The "thoughts and prayers" breaking point: Yesterday morning, as schoolchildren in Minneapolis were attending Mass to usher in the new school year, a gunman shot through the stained glass windows, killing 2 (an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old) and injuring 17—mostly children.
The shooter was 23-year-old Robin Westman, a transgender former student at the school who filed for a name change in 2017 (from "Robert" to "Robin"). Westman's mother had been a longtime employee at the school before her retirement back in 2021, and Westman appears to have been very familiar with the Annunciation Catholic Church, which serves pre-K through eighth grade, drawing the church layout from memory in preparation for the shooting.
"You cannot put into words the gravity, tragedy or absolute pain of the situation," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, an advocate for stricter gun laws, in the immediate aftermath. "Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying."
