“Every time there’s a mass shooting in the U.S., the shooter is always claimed to be transgender online.”

Question

It is commonly claimed on social media that mass shooters in the United States are transgender, often as part of anti-LGBTQ narratives. However, studies and fact-checks show this claim is false. For example, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September 2025, a flood of false claims circulated about the shooter’s gender identity and political motives, none of which were supported by evidence. Misinformation framing trans people as violent is a persistent tactic used online to spread prejudice and fear.

Answer 1

This claim is false misinformation that always tends to resurface after shooting events. While yes, a majority of the time after a mass shooting, people do speculate and spread around that the shooter is transgender – yet the data does NOT support the pattern of shootings by transgender people. According to The Trace, transgender people rarely commit mass shootings. They analyze that over the past decade they (Gun Violence Archive) have recorded 5,300+ shootings and only 4 out of 5,300 were committed by trans or non-binary people. 

The idea of spreading the misinformation that transgender people commit most mass shootings is a targeted attack by those who fear and hate, mostly people under the right wing. The Thrace also mentioned, “Hours after a February 2024 shooting at a Texas megachurch, right-wing influencer and Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik called the perpetrator a “trans terrorist” and decried “a deadly epidemic of trans violence.” Her posts got 1.5 million views.” People have been quick to jump to the claim that each shooter is a transgender person, like in mid-June when two Minnesota state lawyers and their spouses were murdered in their homes, even though the shooter was a cisgender white male. While literally 4 people of 1-tenth of 1% of the 5,300+ mass shooting recordings are transgender, this is not a valid statement for people to be blaming transgender people on. 

https://www.thetrace.org/2025/07/mass-shootings-trans-misinformation/#:~:text=Trans%20people%20rarely%20commit%20mass%20shootings&text=Only%20four%20of%20those%20%E2%80%94%20less,of%20the%20broader%20trans%20community.

Answer 2

It is not true that, every time there's a mass shooting in the U.S. that the shooter is always claimed to be transgender online. While there have been many instances where the shooter has been transgender like the recent Minnesota school shooting in August it is not "every time" that the shooter claims to be transgender. The latest example of this could be the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September. The suspect was Tyler Robinson, a straight male who never claimed to be transgender anywhere. (https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/utah-valley-shooting-updates)  I don't see their being any bias in this source because it is from the FBI which is a federal source that should be reliable and established.

Answer 3

The student’s initial claim was: “Every time there’s a mass shooting in the U.S., the shooter is always claimed to be transgender online.” The student gathered their view based on the article published by FactCheck.org. This stems from an incident in Minneapolis where an alleged shooter who identified as transgender killed two children and 21 others in a Catholic Church. This prompted Republican commentators to share that there may be a pattern in the U.S. among mass shootings and those who are the aggressor.

2. What primary sources did you find (e.g., transcripts, videos of politician speeches, tweets from public figures, scientific studies)? For each source, write at least one or two sentences explaining what you learned.

Fox News Interview, From an interview with President Donald Trump, he shared his view on mass shootings in America and how he believes most were committed by transgender people.

Utah Valley University event remarks by Charlie Kirk, There were words shared when asked about how many transgenders take part in mass shootings in America. Charlie Kirk said “too many”.

CNN “State of the Union” interview with Sebastian Gorka, Sebastian shared that there have been seven mass shootings in the last couple of years that involved transgender people as an aggressor.

4. What potential biases or interests might each of your sources have? Fox News leans heavily conservative so are likely to share the views of President Trump and may influence how the issues involving transgender shooters are framed. Similar to Fox, Turning Point USA is a conservative organization sharing their political views across the nation. They hold a strong anti-transgender policy position which leads to a lack of data and accuracy in their information. This could also hold confirmation bias as they will affirm the views that align with theirs. CNN then shares an interview with Sebastian Gorka who is a former Trump administration official with strong ideological views. All these sources align with the conservative agenda and have potential biases when reporting information on FactCheck.org.

5. What evidence supports the claim you are fact-checking?

“name a mass shooting in the last year or two in America that wasn’t committed by, you know, a transgender lunatic.” (Fox News)

https://archive.org/details/FOXNEWSW_20250912_020000_Gutfeld/start/2160/end/2220

“...local law enforcement officials said Kimbrady Carriker, who was charged with the July 3, 2023, mass shooting in Philadelphia, is not transgender, as some falsely claimed.” (NBC News)

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/philadelphia-shooting-suspect-isnt-trans-officials-say-speculation-con-rcna92733

6. What evidence undermines the claim you are fact-checking?

“...transgender individuals have shown a pattern of violence or are responsible for many of the mass shootings in the U.S.” (New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/us/politics/minneapolis-shooting-anti-transgender-conservatives-robin-westman.html

“‘mass shooting,’ the number is exceedingly small.” (FactCheck.org, 2025)