The first reaction to horrors such as the shooting of these poor Amish schoolgirls is always horror, followed by a rapid failure to appreciate how somebody could do something like that

After a while, there will begin the wailing sound of somebody calling for a ban on guns.

On the face of it, this is a sensible reaction. Charles Roberts – such an ordinary name to join the long list of America’s mad murderers – took a veritable arsenal of weapons with him, including a shotgun, bent on destruction. Charles Carl Roberts IV may have planned to molest the girls at the Amish school, but police have no evidence that he actually did, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller said.