Was the Madison, WI school shooter a domestic terrorist?
We have a $176 billion federal agency dedicated to detecting and preventing terrorism in the homeland. Why aren't they being used to stop school shootings?
Almost 2% of the entire federal government’s budget goes to ‘homeland security’. When are we going to stop ignoring the connections between domestic terrorism—neo nazi and anti-government groups—and school shootings?
Last week, a 15-year-old girl opened fire inside the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, WI. The Center on Extremism reviewed social media profiles that appear to belong to the Madison school shooter Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow. Among the findings:
The shooter appears to have been invited into and participated in a Telegram chat in which Arda Küçükyetim, the Turkish neo-Nazi who stabbed five people outside a Turkish mosque on August 12, 2024, appeared to have posted his own racist “manifesto” just prior to his attack. A self-described “friend” of Küçükyetim shared a live link of the attack, and chat participants (including, we believe, the Madison shooter) commented on the “success” of the stabbing spree.
COE researchers have also reviewed a TikTok account (which we believe belonged to the shooter) that posted a range of very generic white supremacist and antisemitic memes (including Nazi images and racist “statistics”) with a bio including the phrase “Totally normal day” –wording often used by racist or white supremacist users as a code for "TND," or "total n***** death."
According to reports, a post from an “X” account (again, believed to belong to the shooter) from the day of the attack includes a photo of a person giving the “okay” hand gesture, which is used in some extremist circles as a way to troll viewers.
While the details of their communication have not been released, she was in contact with a 20-year-old California man plotting an attack on a government building (likely aligned with anti-government group ideology). He was arrested and guns were seized from his home. Police have not released where she got the two handguns recovered inside the school.
Terrorism and School Shootings in the 1960s
Far right anti-government and white nationalist groups have discussed school shootings since the 1960s when James Mason—the godfather of the modern neo nazi movement—wrote this essay:
“I just wanted out but they weren’t going to throw me out. So it was headed for confrontation. I was headed for Boys Industrial School, and was told this was a prison for boys. I wasn’t going to let that happen of course, so I made up my mind in 1968 - my father had all kinds of weapons at home - and I was going to take a 44 magnum, which was a five-shot revolver, go into the staff office and take out the principal, assistant principal, and two of the guidance counselors, then finally myself.”
Siege is a collection of newsletters originally published in the early 1980s, in which Mason promotes a violent, neo-Nazi worldview. The text, which has gained notoriety among certain white nationalist and anti-government groups, argues for the destabilization of society through acts of aggression and terror. Rooted in racial hatred and revolutionary fervor, Siege advocates strategies that reject traditional political action in favor of militancy. Its content has been widely criticized for its endorsement of violence and extremist ideology.
The hashtag “ReadSiege” was widely spread on social media with the “Unite the Right” movement following the neo nazi march and attack in Charlottesville, VA.
Anti-government and nazi connections to prior school shootings
Here are a few examples of school shootings with connections to nazi and anti-government groups and beliefs. This is not an exhaustive list but rather a few examples that highlight the extent these attacks over the last 60 years.
Lansing Everett High School (1978)
At dismissal, a 15-year-old sophomore—who regularly wore a nazi pin to school—opened fire in a crowded hallway. Following his arrest, police searched the teen’s bedroom, where they discovered a cache of Nazi literature, Nazi armbands, a Nazi flag, and excerpts from “Mein Kampf.” They found an elaborate drawing of a concentration camp, complete with gas chambers, along with a diary called “My Struggle,” named after Hitler’s book. In one of the entries, he wrote: “I almost abandoned Hitler last night ─ out of being pushed too far by my colleagues. I almost went to school without my Nazi pin in my jacket. But luckily again I had a burst of courage and never again will I think about abandoning Mein Fuhrer and Nazism.”
Cokeville Elementary School (1986)
Cokeville, WY Elementary School hostage crisis occurred on May 16, 1986 when David Young, 43, and his wife Doris Young, 47, took 154 hostages – 136 children and 18 adults. The Youngs had ties to white supremacist groups, including the Posse Comitatus and the Aryan Nations. They demanded two million dollars per hostage and an audience with President Ronald Reagan. During a standoff with police, seventy students were severely burned when their homemade bombs detonated inside the school.
Columbine High School (1999)
On April 20, 1999—coincidentally or intentionally Hitler’s birthday (also the day after the Oklahoma City Bombing anniversary)—Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. While there is debate over how deeply the shooters were influenced by nazi or racist ideologies, some evidence shows Eric Harris made references to Hitler in his personal writings. The selection of the date, alongside the content of certain journals, led many to believe they held a fascination with Hitler’s legacy.
Red Lake Senior High School (2005)
In March 2005, 16-year-old Jeff Weise opened fire at Red Lake Senior High School on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. Weise, who was of Ojibwe descent, had previously posted on a neo-Nazi internet forum expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler and voicing racist sentiments despite his own Indigenous background. This contradictory identification with white supremacist ideas and nazi symbolism shows the power of extremist rhetoric over vulnerable teens.
Aztec High School (2017)
William Atchison, a 21-year-old with documented racist and anti-Semitic online activity, carried out a shooting at Aztec High School in New Mexico in December 2017. He had posted hateful messages on social media platforms, praising mass murderers and espousing white supremacist viewpoints. Disguising himself as a student, Atchison entered the school, killed two students, and then took his own life, leaving behind digital evidence of his extremist beliefs and intentions.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (2018)
On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 people and wounding 17 others. Testimony during his trial showed handwritten notes with swastikas, Nazi references, and hateful language.
Santa Fe High School (2018)
A 17-year-old student killed 10 and wounded 13 others inside his high school. Before the shooting, the teenage student assailant uploaded a picture of a black trench coat adorned with several pinned symbols. In captions, he explained the significance of each: the Communist Party’s hammer and sickle representing rebellion, Nazi Germany’s Iron Cross representing bravery, the Japanese rising sun for the tactics of kamikaze pilots, the Knights Templar’s Baphomet for evil, and the Cthulhu from science fiction for power.
Oxford High School (2021)
In the months before the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan, the 15-year-old texted his mother about seeing demons and ghosts in the family home, filmed himself torturing animals, and obsessed over firearms and Nazi propaganda. He bought a Nazi coin online and sketched Nazi symbols in his notebooks.
Mount Horeb Middle/High School (2024)
In his online posts, he wrote about his insecurities with school, friends, girls, sex, and explored questions about death and god. His biological father is Latino but he was raised by white parents in the predominantly white community of Mount Horeb. In school he got good grades and wasn’t bullied, but felt like he didn’t fit in. He did become caught-up in the same culture wars that dominate far-right rhetoric as he wrote online about his anger over Black people, Jews, the LGBT community, feminism, and diversity.
Making School Shootings a Homeland Security Priority
The Department of Homeland Security has a $176B budget to protect the United States from terrorism. Terrorism is the use of violence or threats of violence, often against civilians, to achieve political, ideological, or religious goals by instilling fear and coercing societies or governments. A school shooter who is connected with hate-based, anti-government, or neo-nazi ideologies clearly fits the definition of terrorism.
DHS has extensive tools for digital monitoring of online communications, social media platforms, and websites to gather early warnings about potential terrorist threats and identify extremist rhetoric. We can also prevent school shootings in states without red flag laws. The USA PATRIOT Act—passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks—significantly expanded government surveillance powers, including warrantless searches and the seizure of property connected to terrorism. If a teen is plotting a school shooting and referencing anti-government or nazi beliefs, this meets the criteria for using counter-terrorism laws to search and seize weapons.
Looking back at the school shooting in Apalachee, GA, even when local police did not have probable cause to search the teen’s home (see body cam of their interview with the father), seize weapons, and arrest his father for aiding in the attack, federal investigators have the power to do this when there is a nexus to terrorism. Any parent who purchases weapons for a teenage school shooter is providing material support to terrorism which is a federal felony offense.
Why are we continuing to allow acts of domestic terrorism to be committed at schools while we have an entire homeland security enterprise with the tools and resources to prevent this targeted violence against children?
Read more:
Terrorism at schools: The unfamiliar versus the fallacy of improbability
Were the Oxford school shooter's parents guilty of material support to terrorism?
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, Chief Data Officer at a global risk management firm, and a tenure-track professor. Listen to my weekly podcast—Back to School Shootings—or my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and my article on CNN about AI and school security.
Thank you David for helping illuminate the connection between many school shooting (and they are generally mass shootings) and domestic terrorism. Clearly, as you suggest, the Federal Government could do so much more to investigate and help prevent some of these horrific shootings. We all owe you great gratitude for your daily focus on school shootings.
Of course it is so tragic that we have created and maintained such a frightening situation in our schools for students, teachers, personnel and parents, especially when as a society we could do so much better.
Len Korn MD