It&#x27;s politically expedient to label the shooters as evil, as if they weren&#x27;t people. Look at how this has played out in gun politics. The message is that we need &quot;common sense&quot; gun control in order to prevent &quot;crazies&quot; from obtaining guns, as if there were a filter function that could reliably distinguish &quot;crazies&quot; from ordinary folks. When such filter functions inevitably fail, as they always do (crazies start out as ordinary people and they can be crazy for a while before seeking, or being forced into, psychiatric help), that just means we need a better filter function, i.e., more background checks, till no gun changes hands without the feds knowing about it. Once Total Information Awareness is achieved on who has what guns, any number of scenarios can play out. Extraconstitutional gun confiscation is one, but that isn&#x27;t even the most devious or fun. One scary scenario is the government doing profiling on who is likely to buy what type of weapons or ammo; buy the wrong type and you could be subject to scrutiny by the FBI&#x27;s precrime operations, set up for stings, etc. Also if a tyrannical overlord wanted to impose dictatorial rule, with complete accurate information on gun and ammunition ownership he would know which areas to consolidate power in first -- the less armed ones -- before closing in on the more armed areas.