The reaction of the progressive types to shootings have a quality of ritual to them. It’s rather like starting a witch hunt after a bad harvest or a cholera epidemic. A handful of bogeys are always invoked:

1. We blame the Right. The killer may have been some Tea Party type. Because, you know, they’re so prone to violence.
2. We blame Pop Culture. This guy was trying to be Batman, because Batman is known for his skill with a shotgun. Violent images make people violent. Or maybe it was the music that he listened to, or the video games he played.
3. We blame the lack of regulation of the weapon. Guns make people use them. Never mind that making guns completely illegal stands about as good a chance of working as making heroin illegal has; if there were no guns, dangerous psychotics would have to use their fists. Or, you know, make a bomb out of fertilizer.

They cannot accept the plain truth that things like this are beyond their ability to prevent. Their ideology compels them to pretend that with just the right regulatory cocktail, these things would disappear. They probably privately suspect otherwise, but never mind. The creed must be proclaimed allowed, lest someone question your devotion to Social Justice.

In the meantime, 13 are dead and we still don’t know why. I fear we never will.