No easy answers

It is emerging that the shooter was a high-functioning autistic kid who had become increasingly unstable in recent weeks, according to a concerned friend. Four years ago, his parents divorced. He stayed on with his mother in the family home in a prosperous suburban enclave. His mother reportedly was an avid gun collector, who took her sons to recreational shooting ranges. So this troubled young man was a trained shooter with easy access to a range of legally owned guns in his own home.

There's no point in blaming his mother. I am quite sure she never saw this coming. I am also quite sure that if she had known how to help her youngest son, she would have petitioned the heavens to do so.

Now, we sift through the ashes to find the fateful moment, the spark that bloomed into a raging destructive fire. We try so hard to understand it, but it's not understandable. Perhaps the only people who might have shed light on what pushed a socially awkward young man with no known history of violence to shoot a schoolroom of children, perished in the flames.

As one of my friends noted on Facebook: "Yes, it's about access to guns, especially to handguns and assault weapons, but it is also about lack of access to effective care for the mentally ill. Let's get mad about that, too."