been released, conservatives and gun rights activists noted how quickly the public was informed by authorities, officials and the press about the racist motivations behind the deadly mass shootings at a Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store recently and at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, last year.

“On Aug. 26, a white racist shot and killed three black people in Jacksonville, Florida. We know all about his bigotry,” Mr. Donohue said. “So why are we still being kept in the dark about the anti-Christian bigotry of a transgender person?”

Mr. Donohue is not the only one calling for the release of the Nashville shooter’s writings. GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy demanded the release earlier in the month, and days after the Jacksonville shooting he pointed out the informational double standard.

“The fact of the matter is, I do think we have two standards that we’re even applying if we’re having a conversation about manifestos,” Mr. Ramaswamy said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We still have not yet even seen the manifesto of that transgender shooter in Nashville of a Christian school, and yet here we’re focusing on the motive.”

Hale’s writings are in legal limbo because the parents of the children killed at The Covenant School launched a suit to block their release.

First Amendment scholars see legal problems of letting victims have a veto over what is ordinarily public information.

Deborah Fisher of the Tennessee Coalition on Open Government argues that the state’s victims’ rights statute does not give individuals total authority to veto other laws, such as those that give people access to public records.

“There’s nothing really to indicate that there would be this ability for victims to veto the release of otherwise public records and … in this case, crime records,” she told The New York Post.

To circumvent the statute, Hale’s parents transferred ownership of the journals in June to the families of The Covenant School.

Ms. Fischer told reporters, “I would assume that they’re going to say something along the lines of ’If we own it, then that cannot become public. We have a right to prevent that from becoming public.’”

Ms. Fisher and John Harris, the attorney for the Tennessee Firearms Association, say since Metro Police collected evidence, including the journals, they are subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act.

“Typically, when a police department seizes evidence, it’s always owned by, possessed by documents generated from third parties, and so transferring that ownership from A to B shouldn’t make a difference in an open records case,” Mr. Harris said.

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.