Well, another school shooting, this time in the Pacific Northwest.  And this was quickly followed a day later by a shoot-out at a courthouse in Georgia.  Total number of dead:  two, one of them the gunman who was apparently trying to storm the courthouse.  These preceded an official posting on the NRA's website disavowing a post placed earlier by a person who criticized those who who gather to parade their guns, revolvers, rifles, and all, in public to promote looser (or no) gun laws.  Granted, as any sociologist will tell us, correlation is not synonymous with causation, but one has to wonder:  if people walk around with guns, concealed or not, are not they, if they perceive themselves in a dangerous situation, more apt to use them?  Common sense tells us they will.
     Although people indeed make choices, in almost every way, their choices are shaped by the culture they inhabit.  We are captives of our context.  I ache for the families of those who have lost a loved one.  I ache for the family of the shooters.  I ache for the shooters themselves.  And I ache for the heart of America (even as I write this, I am acutely aware that people in many other parts of the world are being struck down, for no reason, by gunfire, too).  When will we understand that when we put ourselves and our "rights" first, we are ignoring the cultural captivity that in truth often brings us to assert them? The larger issue is why we are so sure that we know what is best for us when we really do not understand, apart from trusting in a transcendent being, what is good.  Or who we are.
     We cannot escape ourselves.