Father of Abundant Life School Shooter Arrested

Content Warning: Self Harm

On December 16, 2024, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow brought two handguns to Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. She opened fire during a mixed-grade study hall, killing teacher Erin Michelle West and student Rubi Vergara. Six others were injured. Natalie then turned the gun on herself and died at the scene. For all you gun nerds out there, authorities recovered both a 9mm Glock and a .22 caliber SIG Sauer at the scene, but only the Glock was used in the attack.

Now that the dust has settled, and court documents have been unsealed, we’re getting a clearer picture of just how premeditated this shooting really was. According to police, Natalie built a cardboard model of the school and mapped out her plans in detail. She fired off 20 rounds during the shooting, meaning she reloaded at least once.

As mentioned in a previous post, Natalie idolized Finnish school shooter Pekka Eric Auvinen, whom she referred to as the “one true ideal of the so-called future” for some reason. I can’t figure out why Auvinen stood out to her, considering his only noteworthy trait aside from other school shooters is that he wasn’t from America. Either that, or she was some kind of columbiner hipster. “Oh, you like Eric Harris. Well, I like a school shooter you probably never heard of”.

Jeffrey Rupnow bought his daughter one of the murder weapons as a Christmas gift. A second gun was partially paid for by Natalie with her own money. But, of course, both were in Daddy’s name. This is becoming almost a running gag with the parents of school shooters. Parents who have previously bought their kids guns for Christmas were the Crumbley’s and Colin Gray. STOP BUYING YOUR KIDS GUNS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

Natalie had reportedly been in therapy for PTSD following her parents’ divorce in 2022. Her mental health struggles were not subtle. She would scream that she wanted to kill herself, and engaged in cutting so frequently that Jeffrey Rupnow had to lock up all the knives in the house. Naturally, he saw it fit to give her guns. That’s a great idea, give a teenager who self-harms the ability to kill at range.

According to one of her friends, Natalie referred to her father as a ‘drinker,’ and her mother said Natalie’s therapist had diagnosed her with PTSD. But Jeffrey Rupnow didn’t seem too worried. When asked about her suicidal threats, he wrote them off as attention-seeking.

He told detectives, “As you know, parenting you learn as you go. There’s no manual. You are flying by the seat of your pants and making the best decisions for you and your child. I believe anytime I saw anything that was alarming or disturbing for [Natalie] I was as proactive as I could be for everything.”

Except he wasn’t. Not even close.

Jeffrey Rupnow was finally arrested during a traffic stop around 3:45 a.m. on May 8, 2025, nearly five months after his daughter’s deadly rampage. He’s now facing three felony charges, two counts of providing a dangerous weapon to a minor resulting in death and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a child. If convicted, he could spend up to 18 years behind bars.

As more came out in the complaint, it got worse. The day before the shooting, he handed one of the pistols to Natalie so she could clean it. He says he doesn’t remember if he locked it back up afterward. He also told police he’d let Natalie pack the guns before going to the range because he didn’t feel like he had to “babysit her with this.” She didn’t officially know the gun safe code, but he had once told her it was his Social Security number backward “in case of emergency.” He admitted she had likely seen him type it in several times.

Again, this is practically a carbon copy of the Crumbleys, whose gun safe combination was literally ‘0000.’ Their son also partially paid for the gun he used to kill four classmates. Just like Natalie. And just like the Crumbleys, Jeffrey Rupnow was shockingly careless with how easily his child could access deadly weapons.

He even called it the ‘fun safe’. Yeah, fun, until your daughter wipes out a classroom.

And when all was said and done, Rupnow told police that teaching his daughter how to handle guns was ‘his only mistake’.

Really?

Let’s count his other ‘mistakes’:

Buying guns for a mentally unstable teen
Ignoring her suicidal threats
Downplaying her PTSD
Giving her access to the gun safe
Calling the safe ‘fun’
Letting her pack firearms unsupervised
Not securing the safe after handing her a weapon the day before the shooting
And of course, failing to notice she was building a miniature version of the school and planning mass murder in her bedroom.

When officers asked Jeffrey how many guns he owned, he said 12, all supposedly locked up. But police only found eight in the safe. One was hidden in a bed frame drawer. This is the classic ‘responsible gun owner’s™’ fantasy. Always ready to shoot the bad guy in the dead of night.

Bail was set at $20,000 cash. His lawyer argued that Jeffrey isn’t a wealthy man. Maybe if he didn’t hoard a dozen firearms, he’d have some money in savings. Who the hell needs twelve guns? Is he expecting to be attacked by a carton of eggs or a box of donuts? Or was he expecting to arm Jesus’ Apostles?

The court also ordered electronic monitoring if he posts bail, a ban on owning or buying new firearms, and barred him from going near Abundant Life Christian School.

Jeffrey Rupnow joins a growing list of parents being held responsible when they arm their kids and look the other way. The Crumbleys are serving time. The father of the Apalachee High School shooter is awaiting trial. The mother of the Richneck Elementary School shooter has been charged. This accountability is long overdue.

We’ve spent too long pretending that gun ownership is some sacred, consequence-free privilege. It’s not. If you give a child a gun and someone ends up dead, you’re not just a bad parent. You’re an accessory.

And now, finally, the law is starting to agree.

(Sources)

UPDATE 5/12/2025: Since this post went live, Jeffrey Rupnow has posted bond and is no longer in custody. I guess he was wealthier than originally claimed.

UPDATE 7/31/2025: Earlier this month, Jeffrey Rupnow was ordered to stand trial on charges of providing a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 (resulting in death) and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a child.

He’s looking at a maximum of 18 years behind bars.

UPDATE 8/10/2025: Sadly, this school shooting has claimed another victim, in a way. Natalie Rupnow’s mother, Melissa Rupnow, was reported as having taken her own life sometime around August 1st. Reports indicate that Melissa allegedly had a history of substance abuse, which is often intertwined with underlying mental health challenges such as depression.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 in the U.S., or use the webchat at 988lifeline.org. You are not alone, and help is available.