The FBI recently arrested Katherine Joiner of Alabama and Ethan Bassett of Mississippi after they uncovered Instagram messages that allegedly detailed plans for a school shooting.
According to court documents, the pair exchanged messages discussing violence, suicide, potential targets, guns, and meeting up to carry out a school shooting. Both now face federal charges for transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce. So if you’re going to plan a school shooting with your online crush, keep it in state.
Both suspects seem to be involved in the so-called True Crime Community.
For those unfamiliar, the TCC is a loose collection of online spaces where mostly young people lionize serial killers, mass shooters, and other violent offenders.
Again, we’re not talking about wine moms watching reruns of Snapped. We’re talking about teenagers and young adults who treat mass murderers as celebrities.
Joiner’s Instagram account allegedly contained posts celebrating infamous mass shootings and their perpetrators, including Columbine, of course, Sandy Hook, and the Isla Vista killings. That last one kind of surprises me since the gunman in that shooting is considered a saint among incels. Then again, we had a Black neo-Nazi school shooter, so nothing should surprise me anymore. Too many people today like to work against their own self-interests for some reason.
But getting back to Columbine, it hangs heavily over this case. More than twenty-seven years later, people are still obsessing over it. As you probably know, Columbine happened in 1999. While neither of my news sources mentions it, I believe Joiner is 21 years old. She wasn’t even born when Columbine took place. She grew up entirely in a post-Columbine world, yet she was still drawn into the misguided mythology that has surrounded it for decades.
I get it. The world is pretty bleak right now. The economy sucks. Politics are completely broken. And social media is nothing more than an outrage business model. Plenty of people, including myself, are struggling with isolation, depression, and anxiety. None of that changes the fact that throwing your life away over fantasies of mass violence is one of the dumbest choices someone can make.
If the allegations are true, Joiner isn’t a teenager caught up in some immature phase. She’s a grown-ass woman allegedly discussing plans that could have destroyed countless lives while simultaneously guaranteeing the destruction of her own future. There comes a point where you need to stop romanticizing mass murder and start acting like an adult.
Frankly, if you’re out of high school and still entertaining blood-soaked fantasies about becoming the next infamous shooter, it’s time to grow the fuck up.
And again, guns seemed to be within arm’s reach of the suspects. Joiner told agents that her father owned multiple firearms stored in the basement of the family home and that she had access to them. Bassett allegedly shared photographs of a rifle and ammunition during their conversations that supposedly belonged to his brother.
This suggests that obtaining firearms was not some insurmountable obstacle standing in the way of their violent daydreams.
The uncomfortable reality is that conversations like this are happening online every single day. Most never become criminal cases. Some are empty posturing from people desperate for attention. Others involve individuals who are genuinely dangerous. The scary part is that we only hear about the conversations that are discovered.
For every plot that gets interrupted by the FBI, there are countless group chats and online communities operating completely out of public view. That’s why cases like this should concern people.
Not because they are unique, but because they aren’t.
(Sources)
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