Why do we keep treating gun violence in the U.S. as a series of isolated incidents instead of an out-of-control epidemic?

Why do we seek the motive of the shooter, as if that knowledge offers protection from future acts of violence, perpetrated by other shooters?

A year and a half ago, on a morning in late summer, I was driving through the California desert, leaving a school camping trip early to make it back to Los Angeles for a cousin’s wedding. It was an ordinary morning, until it wasn’t.

I came upon a man weaving on foot in the middle of the empty two-lane highway. On the side of the road was another man, standing next to a white car. A red gasoline container sat on its hood.

I had no intention of stopping. I knew better.

But I slowed down to avoid hitting the man in the middle of the road, and suddenly he was in front of my car, pointing a gun at me.

I stopped.