About the Recent Mass Shootings

Within just a few hours of each other this weekend two different gunmen went on shooting sprees in an El Paso, Texas Wal-Mart and a Dayton, Ohio nightclub, randomly murdering at last count a total of 29 people and injuring many more.  And last Sunday there was another such rampage at a Gilroy, California agricultural festival.  Naturally, the media is, on one hand, expressing deep sorrow and grief for the victims and their families while on the other many politicians and opinion makers are doubling down on the need for stricter gun regulation.  Folks can agree or disagree about their Second Amendment rights and how far they go in allowing military combat-level weaponry in the hands of any civilian who can afford them, but can we all at least come together on the evil behind these acts, regardless of their reasons...including supposed mental illness?  Yet I hear little about the depravity of the murderers...just that we need to keep guns out of their hands before they commit their heinous acts.  Let's face it...there are a lot of weird, paranoid, and conspiracist fringe ideologies out there and enough disturbed souls to buy into them: this in itself, though, doesn't necessarily involve anyone picking up a military rifle and mowing down crowds of innocent people in public.  No, regardless of beliefs and rationales, those directly responsible for these acts should be held accountable in the most severe way.  Grief counseling, silent moments of prayer, candlelight vigils...and sincerely pushing political remedies to restrict the general access of advanced weaponry all have their place as legitimate responses, but the most important takeaway from these atrocities...and often the one thing that is most ignored...is the abject evilness, to the core, of those who commit these crimes of murder.  Yes, there is very much such a thing as "evil" and we might as well begin to acknowledge this fact...