Trans Shooter Claims Lives & Parental Rights Gain Traction | 2.12.26

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary

Episode: Trans Shooter Claims Lives & Parental Rights Gain Traction
Date: February 12, 2026
Hosts: John Bickley, Georgia Howe
Guest Reporters: Meg Brock, Dr. Marty Makary

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Episode Overview

This episode of Morning Wire focuses on three major topics: a tragic mass shooting in British Columbia involving a transgender individual, legislative efforts in Ohio to strengthen parental rights regarding children's gender identity, and the FDA’s new scrutiny on chemical food preservatives, aligning U.S. standards closer to those of Europe.

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1. British Columbia School Shooting

Key Segment: [01:21] – [05:00]

Key Discussion Points

• Incident Overview:
  On Tuesday, one of Canada's deadliest mass shootings occurred in Tumblr Ridge, British Columbia. At least nine people died and dozens were wounded.

  • The primary event took place at Tumblr Ridge Secondary School, where six victims and the suspect died.
  • Two additional victims were found in a nearby home, later identified as the suspect's mother and 11-year-old brother.

• Shooter’s Identity:

  • The shooter, an 18-year-old male identifying as female for about five years, had a history of mental illness.
  • There is no clear evidence of targeted victims.
  • Guns had been seized from the shooter's home in the past due to mental health concerns but were later returned to the lawful owner.

• Patterns in Recent Violence:

  • A pattern of violence is noted among trans-identifying shooters, with reference to similar incidents in Nashville, Colorado, and Minneapolis.
  • Quote:
    • Penny Nance, Concerned Women for America:
      “There’s been this uptick in violence by women, biological women that are transitioning into men, and often what that includes is large doses of testosterone.” [03:25]

• Response from Canada:

  • Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered national mourning, including flags at half-mast.
  • Tight gun laws might be reviewed, even though existing measures are already strict since the 2020 Nova Scotia shooting.
  • Quote:
    • Dr. Marty Makary:
      “We owe that to the victims and their families.” [04:30]

Memorable Moment:

• John Bickley highlighting the growing discussion on the intersection of transgender identity and acts of violence associated with mental health and access to firearms. [03:53]

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2. Ohio’s Parental Rights Bill and Gender Affirmation

Key Segment: [06:04] – [10:27]

Key Discussion Points

• Current Child Welfare Practices:

  • In Ohio, parents risk losing custody or being denied foster/adoption rights for not affirming a child’s declared gender identity.
  • The state engages in proactively screening children for sexual orientation and gender identity, even as young as five, with corresponding databases.

• Legislative Response:

  • Republican Representatives Josh Williams and Gary Klick introduced the Affirming Families First Act to protect parents' right to affirm their child’s biological sex without being labeled abusive or neglectful.
  • Quote:
    • Rep. Josh Williams:
      “They should not have to choose between maintaining their moral beliefs or abandoning those beliefs just to raise their own children or provide a safe home for children that are the most vulnerable in our state.” [06:18]
    • Rep. Gary Klick:
      “No, they were sitting down actively asking the child, do you feel like a boy or do you feel like a girl?...And then they were creating a database based on this information...” [08:06]

• Federal Context:

  • Federal child welfare guidance briefly required foster families to be “gender affirming,” stemming in part from Ohio’s Cuyahoga County practices, but was vacated in June 2025.

• National Developments and Advocate Perspective:

  • Similar legislative actions have taken place in Texas, Indiana, and North Carolina.
  • Advocacy groups urge Congress to address parental rights at the federal level.
  • Quote:
    • Meg Brock:
      "Ohio has actually been an epicenter of radical gender-affirming child welfare policies nationwide." [09:05]

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3. FDA Crackdown on Chemical Food Preservatives

Key Segment: [11:33] – [16:04]

Key Discussion Points

• New FDA Focus:

  • The FDA announced it will re-examine and potentially restrict preservatives such as BHA, BHT, and azodicarbonamide, which are widespread in U.S. foods but often banned in Europe.
  • Many of these chemicals have been connected with cancer risk, hormone disruption, and other health issues.

• Explaining the Chemicals:

  • BHA: Found in about 4,600 U.S. food products, also present in non-food items like rubber and glue.
  • BHT: Common in cereals; linked to hormonal disruption.
  • Azodicarbonamide: Used in bread, also in the production of yoga mats and shoes.

• Why These Chemicals Persist:

  • The "Generally Recognized As Safe" (GRAS) loophole allowed manufacturers to self-certify chemicals as safe without comprehensive testing.
  • Quote:
    • Dr. Marty Makary:
      “…companies over time used this loophole to be able to self declare chemicals as safe without any real good solid testing…” [13:27]

• Cost and Labeling Implications:

  • Alternatives are considered cost-neutral as proven in Canada and Europe.
  • New labeling standards: “No artificial dyes” labels must now truly reflect ingredient content.
  • Quote:
    • Dr. Marty Makary:
      “We need to have cost neutral or lower cost alternatives so that we can move to a healthier food supply without increasing the cost…” [15:13]

• Parental Reassurance:

  • These policy changes enable parents to make safer, more informed choices for their children.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Penny Nance: “There’s been this uptick in violence by women, biological women that are transitioning into men...” [03:25]
• Rep. Josh Williams: “They should not have to choose between maintaining their moral beliefs or abandoning those beliefs just to raise their own children...” [06:18]
• Rep. Gary Klick: “No, they were sitting down actively asking the child, do you feel like a boy or do you feel like a girl?...” [08:06]
• Dr. Marty Makary: “…companies over time used this loophole to be able to self declare chemicals as safe without any real good solid testing…” [13:27]
• Dr. Marty Makary: “We need to have cost-neutral or lower-cost alternatives so that we can move to a healthier food supply without increasing the cost…” [15:13]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:21] – Shooting in British Columbia
• [03:25] – Trends in transgender-related violence
• [06:04] – Ohio moves to protect parental rights
• [08:06] – Rep. Gary Klick describes children’s services practices
• [09:05] – Cuyahoga County’s influence and federal context
• [11:33] – FDA targets food preservatives
• [13:27] – Explanation of “GRAS” loophole
• [15:13] – New food labeling standards

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Conclusion

This episode of Morning Wire explores heavy and timely issues: the complexities surrounding a mass shooting by a transgender individual and its implications for both law and social trends, the often-hidden realities of child welfare practices in conservative states, and an overdue regulatory crackdown on unhealthy food chemicals. The hosts engage experts and legislators to add nuance and first-hand insight, giving listeners a fact-driven, accessible overview of pressing cultural and policy developments.

Transcript

[Georgia Howe]

5:00Am I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change and head to work. Meetings, workshops. One more Celsius. No slowing down. Working late, but obviously still meeting the girls for a little dancing. Celsius Live Fit. Go grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate [e-mail]. A tragic school shooting in western Canada by a trans I identifying man leaves several dead and dozens injured.

[John Bickley]

To the students, the teachers, the parents, every residence of Tumblr Ridge, all of Canada stands with you.

[Georgia Howe]

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, February 12th, and this is Morning Wire.

[Meg Brock]

Ohio lawmakers move to protect parents who affirm their child's biological sex.

[Josh Williams]

These kids, just like every other kid in the state of Ohio, deserve people that love and care for them enough to tell them the truth, even when.

[Georgia Howe]

That truth is unsettling and the FDA is setting its sights on chemical preservatives.

[Dr. Marty Makary]

We are now going to the next level of chemicals that affect the foods that children commonly consume.

[Meg Brock]

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. At least nine people are dead and dozens more wounded after a mass shooting in British Columbia, Canada on Tuesday. The shooting is one of the deadliest in Canada's Daily Wire.

[Georgia Howe]

Reporter Tim Pierce is here to tell us what happened on Tuesday. So Tim, what do we know so far?

[John Bickley]

As John alluded to, someone whom police initially identified as a gun person in a dress appears to have killed at least eight people across two locations and wounded dozens of others. That person has now been identified as an 18 year old male who identified as a female and who had a history of mental illness. Two people were found dead inside a local home who have since been identified as the shooter's mother and 11 year old brother. But most of the carnage took place at Tumblr Ridge Secondary School, which is in a remote area of northeast British Columbia. There, at least six others were found dead, including the suspect. One more person died while they were being taken to a hospital. Students at the school said they were forced to barricade themselves in classrooms for roughly two to two and a half hours before they were evacuated by police.

[Georgia Howe]

Now what do we know about this individual and his potential motive?

[John Bickley]

The police have not released any information about the motive, but they have said they believe he acted alone. He reportedly dropped out of Tumblr Ridge four years ago though, though there's no evidence so far that he targeted specific individuals at the school police were called to the home on multiple occasions for mental health concerns, including one occasion where guns were seized from the home two years ago but were later returned when the lawful owner of the guns petitioned for their return. It's not clear who that owner is and whether those guns were used in this attack. Also, as we noted, this individual does identify as transgender and has been identifying as female for about five years, according to his Facebook page. In fact, when the news first broke, many outlets were reporting that the shooter was was female. Female shooters are statistically extremely rare, though that has been changing in recent years and it appears to be in connection to the transgender movement. We talked to Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, about these trends.

[Meg Brock]

There's been this uptick in violence by women, biological women that are transitioning into men, and often what that is includes is large doses of testosterone. There's been some seven trans shootings in the United States since 2018 of mass shootings. You have, you know, the think about the Nashville shooting. In that case it was a biological.

[Georgia Howe]

Woman, but she was transitioning at the time.

[John Bickley]

And it's worth noting that this is part of a pattern. Nance mentioned Nashville, but we also saw the non binary shooter in Colorado as well as the trans identifying shooter at a Minneapolis Catholic school last year. Nance also said that psychotropic drug use in general could factor into this as.

[Georgia Howe]

Well as disturbing trend. How is Canada responding to this?

[John Bickley]

Well, so far what we've seen is a nation in mourning. Prime Minister Mark Carney has ordered flags to fly at half mast in honor of the victims. And the premier also addressed the nation on Wednesday. In the days ahead, there'll be important questions to ask, difficult conversations to have.

[Dr. Marty Makary]

We owe that to the victims and their families.

[John Bickley]

But now it's time for grieving and remembrance policy wise. After a mass shooting in 2020 in Nova Scotia, Canada enacted strict gun laws so we could see a similar response this time. Of course, Canada already has strict gun control laws, but we'll see if lawmakers decide to revisit those again.

[Georgia Howe]

Well, just worth reminding people there were children included in these victims. So a terrible situation. Tim, thanks for reporting.

[John Bickley]

Good to be on.

[Josh Williams]

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[Georgia Howe]

In the red state of Ohio, parents can lose custody of their children for refusing to affirm their gender identity. But Republicans announced in a press conference recently that they're looking to change that. Here's State Representative Josh Williams, Representative Gary.

[Josh Williams]

Klick and I introduced legislation to protect the constitutional right of all parents here in Ohio and the constitutional rights of caregivers, foster parents, and even prospective adoptive parents. They should not have to choose between maintaining their moral beliefs or abandoning those beliefs just to raise their own children or provide a safe home for children that are the most vulnerable in our state.

[Meg Brock]

Here are the latest and her MORNING Wire debut is Daily Wire investigative reporter Meg Brock. Good morning, Meg. Great to have you on the show.

Good morning. It's great to be here.

So you've been following this very closely. What is the story here?

People might be surprised to learn that Ohio, a deep red state, has some of the most radical gender affirming child welfare policies nationwide. Families can lose custody or not be able to foster children simply for affirming a child's actual sex. This is something that Ohio legislators are looking to change, and they've introduced a bill that protects a parent's right to affirm their child's sex without being afraid of being labeled as abusive or neglectful. The bill is called the Affirming Families first act, and it seeks to modify parts of Ohio's legal code regulating child protective services, family court and social services. And it prohibits parents from being penalized or labeled as abusive for not affirming a child's gender identity, which is a term transgender activists use to describe how a child feels about their sex. The bill specifies that parents have a right to use their child's given name and correct pronouns, even if the child is experiencing gender confusion and wants to be transitioned to another sex.

Like you said, I think a lot of people will be surprised to hear that this is actually even necessary in Ohio. Are Republicans, do they have to kind of make the case that this is needed?

It is very surprising to hear that this is going on in a red state like Ohio. Representative Gary Klick in a press conference, actually articulated some of the things that have been happening under the noses of state legislators.

[Gary Klick]

Several of the things that they were doing in the Cuyahoga County Department of Youth and Children's Services is they were proactively screening children for their sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. So I'm not saying that a kid would come to them and they would say, hey, I'm this or I'm that. No, they were sitting down actively asking the child, do you feel like a boy or do you feel like a girl? Do you like boys or do you like girls? And then they were creating a database based on this information, and they have one child in that database as young as five years old. Then they were re educating parents. They're putting out videos from this group called affirm Me and others to say that if you don't buy your son a dress or buy your daughter a binder, if you don't call him her and her him, you are a danger to your child. You might be harming your child, you might not be a fit parent, and that could affect custody cases. That they were disqualifying people who wanted to be foster parents because they would not affirm gender confusion in the expressed gender identity of a child.

[Meg Brock]

Ohio has actually been an epicenter of radical gender affirming child welfare policies nationwide. The Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services was part of a federally funded, multimillion dollar research project that aimed to create interventions and programs that would radicalize child welfare agencies across the country to be, quote, unquote, gender affirming. Leadership in this county were so good at radicalizing child welfare agencies, the Biden administration actually called upon their expertise when they were forming their September 2023 rule that demanded foster care families be affirming of a child's, quote, unquote, gender identity. This connection with the Biden was revealed through public records requests, and we should note that that rule was actually entirely vacated in June 2025.

Right. I remember when that happened. Have any other states taken action like the Republicans in Ohio are trying to do to protect parents over this issue.

Yes. Legislators in Texas, Indiana and North Carolina have taken action to clarify that it's not abusive or neglect, neglectful to affirm your child's sex. I spoke with several parental rights advocates while reporting for the story and they said why the state legislation is a good start. There's really needs to be some federal action to make sure the rights of parents are protected all across the country.

[John Bickley]

All right.

[Meg Brock]

There's always more work to be done. Meg, thanks so much for reporting and again, great to have you on the show.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm just so excited to be here.

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[Meg Brock]

The FDA has announced that they're targeting chemical food preservatives and making changes to food labels. The changes aim to bring American foods more in line with European standards and make labels clearer.

[Georgia Howe]

Joining us to discuss the new changes is FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary. Dr. Makary, thanks for coming on.

[Dr. Marty Makary]

Good to be with you, Georgia.

[Georgia Howe]

Now your office just announced that you're going to be taking a harder look at a preservative called BHA, as well as a few other common preservatives. First can you tell us what BHA is and how common it is in our food.

[Dr. Marty Makary]

Sure. BHA is a chemical preservative that's very common in food. About 4,600 different types of food that are common in the US food supply have BHA. It's an ingredient that's found in rubber, in plastic, in glue. And a National Toxicology Program assessment said that there's a reasonable anticipation that it's carcinogenic or cancer causing. And there are low cost alternatives like rosemary, vitamin E, green tea extract. So we want to see in general our food supply move to a healthier food supply, especially when it comes to children. There's also two other compounds called, one's called bht, the other is azodicarbonamide. BHT is very common in cereal. It's known to be a hormone disruptor. And azodicarbonamide, which is a dough conditioner, it's what gives yoga mats the sort of air bubbles to give it the cushion. It's also used in shoes to make them more springy. And it's also found in breads and foods. And it just doesn't make sense that the same chemicals used to condition yoga mats and shoes is also being used in food for children.

[Georgia Howe]

So why are food manufacturers allowed to include these chemicals in their food? Why haven't we just banned them like the rest of Europe has?

[Dr. Marty Makary]

The reason why these chemicals are so common in the diet of children today is because of an old FDA regulation called gras, which stood for Generally recognized as safe. And it allowed companies to self declare chemicals as safe. It was originally intended for things like salt and things that were natural in the environment. But companies over time use this loophole to be able to self declare chemicals as safe without any real good solid testing and then just insert them into the food, not because it added any taste or flavor, but because it increased the shelf life of certain foods. Now that this medical field has matured and caught up, the data now shows that there are health concerns with some of these chemicals. And that's why we're asking for more information and letting people know of our action. Moving beyond the petroleum based food dyes.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, just wondering, if these preservatives are banned, will food become more expensive due to a shorter shelf life and more waste?

[Dr. Marty Makary]

So the alternatives to these chemicals are cost neutral. We have a real world example, and that is the food in other countries, in Canada, in parts of Europe that don't have these chemicals and have cost neutral alternatives. Those foods are not more expensive in some countries, if you use a compound like BHT or azodicarbonamide, you can be fined up to $140,000 as a food maker. And so other countries have taken a hard look at these chemicals. We're gonna start to do the same as well.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, last question. You're rolling out changes to food labels, specifically the label no artificial dyes. What is.

[Dr. Marty Makary]

Well, first of all, the FDA is making it very clear what these labels should mean and what the criteria are. For example, the label no artificial dyes will now mean no artificial dyes. In the past, if you used a natural dye from natural ingredients, you could not use that label. And it created a lot of confusion among parents shopping for groceries for their kids. So now you can trust that label, no artificial dyes. And at the same time, the FDA approved last week two new natural dyes that can be used as alternatives to the petroleum artificial dyes. And that's what we need to do. We need to have cost neutral or lower cost alternatives so that we can move to a healthier food supply without increasing the cost of any foods out there.

[Georgia Howe]

All right, well, a lot of parents really appreciate these changes. Dr. Makary, thanks for coming on.

[Dr. Marty Makary]

Good to be with you guys.

[Georgia Howe]

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're listening to the show now, you can watch for free on Daily Wireless. Plus, we'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.