The Virginia Tech killings are just the latest example of a world-wide phenomenon. Individualized, non-political mass murder is not specific to the United States and cannot be systematically related to American gun culture.
In France, in Germany, in Japan, in Canada, in Australia, in Brazil, in Switzerland, and elsewhere people have engaged in non-political acts of mass murder. They have often used guns, but also knives and bombs. Their motives have often been obscure or when proclaimed, incoherent.
Der Spiegel lists many of the worst incidents here.
Each incident has forced us to gaze deep into the abyss and we [most of us] have recoiled and sought comfort in the soothing platitudes of science, religion, or ideology.
But....
The ubiquity of this evil makes it difficult to fit into our standard explanations for horror. That won't keep the "experts" from trying. Just remember, though, that every time you hear a politician, a pundit or [worst of all] a psychologist confidently assert that he or she understands what went on at Blacksburg, they don't.
All that we really can do in such circumstances is to affirm our common humanity, to mourn the loss of life, and to reach out in compassion to those survivors whose lives have been devastated by the carnage.
Then we and they must go on to live our lives as best we can.
The picture above is of flowers left by mourners after a mass killing in Erfurt, Germany.
