I don't expect any real answers about why yet another mass shooting has happened
Even with an argument about legal gun ownership apart from figuring out why this happened, if we Americans are true to form, the national conversation will be pretty light on context and real solutions.
It's not just about the prevalence of guns in our society, it's the mindset that's out there that these shooters use to justify their actions.
The problem is that there are too many people who are threatened by the prospect of their livelihoods coming under any real scrutiny in order to allow a real conversation about the causes and solutions.
It's like a never ending vicious circle.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Sweeping public policy decisions are best made on the basis of verifiable fact, and in the cool light of objectivity...not in the emotionally overwrought aftermath of a tragedy.
I rather suspect that incidents of this type may increase...not so much because of our regulation of weapons (or relative lack thereof) or such factors, but because of an ever-increasing trend of alienation in our society, a fairly rapid waning of our sense of cultural oneness, of community. As we retreat further and further into smaller,. more isolated circles of friends and family, communicating more digitally than "organically," the humanity of persons not in that circle will become ever more theoretical, less real on a gut level.
It's not so much that a previously normal individual flips a switch and becomes someone completely different, with a radically different value system. It's a gradual process, one that includes turning most other human beings into objects of no real value or import...no connection. The switch that flips is a little one...much of the work has already been done. 
