The media are awash with advocates of banning semi-automatic weapons. Second Amendment defenders are playing defense. Granted, semi-automatic rifles have no legitimate civilian purpose, but fixating on guns to thwart anti-socials like Nikolas Cruz is looking in the wrong direction, or metaphorically "barking up the wrong tree." It is my contention that lack of or misdirected paternal influence on children are primary causes, and the principal factor is fatherlessness.
Unfortunately, chivalrous divorce court judges, feminists and others of anti-male bent have been reluctant to recognize and deal with this syndrome – the ostrich effect. The book "Doyle's War, Save the Males," includes a lengthy section on fatherless boy murderers. Mentioned therein are seven presidential assassins and numerous other school shooters, all without fathers. Nikolas Cruz added another name.
Even my local Twin Cities newspapers will not to go against the popular grain by publishing letters such as this. The February 2018 printing of the aforementioned book, available at Amazon, consists of 352 pages on such gender issues.
Richard F. Doyle