One of the bizarre things that consistently comes up in the wake of a mass shooting is that so many of those shooters leave behind a “manifesto,” a statement of why they did the horrible things that they did.

Now, there’s no question that anyone who plans to murder innocent people has mental health issues. That’s a given. But it’s worth knowing a little bit about what these manifestos say so that we can, hopefully, extract information from them that we can, then, use to better protect ourselves and our families.

So, for instance, several shooters’ manifestos have said that they’ve intentionally targeted gun-free zones because they would be more likely to get a higher death count as there wouldn’t be anyone else there with a gun to shoot back. It’s logical and evil thinking.

And it’s a huge argument as to why we should abolish gun-free zones. If anti-2A politicians will actually pay attention to the evidence.

In regards to the horrible mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee earlier this year, a few pages that are reported to be the manifesto (which has been withheld by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department) was leaked to conservative commentator Steven Crowder, and the few pages that were leaked have some revealing things that you can extrapolate from the disturbing stuff in there. Chase Smith writes,

The writings, which MNPD Chief John Drake described as a “manifesto” in the days after the attack and later referred to as a “series of writings,” include various references to murdering children whom she referred to as “crackers,” a racial slur for white people.

She also referred to the children as having “white [privilege]” while going to “fancy private schools” with their “fancy khakis and sports backpacks” in their parents’ “mustangs and convertables [sic].”

Ms. Hale used the name Audrey and Aiden on different pages that were leaked; she used the name Aiden on a page seemingly written on the day of the shooting.

That morning, she allegedly wrote that “the day has finally come” and that she was “a little nervous, but excited too.”

She wrote that she had “been excited for the past 2 weeks” indicating further that the attack was planned.

“Can’t believe I’m doing this, but I’m ready. … I hope my victims aren’t. My only fear is if anything goes wrong, I’ll do my best to prevent any of the sort,” she wrote.

She ended her “death day” page with the wish that she would “have a high death count” and wrote that she was “ready to die.”

Now, my point here is not to focus on the specific beliefs that the shooter had. My point is to step back and consider that these beliefs are the beliefs of a zealot and that they were politically motivated (talks of “white privilege” being used exclusively by political activists on the left). It really doesn’t matter, for our purpose here, what her beliefs were. The point is that her political beliefs led her to kill six people, including three children.

And the bigger point that you need to get from reading this is that our country is becoming more politically charged, and more people are going to more extreme actions based on their political beliefs.

That means that it has become more important, vital, even, for you to train with your firearm and to carry everyday. Because you never know when you’ll have to stop some political zealot from trying to kill innocent people because of their beliefs.