In the last four weeks alone, six mass shootings have killed 47 people in the United States.

Perversely, until the last three massacres took place within a single twenty-four period, the very frequency of what we might call “rage murders” rendered the phenomenon largely invisible, since an isolated shooting no longer seemed exceptional enough held public attention for any length of time.

Australian discussions of such atrocities invariably focus on gun laws, since the centrality of firearms to US culture seems bizarre to most of us. Yet though guns obviously contribute to the problem, they don’t provide, in and of themselves, an explanation as to why so many Americans go berserk.