In the immediate aftermath of the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting on Aug. 27, a familiar narrative appeared on social media: The suspect, some high-profile accounts began positing, was transgender.

This happens almost every time there is a school shooting in America. Commentators and politicians with huge social media followings peddle conspiracy theories that the attacker is trans, and that claim is quickly debunked.

This time, however, the claim was correct. The shooter who killed two children and injured 18 more, was, indeed, transgender. Cue the outrage. Right-wing commentators, congresspeople and influencers seized on a now-2-year old narrative that America is witnessing an "epidemic" of violence from the trans community.

That is not true.

Americans who identify as transgender do not attack and kill people at a disproportionate rate. And, according to several experts on extremism and mass shootings interviewed by USA TODAY, there's no evidence gender identity had any influence on Robin Westman's decision to shoot children at a Catholic school. Rather, the evidence the attacker left behind indicates a deep interest in mass shooters and mass shootings, suggesting involvement in an internet subculture that obsesses over these attacks and that has become known as "nihilistic violent extremism."

It's essentially killing for killing's sake. It's a search for fame and infamy among an in-group on the internet, and it has characterized several recent deadly school shootings, said Michael Jensen, research director at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

"What is perpetuating the cycle is this ecosystem online in which individuals are seeking to gain notoriety and doing that through emulating past attackers," said Jensen, who who maintains an exhaustive database on incidents of mass violence in America. "In their minds, one-upping them is doing something more significant − greater harm that propels their name to the to the top of the list. This is more about an individual seeking notoriety and recognition from a certain community."

There is no epidemic of trans violence

The claim that trans people are disproportionately responsible for mass violence in America comes up every few months.

It has never been true, Jensen said.

“I’m aware of no evidence to support the claim that transgender people are disproportionately responsible for mass violence events in the U.S., including shootings in schools,” Jensen said. “In fact, the data suggests quite the opposite.”

Jensen’s research has identified more than 1,000 mass casualty plots − when the perpetrator clearly intended to kill or injure as many people as possible − since the start of 2023. “You can count on less than one hand how many of those were perpetrated by a transgender individual,” he said.

And in the case of the Minneapolis shooting, there’s plenty of evidence suggesting Westman was influenced by another community the shooter was a part of, multiple experts on extremism and mass shootings told USA TODAY.

The latest example of nihilistic violent extremism

Two videos Westman posted to YouTube suggest the attacker was involved with an online subculture that venerates mass shooters, said Hannah Gais, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Westman’s writings, viewable in the videos, and the words, phrases and symbolism the shooter drew on the weapons used in the attack show an apparent obsession with past shooting attacks, Gais said.

“It showed a mishmash of idolizing other mass shooters,” Gais said. “To me, this feels very much like an example of nihilistic violent extremism.”

That term, “nihilistic violent extremism,” was referenced by Jensen and three other experts on mass violence who spoke with USA TODAY. It describes an extreme online subculture in which participants fetishize and obsess about mass shootings and mass shooters. That subculture is sometimes also called the “true-crime community.”

Again, this world is not new. For years, online communities on message boards like 8Kun (formerly 8Chan) have celebrated mass shootings and venerated killers − even anointing the most violent attackers “Saints.”

Westman’s videos show weapons scrawled with the names of at least three other mass shooters. They also show other clues that the Minneapolis attacker was involved in this subculture, including the use of specific memes, phrases and antisemitic terminology.

What they do not show is any specific political ideology, said Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, who examined the Minneapolis shooter’s videos closely.

“Of the pages and pages and pages of this manifesto, it’s all incoherent and self-contradictory,” Caraballo said. “The way that these people find meaning in their lives is to commit these atrocities and do whatever they can do to get people talking about them.”

Inside a violent, hateful world

What is notable about the Minneapolis shooter’s gender identity is the fact the shooter appears to have chosen to interact with an online community that generally denigrates and vilifies the LGBTQ+ community in general and transgender people specifically, Caraballo said.

In that respect, along with the Minneapolis shooter’s apparent obsession with other mass shootings, this week’s attack mirrors the January shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville, Caraballo said. In that case, a 17-year-old Black student injured two people and killed another student and himself. The attacker’s writings and social media posts showed he was also obsessed with mass shooters and had expressed White supremacist beliefs.

These two shootings show how young people can become so poisoned by their veneration of mass shooters that they willingly associate with groups who openly hate the same ethnic or gender identity groups they belong to, Caraballo said. That, in turn, causes them to feel more self-hatred and confusion, she said.

“It's hard to explain to people that these folks don't actually believe in anything,” Caraballo said. “It's hard to explain this kind of level of black-pill nihilism to anyone because it fundamentally means that you don't believe in anything − you just believe everything is meaningless.”

At a news conference the day of the attack, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged the public not to use the shooting "to villainize our trans community."

The ongoing and untrue narrative that the trans community is disproportionally violent and mentally unstable appears to have gained steam from this week’s shooting as prominent politicians, influencers and commentators post content on social media, including congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and conservative commentator Matt Walsh.

And that backlash is raising concern among transgender Americans.

“As the investigation into yesterday's shooting unfolds, we ask the public and the media to remember that one person’s actions must never be used to target or stigmatize entire communities,” said Ash Lazarus Orr, a spokesperson for Advocates for Trans Equality. “Trans and nonbinary people, in particular, are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.”

Editor's note: This article was updated with the latest information from the city of Minneapolis on the number of people injured in the attack.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, there is not an 'epidemic' of shootings by trans people

Reporting by Will Carless, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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