(This is in response to an email from a friend who blames bad parenting for all the mass shootings in recent years.)

 I'm sure that bad parenting is the root cause for some of the shootings, but I think the guy who shot Steve Scalise is older than us and he seems to have led a somewhat normal life until now. It's kind of hard to blame his parents. Some people are just crazy; some people are plain evil, some people have bad events that change their personality; some people are influenced by bad people other than their parents; some people have mental illness that suddenly appears. There are lots of reasons why people commit acts of terror. Frustration about sex, religion and/or politics also leads people to commit desperate acts.
 Also, a lot of people in this country have an abnormal fondness for guns and consider the idea of using them as a reasonable approach to solving their problems. American culture glorifies their use. How often do people get shot in movies, TV shows, and video games? It is presented to us as an acceptable thing. A few things for certain: gun violence in America is out of control; easy access to guns is definitely a problem; the American attitude toward gun use is culturally influenced. We'll never make progress in any way without collecting data about these things. The fact that our government prohibits the pursuit of knowledge about these subjects makes us look like a country of idiots.