The basic trait of mass killers is a sense of anger and resentment. They are social pariahs, nerdy loners who most likely are addicts of violent Hollywood movies. Hollywood has a lot to answer for where mass murder is concerned. Just as watching hard porn can lead to rape, I believe that anesthetizing people to shooting off high-caliber weapons can lead to mass murder. Most action films today show heroes and villains blasting guns nonstop without bodies piling up and blocking off the action. The screen fills with tracers but the action continues. And life goes on undisturbed. Rap lyrics don”€™t help. Kill this, kill that, kill everyone who disagrees. Nowhere else on Earth”€”except for Britain, which follows slavishly in Uncle Sam’s footsteps”€”do songwriters and moviemakers advertise such violence.

So when will it end? After the next killing, or the one after, or the one after that? When will the politicians who take the gun lobby’s money confront their benefactors? The answer is not in the immediate future. What will it take to stop the killing of innocents? Screening prospective gun buyers for criminal records is not enough. Most mass murderers don”€™t even have parking tickets on their resume. Adam Lanza used his mother’s guns. Why did a mother-housewife need three guns? And how typical of a mass murderer to murder his mother first, shooting her in the face.

America has endured over 60 mass shootings in the last 30 years alone. I know no country in Europe that even begins to compete with this sick record. Black children as young as ten play with guns they obtain in high-crime neighborhoods. Some bring them to school. It’s a macho thing to do. Just listen to some rap and you”€™ll find out. Watch some movie. Or better yet, listen to those who live and die by the Second Amendment. But the dead children of Newtown never had a chance to read about their right to bear guns. They died because their parents chose not to bear guns, as did their teachers. Uncle Sam should bury his head in shame.