Marvelous analysis as always.

I experienced the same effect on Quora. Following the Gilroy incident, I received nearly 24,000 views in a single day, more than three times my previous record. A single answer that I wrote generated more than 54,000 views in two weeks; another racked up more than 40,000 views over the same period.

The questions were repetitive and generally asked one of four questions:

1. How can we stop mass shootings? (Maybe by going cold turkey on our addiction to them; maybe by people telling authorities about signs a person might be contemplating a terrorist act such as a mass shooting before it happens instead of afterwards.
2. When are we going to enact “common sense” gun laws?(Maybe when somebody proposes gun laws that actually make sense.)
3. Why do we need (or why don’t we ban) “assault weapons?” (Because millions of people have legitimate uses for them and because bans haven’t done any good at impacting violence.)
4. When will the NRA stop opposing gun reform? (See the answer to Question 2.)

There is a mythology that mass shootings can be solved by legislation, without any cost to anyone other than gun owners, and without asking ourselves the very serious questions about how we can break the cycle that begins with our national obsession and ends with inspiring yet one more killer.