After a mass shooting such as the atrocious crime committed in Parkland, Florida yesterday, a familiar process begins in the media, both mass and social, and in politics. There are expressions of outrage at the nature of the crime and the fact that it wasn’t prevented, and there are expressions of sadness at the lives lost, and of support and sympathy for the families of those killed, and for those injured in the attacks. This is as it should be. When this goes away it will be because we have grown so used two such attacks that they no longer make an impression on us.

There is also a desperate search for motives and for answers to why and how a crime of this kind can happen. Continue reading →