School shootings have become a near-daily occurrence in the United States, but the Wisconsin rampage that left three dead on Monday was a rarity.
The Abundant Life Christian School massacre is the 10th school shooting to be carried out by a female shooter since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 where 13 were murdered. The massacre is often seen as a watershed moment in the age of American school shootings.
Natalie Rupnow, 15, armed herself with a pistol and opened fire at the small Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday, killing a teacher and another student. Six others were injured in the attack.
Rupnow, who turned the gun on herself after the massacre, is the youngest female mass school shooter in US history.
Natalie Rupnow, 15, (pictured) killed a teacher and a student at a Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday
Only about 3 per cent of all US mass shootings – defined by the Gun Violence Archive as a single attack in which at least four victims shot, either injured or killed – are perpetrated by females.
Experts warn
But experts warn that with the rise of gun violence and the increase in the sheer number of school shootings since Columbine that it is almost inevitable that more school massacres will be carried out by female students.
Males often have easier access to firearms, and many shooters model themselves after previous attackers, most of whom were men, said Jonathan Metzl, a sociology and psychiatry professor at Vanderbilt University and gun violence expert.
Some sociologists also view mass shootings as ‘reflective of a pathology of toxic masculinity,’ Metzl said, adding that men are more likely to commit violent crimes in general, not just school shootings.
But other factors common to school shootings – bullying, isolation, social media – are not specific to boys, experts claim.
Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha, armed herself with a pistol and opened fire during a study hall, killing two people and wounding six others. Law enforcement officers are shown at the scene of the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Monday
Data also shows an increase in aggression and violence among adolescent girls in recent years, according to Elizabeth Dowdell, a professor of nursing at Villanova University who has studied school shootings.
Craig Jackson, a professor of Occupational Health Psychology at Birmingham City University in the UK, warned there could be more female schools shooters as levels of narcissism in teenagers continues to rise.
‘Much research has looked at the high levels of narcissism required in order to undertake mass shootings, i.e. believing the death of innocent victims is justified,’ Jackson told DailyMail.com on Tuesday. ‘Unsurprisingly younger males tend to have higher levels of narcissism than their female peers who may be socialized and conditioned into more non-narcissistic behaviors.
‘Worryingly, some research shows levels of narcissism in teenagers are increasing year on year as an affect of the me-based society and social media, and this can only suggest mass shootings will continue to increase.’
Jackson has predicted that Rupnow’s sex will likely be examined by investigators as a potential source of motive in Monday’s attack.
‘On social media, especially amongst the widespread online misogynistic movement, the sex of the shooter will no doubt be poured over as a potential source for Rupnow’s motive, potentially even seeing her as an ‘avenging female’,’ Jackson said.
‘This is a very short-sighted view. Rupnow is more likely to have killed for the same reasons as male shooters do: anger, isolation, or attention. It may have even be a ‘solution’ to possible recent stressors in her life.’
Here are the female students who have carried out school school shootings over the last 25 years…
Natalie Rupnow
Police said Rupnow’s motive for the shooting appears to be a ‘combination of factors’. He offered no details about what that motive might be, though he said bullying at Abundant Life Christian School would be investigated. Natalie Rupnow is pictured with two dogs
The gunwoman’s father Jeff Rupnow posted photo on Facebook in August showing what appears to be a teenaged girl trap shooting with a shotgun at a local gun club. In the photo, (left) the girl is wearing a T-shirt of the German band KMFDM. Columbine killer Eric Harris (right) was infamously seen wearing a KMFDM T-shirt ahead of the 1999 Colorado high school massacre where 13 were murdered
Natalie Rupnow, 15, killed a teacher and a student at a Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday.
Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha, armed herself with a pistol and opened fire during a study hall, killing two people and wounding six others.
The motive for the shooting appears to be a ‘combination of factors,’ Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said Tuesday as he appealed to the public to call in to a tip line and share what they might know about the shooter.
He offered no details about what that motive might be, though he said bullying at Abundant Life Christian School would be investigated.
He also said police are investigating writings that may have been penned by the shooter and could shed light on her actions.
Two students among the six people wounded Monday remain in critical condition. Officials have declined to disclose the names of the victims.
The gunwoman’s father Jeff Rupnow posted photo on Facebook in August showing what appears to be a teenaged girl trap shooting with a shotgun at a local gun club.
In a comment on the site, Jeff Rupnow says he and his child joined the club in the spring and ‘have been loving all every second of it.’
In the photo, the girl is wearing a T-shirt of the German band KMFDM.
Columbine killer Eric Harris was infamously seen wearing a KMFDM T-shirt ahead of the 1999 Colorado high school massacre where 13 were murdered.
Audrey Hale
In March last year, 28-year-old Audrey Hale (pictured) carried out a a mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, killing children and three adults. Police said Hale, who was transgender, was believed to have had ‘some resentment for having to go to that school’
Audrey Hale, 28, carried out a a mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee last year.
Police said Hale – who was transgender – was believed to have had ‘some resentment for having to go to that school’.
The shooter left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note and a memoir, according to court filings.
Maya McKinney
Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney teamed up with a classmate to kill teens in a suburban Denver, Colorado classroom in 2019
Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney teamed up with a classmate to kill teens in a suburban Denver, Clorado classroom in 2019.
McKinney, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, and Devon Erickson killed Kendrick Castillo, 18, and wounded eight others at STEM School Highlands Ranch.
The shots were fired in a darkened classroom of high school seniors, who were watching ‘The Princess Bride’ in the days leading up to graduation.
Defense attorneys argued that Erickson, who was 18 at the time, was manipulated and pressured into participating by his younger friend.
McKinney – who is transgender – testified against Erickson after pleading guilty to killing to 17 counts related to the shooting and was sentenced to life in prison, plus 38 years with the possibility of parole.
The gunwoman could become eligible for parole after about 20 years in prison under a program for juvenile offenders.
Teah Wimberly
Teah Wimberly was just 15-years-old when she fatally shot Amanda Collette, also 15, at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2008
Teah Wimberly was just 15-years-old when she fatally shot Amanda Collette, also 15, at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2008.
The two had been best friends since elementary school, but the relationship took a turn for the worse when Wimberly started making romantic overtures toward Collette, who rejected her advances.
Then when Collette refused to talk to Wimberly in November 2008, she pulled out a .22-caliber pistol and shot her friend.
She said she fired the gun so Collette ‘could feel pain, too.’
Defense attorneys argued that Wimberly had been abandoned by so many people in her life that she couldn’t stand to lose her best friend as well.
The sheer number of school shootings since Columbine make it almost inevitable that some will be carried out by female students, experts said. But it remains a rarity.
Elizabeth Bush
Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, shot a female classmate in the shoulder in the cafeteria at Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High School in 2001
Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, shot a female classmate in the shoulder in the cafeteria at Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High School in 2001.
Bush fired the gun at the floor and the bullet ricocheted into the other student, witnesses said. Another student, also aged 14, persuaded Bush to drop the gun.
The gunwoman had been subjected to name-calling, derogatory comments and innuendoes at the Roman Catholic school.
Bush was given an open-ended sentence to a juvenile psychiatric facility after pleading guilty to the shooting.
Dorothy Dutiel
Dorothy Dutiel, 15, (left) shot dead May Kieu, also 15, (right) at Independence High School in Glendale, Phoenix before before shooting herself
Their bodies were found on a patio outside the school’s cafeteria with a gun and a suicide note nearby. Police called the 2016 killing a murder-suicide
Dorothy Dutiel, 15, shot dead one of her classmates before taking her own life at her Arizona high school in 2016.
Police called the killing a murder-suicide, saying that Dutiel shot May Kieu, also 15, at Independence High School in Glendale, Phoenix before before shooting herself.
Their bodies were found on a patio outside the school’s cafeteria with a gun and a suicide note nearby. The two girls had been in a relationship, police revealed.
Dutiel left behind at least eight suicide notes and sent a chilling ‘good bye’ tweet hours before the shooting.
In her handwritten notes, which were redacted by the police before they were published, the gunwoman described her agony as her relationship with her girlfriend – presumed to be Kieu – deteriorated, AZ Central reported.
She wrote that she had depression but said she was happy at home, and asked her friends and family to forgive and forget her.
Dutiel also had a note addressed to first responders in her pocket when police found her after the shooting. In it, she said the boy who gave her the gun, had nothing to do with the shooting and that she had lied to him to obtain it.
LeFlore Magnet School Shooting (2024)
A 16-year-old student shot two classmates at LeFlore High School in Mobile, Alabama in January this year
A 16-year-old student shot two classmates at LeFlore High School in Mobile, Alabama in January this year.
The victim, whose identity is protected under state law, fired one shot, WKRG reported. She grazed the intended target and hit a second student in the torso.
The shooting occurred outside the school cafeteria during lunch. Surveillance footage revealed that a fight had broken out before the shooting took place.
A 12-year-old girl – dressed mostly in black with a black surgical mask – opened fire at Rigby Middle School in Idaho on May 6, 2021. The girl was arrested on three counts of attempted murder, and could remain in a juvenile prison until she is 19
A sixth-grade girl, whose identity is protected, opened fire at an Idaho middle school in 2021.
The 12-year-old girl was dressed mostly in black with a black surgical mask as she made her way around Rigby Middle School on May 6, 2021, East Idaho News reported, before she pulled out a semi-automatic pistol.
As students and staff fled outside, the unnamed juvenile followed them and continued to fire.
A second pistol was later found inside her backpack, and she claimed she also had two knives and was trying to build three bombs to blow up the school.
The girl was arrested on three counts of attempted murder, and could remain in a juvenile prison until she is 19.
Salvador B. Castro Middle School Shooting (2018)
A 12-year-old girl shot two students with a semiautomatic handgun in a classroom at Salvador B. Castro Middle School in Los Angeles in January 2018
A 12-year-old girl shot two students with a semiautomatic handgun in a classroom at Salvador B. Castro Middle School in Los Angeles in January 2018.
A 15-year-old boy was shot in the temple and a 15-year-old girl shot in the wrist. Three others were hospitalized with minor injuries not related to gunshot wounds.
The shooting was believed to be accidental, The Los Angeles Times reported.
One student, who witnessed the incident, said that ‘someone decided to bring a gun’ to school and that ‘someone was accidentally playing around with it’. The witness added that ‘they thought it was a fake gun’.
The young shooter, whose identity is protected due to her age, was arrested and booked on suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm.
Alpine High School Shooting (2016)
A 14-year-old female freshman shot and wounded a fellow student at Alpine High School in west Texas in September 2016, before killing herself. She had planned to shoot her 14-year-old stepbrother before shooting herself. But that plan was foiled when a 17-year-old junior encountered the armed freshman in the girls’ restroom
A 14-year-old female freshman shot and wounded a fellow student at a west Texas high school in September 2016, before killing herself.
The gunwoman – whose identity is protected due to her age – had planned to shoot her 14-year-old stepbrother before shooting herself, police concluded.
But that plan was foiled when a 17-year-old junior encountered the armed freshman in the girls’ restroom at Alpine High School.
The older student saw the younger girl with the gun, which she raised and aimed at the junior. The 17-year-old ducked and began running as the other girl opened fire, wounding her in the lower body.
The shooter had brought a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun, 18 bullets and an ammunition magazine from home, all concealed in her backpack.
Interviews of students and faculty led investigators to rule out bullying as a factor in the shooting. Officials did not say why the girl intended to target her stepbrother.