One grub in 340million, a copy cat encouraged by the certainty of instant PERSONAL celebrity, notoriety, known forever, courtesy of the hundreds of cynical, self-serving grubs of politicians, political activists and media who should know better than to sensationalise suicide, terrorism and mass homicide, but do it anyhow to serve their own secondary agenda.

In any large population there will be some potential offenders like that and there are many tools at their disposal, some being explosives, fire accelerants, poisons and firearms. The last mentioned is the un-safest way for the criminal, practically guaranteeing immediate discovery and denying escape.

Is it the number of fuel outlets, hardware stores (for chemicals, containers and so on), guns, reference sources (find your recipe using chemicals from home), edged tools and so on? Because wreaking mayhem is a simple affair. Ban them all? Ban everything?

However, the BIG question for grubs like the LA monster is how to guarantee the biggest, most sensationalist coverage of HIM possible.

Potential offenders need not worry though, because for every one of them, there are hundreds of grubby, unethical, unprincipled, self-interested grubs who can always be relied upon to help them out where $millions of publicity and follow-ups too are concerned.

Elsewhere, out of the limelight, in the background, there are many people working quietly away to detect the problem situations, analyse risks and risky behaviour, build in protections judiciously and counsel, distract and head-off those who might become problems. Lets not talk about them though and give them more resources, it is always easier to invoke hollow political mantras like 'gun control'. That's politics!

Dear o sung wu,

Perhaps unsurprisingly I think the only person capable of doing it is Trump. Whether he would or not is a completely different question. It took a right-wing politician in Howard to get gun reform in this country and with the politics in the States at the moment anyone else moving to remove firearms from that society may well cause severe civil unrest.

When I put this question to a Yank there was a naturally cynical reply;

“Trump doesn't seem like a guy who would expend political capital to improve the country.”

A vain hope perhaps.

What can they fo about? Who knows. It's there problem, not ours. We have enough to worry about in our own country without getting involved in foreign countries.

Dear O Sung Wu,

I tend to agree with SteeleRedux on this issue.
It would take someone like Trump to
do something about the everyday gun violence in the US
and act accordingly to try to stop it. But as Steele
pointed out - whether he will is another matter. He may
not want to risk losing the base support of his voters.

Australia's gun control laws are often cited as a model
but there are still millions of guns in our country that
a would be mass shooter could use. We therefore need to
be vigilant regarding our own laws to ensure that we do
not ever inherit the gun violence problems that the US has.

Thank you NICKNAMENICK; ARMCHAIR CRITIC & FOXY...

None of you paint any sort of optimistic picture in ways they might be able to curb these massacres, and at the same time reduce, or even slow, the burgeoning numbers of people seeking a gun, or those wishing to add to their increasing arsenal of guns! Almost a case of; '...I gotta get me a gun and a big 'Mother' at that...'! Could a mass shooting almost commence a panic phase I wonder?

Your meticulous take on the situation, is both unambiguous and absolutely frightening, ARMCHAIR CRITIC! Furthermore, not that far from the truth I suspect? A few 'hotheads' deciding to take advantage of everyone's grief and anger, could very well be the genesis for a localised civil war; one that may be prosecuted along ethnic and colour lines? As evidenced by gun sales

A possible solution might well come from a Site that FOXY has kindly provided us with. Which suggests inter alia; Instead of trying to, interdict and 'reason' ways to stop these mass killings - Authorities should try and concentrate their energies, on the individual or single shootings, which collectively far outnumber the casualties of these mass shootings?

And our mate NICKNAMENICK in his own quaint and inimitable way, has suggested that since the inception of the United States, they've always had to rely up guns, in all their forms, to get, and to keep them out of trouble, so it's little wonder they're a nation that depends upon the gun for so much - in fact their very survival and future is deeply inscribed within their DNA?

Steele,

"It took a right-wing politician in Howard to get gun reform in this country" and so become the father of the Australian gun lobby; before "Flack Jacket Johnny" we had no organized political representation for gun owners, now we do and basically it's down to JW Howard.