I add to the movie theater mass-murder this local story: holdup at Arby’s at about 5 pm, broad daylight, not a “bad part of town,” not an out-of-the-way place.

Our culture gropes for answers to deranged mass-murder, and to the plague of less-dramatic violent crime.  Until all of that evil and meanness goes away: “Anyone, anytime, anywhere.”  The criminal chooses whom to prey upon, where and when.  The victim chooses only whether to be prepared—or to be passively victimized.  The culture may enable the criminal, but the intended target does not have to.