Hard to fathom how this horrible tragedy could happen – a 15-year-old girl, Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow opened fire in the Abundant Life Christian School she had attended in Madison, Wisconsin, killing a teacher and a student, wounding others, then killing herself police said.

As horrible as that was, it looks like the back story may be even more chilling. Police are examining her online activities with indications she linked to sites that showed images of the Columbine shooting and other mass shootings, and how she linked up with Alexander Paffendorf

“A 20-year-old man in Carlsbad, California, has been accused of being in connection with the school shooting,” reported the Washington Examiner. “During an FBI interview, Paffendorf admitted to the FBI agents that he told Rupnow that he would arm himself with explosives and a gun and that he would target a government building,” said the two-page restraining order from the Carlsbad Police Department.

Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray has been warning us that domestic terrorism has become a major threat. “The greatest terrorism threat to our homeland is posed by lone actors or small cells of individuals who typically radicalize to violence online, and who primarily use easily accessible weapons to attack soft targets,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee last year.

Research shows radicalization can include grooming online or in person, psychological manipulation, and exposure to violent material, which may have been the case here.

But 15-year-old girls at Christian schools in America? Few would suspect such girls could be so radicalized.

What can we do to prevent this?

Short of employing “big brother” surveillance and curtailing freedom of speech, not much. It’s too late to regulate online access to social media for teens (something incoming alternate President Elon Musk would shoot down). Some states and schools are mandating no cell phones in schools, but that doesn’t address time out of school.

The FBI and some local law enforcement agencies do try to identify bad actors who prey on children (like Mr. Paddendorf apparently). But the resources to find them are far from sufficient and often target sex offenders and human traffickers.

My pessimism aside, the radicalization of young people in America should become a priority concern.

Oh, and Merry Christmas.

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a grate millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” – Matthew 18:6.

Crawford is the author of A Republican’s Lament: Mississippi Needs Good Government Conservatives.