Without the release of the Nashville Shooters Manifesto, it’s a democracy in the dark

“Democracy dies in darkness” is the (sometimes wry) slogan of The Washington Post.

But it’s also an apt description of what’s happening in Tennessee, as the state legislature is called into special session despite local and federal officials withholding information that could be critical to its decision-making.

Gov. Bill Lee ordered the special session to begin on August 21 in response to a March 27 mass shooting that killed three adults and three children at Covenant School, a Christian school in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville.

The Nashville Tennessee article only refers to “a shooter.”

The shooter was a female-to-male transgender gunman named Audrey Hale, 28, who left a manifesto before she was killed by police.

Hale had chosen to identify himself as male by using the pronouns “he/him”.

The manifesto included detailed plans drawn up over months to shoot down the school, according to police reports seen immediately after the shooting.

Unfortunately they are the only ones who saw it.

Local and state agencies with access to the manifesto refused to release its contents.

However, just before the shooting, Hale sent an Instagram message to a friend, saying, “One day this will make more sense. I left more than enough evidence.” We haven’t seen that evidence.

Vivek Ramaswamy, third in the Republican presidential primary, recently called for the manifesto to be released. He describes the government’s stance as a “walled silence”.

Well, I generally think that if government officials don’t want us to know something, it’s because they fear we might think or act in a way that they wouldn’t like if we knew.

They rarely keep secret things that would make them look Good.

Instead, it’s usually something that reflects badly on them or someone they’re protecting.

What could that be in this case? I don’t know and they seem determined to keep it that way.

But beyond that, the legislature is in a curious position.

Lawmakers are being asked to debate and vote on bills made solely because of the March shooting, even if some key facts are being kept secret.

Gov. Lee’s office says he called for the manifesto to be released and it was the Metro Nashville Police Department and the FBI holding the lid.

But no matter who gropes us in the dark, we’re being kept in the dark.

According to reports in the spring, LGBTQ+ groups tried to block the manifesto’s publication, fearing it would reflect poorly on the trans community or inspire imitators.

But as Ramaswamy notes, the government usually publishes such a manifesto within 48 hours.

This case was kept secret for more than four months.

Dan McLaughlin of the National Review sees a double standard: “Why do these groups take this position? They obviously worry that using Sagittarius’s words would be bad because it could lead to blaming others other people who share some of Sagittarius’ ideas. But that’s exactly what these groups and their media proponents would do if the tables were turned.

“Any sentient adult knows that if a conservative, biblically orthodox Christian were to blow up a transgender institution, the same people and groups would be pressuring the press (which didn’t need that pressure) to publish the manifesto, right to discredit the people who do this shared some of the shooter’s ideas.”

Well, if we’ve learned anything in recent years, it’s not to expect political impartiality from the media or from many law enforcement agencies.

But the fact remains: A special session of the Legislature has been called due to a major news event, but much of the news is being kept under wraps.

Contrary to some of the previous suggestions, Lee’s mental health package doesn’t strike me as particularly unreasonable: Expanding mental health care, making psychiatric treatment easier to access, and eliminating taxes on gun safes are all worthwhile, as is expanding DNA collection at crime scenes.

But it is not clear whether any of these measures would have helped prevent the shooting that is the reason for the special session.

America used to believe that the public had a right to know the things it needed for democratic self-government.

Maybe it’s old fashioned, but some of us still do it.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a law professor at the University of Tennessee and founder of the blog InstaPundit.com.