Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Canada is reeling after one of the deadliest school shootings in its modern history left 10 people dead, including the suspect, in the rural community of Tumbler Ridge.
Authorities have identified the shooter as 18-year-old transgender former student Jesse Van Rootselaar, according to reporting from the New York Post.
The Timeline
The attack began Tuesday afternoon at a residence before moving to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, a grades 7–12 school with roughly 160 students.
Police say the suspect killed his mother, 39-year-old Jennifer Strang. And his 11-year-old stepbrother at the home. He then went to the school, where six additional victims were killed.
The suspect later died from what authorities described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed the suspect was “born a biological male.” And he began transitioning approximately six years ago, identifying as female.
When asked whether there was any correlation between the suspect’s transgender identity and the attack, McDonald responded that it was “too early to say.”
What We Know
- Six victims were located inside the school.
- Two victims were found at the residence.
- One 39-year-old female teacher was killed.
- Three 12-year-old female students were killed.
- Two male students, ages 12 and 13, were killed.
- Approximately 25 others were injured, several seriously.
Most of the victims inside the school were found in the library.
Two firearms were recovered at the scene: a long gun and a modified handgun. Authorities revealed firearms had been seized from the home two years ago due to mental health concerns, but later returned to a lawful owner after petition.
BREAKING: Canadian police reveal they are respecting the gunman's preferred gender pronouns. He transitioned at 12. pic.twitter.com/F7sdRDX1qS
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 11, 2026
Police had reportedly visited the residence multiple times over the years and had previously taken the suspect into custody under Canada’s Mental Health Act for assessment.
Access and Security Questions
Van Rootselaar dropped out of the school roughly four years ago. How he gained access to the building during school hours remains under investigation.
Students and staff barricaded inside classrooms for more than two hours before roughly 100 individuals were safely evacuated.
A Broader Pattern?
Another Deranged, Troubled Trans Teen, Biological Male, His name, Jesse Van Rootselaar. pic.twitter.com/0Djl59F8iz
— 🇺🇸 Stu ✝️ 🇮🇱 (@Ecclesiastes_38) February 11, 2026
The New York Post noted this shooting follows several high-profile mass attacks in North America in recent years involving perpetrators who identified as transgender, including:
- Audrey Hale (2023 Nashville Covenant School shooting)
- Alec McKinney (2019 Colorado charter school shooting)
- Snochia Moseley (2018 Maryland workplace shooting)
- Robin Westman (2025 Minneapolis school shooting)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the nation as flags were lowered to half-mast in Ottawa.
Only two attacks in Canadian history have resulted in more deaths: the 2020 Nova Scotia rampage that killed 22 and the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre that claimed 14 lives.
The trans agenda IS an effort to entrap children into a miserable life of despair to help normalize the mental illness of a very small number of adults. pic.twitter.com/eowe0dx3tl
— @amuse (@amuse) April 20, 2024
Canada has long positioned itself as insulated from the level of school violence seen in the United States. Tuesday’s massacre challenges that assumption. And, raises difficult questions about mental health intervention, the growing trans agenda, and school security in even the most remote communities.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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is a seasoned outdoorsman, lifelong hunter, and the kind of guy who’d rather track whitetails than scroll social media. As an editor for GunsAmerica, he’s got a sharp eye for spotting both solid gear and bad gun laws. Whether he’s deep in the woods or deep in editorial deadlines, Larry brings a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is approach to firearms, hunting, and the great American tradition of self-reliance. If there’s a hot debate on gun rights or the latest in hunting tech, you can bet Larry’s got an opinion—and it’s probably backed up with both facts and field experience.
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Imagine that – it was one of those blue-haired ‘demoncrats’. All “it” was missing was a ring in “its” nose.
They had the answer all along the way. They intervened this person on more than one occasion with mental health issues. They took actions but returned the weapons after appeal. They didn’t do the right thing to address the mental health issues. So now the government will want to pass more onerous gun restrictions on the populous because they let a confirmed psycho have easy access to weapons. And of course regardless of the ease to obtain if this evil person wanted to commit murder they would have. It would have been a knife a car, gasoline, etc. They should have committed the evil person. The government failed.
The problem is that these so called trans are mentally sick and should not have any type of firearm. They want attention and sympathy. They should be locked up.
Enjoy the fire soddie.
Transgender, is in and of itself, a mental disorder!
That coupled with the fact several “mass” shootings have been committed by transgender individuals is telling.
So it’s hard to not feel it’s justified to ban a specific group or persons.
However, to outright deny them their Right simply because they might is no different then how the pro 2A community sees gun control and how it infringes on us and the 2nd Amendment because someone did something or someone might do something again. We don’t like it or agree with it then do we?! So we shouldn’t like or agree with denying transgenders their Right either then should we?
In the end, if they can deny transgenders their 2nd Amendment Right just for being transgender, they can deny someone else for being Republican? White? Black? Which they did until it was corrected.
So the answer is NO, they shouldn’t be denied their Right because they’re transgender because if they can and do, they’ll find a reason to deny someone else or some other group! And the answer is NO because SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED is supposed to mean exactly what it says.
I hope this comes out correctly because this is my 2nd attempt. The first time after typing the page wouldn’t submit. So I had to copy and paste what Insaid and the page got all screwy and wouldn’t highlight where all I needed it to so I had to highlight bits and pieces and piece it together.
So if my comment is all screwed up, that’s why!
Not necessarily. Being a republican, white, black etc. is not a mental health issue. One is political affiliation. The others are ethnicities that one is involuntarily born into. But being transgender is, and use to be labeled as such, a real mental health disorder. Like schizophrenia, or pedophilia. Certain medical conditions could keep someone from owning a firearm or at least make it more difficult to obtain one. The real problem is in our current societal condition that wants to push the narrative that transgenderism is a valid lifestyle and not a mental disorder. As long as it is believed to be a condition that someone is born with and not just a chosen derangement, then it would be considered an infringement. But today, evil is called good and good evil. So, it is not likely to change.
You missed the point. The point is, if they can deny someone, even though they may have a mental issue, and remember, having a mental issue isn’t just me, you or anyone else or even some study saying so. It’s being adjudicated mentally defective that counts.
So when I said what did, which I believe is the basis of the thought to deny them, it’s because some of them have done something and others of the same might, again, MIGHT, do something.
Another point was also, if they can do this to a group simply because they might, they can and eventually will find a reason to deny another group. Then another and another.
Those were the points I was making.
How many more trannies are going to go apesh*t before society FINALLY realizes that they need to be institutionalized?
Man, what a crazy coincidence that this happened right after the majority of canadian provinces had serious pushback against the latest gun confiscation scheme the Canadian government passed into law. Just a totally unexpected and crazy coincidence!
Oh look! It just happend to occur in the one canadian province that didn’t tell the government to go fuck themselves! Man, crazy, what are the odds of that happening? What another shocking coincidence!
Should males lose their 2a rights since they commit well over 90% of the gun murders?
I just commented on the previous article about should transgender be allowed to have guns… I stand by that stories statement I made. Do we allow mentally incompetent people to have guns?
Rather than removing guns, the proven danger in the home is the presence of the mentally ill person who has no impulse control. Secure mental hospitals for the violent, habitually criminal, and sexually dangerous, served a purpose in protecting the general public. The “mainstreaming as treatment” theory of treating mental illness has failed and it is time once again to value the rights of innocent citizens above the rights of those who violate, injure, or kill them. It is time to restore righteousness to the judicial process, and prohibit evil from endangering the rest of us. REOPEN THE MENTAL HOSPITALS!
This is an absolute tragedy. We cannot discuss larger areas of conversation until we recognize the loss of life for what it is, horrifying and deeply tragic. Anti 2A arguments say these types of deaths are the reason to ban guns. I think we all know that’s stupid.
I am a mentally ill white man and a responsible owner of firearms. Calling mental illness sufficient to remove 2A rights from folks is a non starter for me. Trans people deserve the same right to defend themselves as everyone else.
While the article does provide other examples of trans shooters, how many non-trans shooters have there been in the same time? What’s the percentage relating to population? How many trans people have been victims of violence, compared to non-trans people, and the relative percentage?
There are ways of having this conversation in a reasonable way that isn’t rage and click bait. I don’t have answers, but I do know calling for a ban on guns isn’t a valid solution.
Logic is that there will be more mass killings whether it be with firearms or other weapons. Not having armed security and armed school employees is really politically stupid. That would squelch the problem. It wouldn’t eliminate it because there is evil out there. There always has been and always will be. To think restricting/eliminating firearms in the public will stop it is also stupid. Restricting access to violent media might be just as effective. Getting students noses out of cell phones and into books might help as well.
Anyone under the help of a mental health specialist, should not be allowed to own a firearm! Every licensed Dr. that’s practicing in the mental health field should be required by law to ask every troubled person if they own or have access to firearms, then note the response and have an exemption from whatever Dr/Patient information they are limited to share. With the local PD. With the parents involved. This is in an effort to save LIVES here folks, not rights.
Your reasoning is flawed. Most mental health professionals are against this due to people that need help, however minor, would not seek the help they need due to the possibility of losing their rights. Also, you are talking about violating HIPPA laws also, which is an invasion of privacy as granted by the Constitution. Also there is no ‘standard’ of what constitutes ‘dangerous’ mental health issues. Now let’s talk about the abuse that would be prevalent in a system like that. A mental health professional who hates guns would tend to find anyone who owns guns as a danger, whether they are or not. We have a right to life. We also have a responsibility to protect that right. If someone decides to abdicate that responsibility, then do they truly cherish their right.
Ignoring the issue of setting a precedent of proactively deeming anyone unsuitable to have a firearm, I’m with Andrew, our facilitator of 2A propaganda; gun rights are Human rights. (f we don’t trust someone to have access to a firearm, then we don’t trust them to be a part of society and they should be incarcerated.
I agree.
While I agree, there’s something more at play than what some see or want to see. And it’s scary.
What it is hard for me to explain. And lik him or hate him, Glenn Beck just did a video on it and he explains it perfectly. It’s called accelerationism.
And it has to do with, well, if I say it it’ll make this reply way too long. And I don’t know if I paste the link to this 13 minute and change video would be accepted.
But, and so, if you want to known for your own good even, go to YouTube and look under Glenn Beck for the title that starts out I’ve never heard Congress say this…..
If you do, you will agree that this is what’s happening and you’ll understand why. I can and will say it has to do with, what’s up is done what’s good is relic what’s left is right and criminals nut being punished. Trust me, it’ll all make sense.
And the reason it’s happening is because people, countries, want America and what it stands for, destroyed!
It’s also happening because in order for prophecy to be fulfilled, it is to happen!
ALL mentally ill people should be prevented from having firearms, ESPECIALLY those who are taking drugs to control their behavior.
No they should not lose their rights. They should, however, by locked up in a mental institution till their sanity is restored.
This is a ridiculous question. Nobody should lose their 2nd amendment rights because of their sexual orientation.
Straight, biological men still account for the overwhelming majority of gun violence. That doesn’t mean I should lose my rights for being in that category.
These creatures are sick human garbage on drugs provided by the govt. There is already a law at least in the U.S for people with mental problems and / or on certain seritonin mental health drugs barred from owning firearms.
These creatures are sick human garbage on drugs provided by the govt. There is already a law at least in the U.S for people with mental problems and / or on certain seritonin mental health drugs barred from owning firearms.
Obviously this person had issues however their gender identity is not a factor in this and those that raise this issue are immediately suspect. If this line of thought was applicable to the rights that people should have then no white males should be allowed to drink alcohol or own firearms since they are the primary driver of alcohol related deaths and certainly mass shooters in general! Let’s start having a real conversation regarding mental health and our predisposition toward violence within our culture!
You pretty much nailed it, well said.
🤔 I personally think all this shows us that we have to rethink allowing white males to have firearms. No matter wheter they change their gender they still are highly prone to do it. They continuously shoot up schools. 🧐
This is also a good reason to increase school security or police as well as entertain teacher training.
what no restrictions for ghetto rats???
I disagree with your first statement. The problem in this situation is THIS particular individual. I live in the USA, and I do not know what Canadians have the right to do or not do. What I do know is The Second Ammendment applies to every American, and you cannot exclude entire groups of people because of the acts of an individual that, on a surface level, appears to have been in need of medical attention for the treatment of mental illness. I can agree with your assertion that more school security/resource officers should be present in schools, as well as training and arming teachers who are willing to take on the responsibility that comes with being a gun owner.
well folks we have a resident expert in bluedog to shed some light on why/how the indiscriminate violence is coming from the gender identity community…….
armed teachers could have mitigated this situation!
If you are trying to trick me into saying that estrogen drives people crazy, I am too smart to fall for your trap, paul. Try tricking some soccer loving Europeans.
not a trap, was just giving you a chance to shine.