By Tom Junod at 1:29pm
Photos via Getty Images
It is now a week after the Newtown shooting and the knowledge that the "lone gunman" — that stock American character — was not really alone at all but rather part of a breed that includes Jared Loughner, James Holmes, and now Adam Lanza is all that we know of him.
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We do not know who he is. We do not know where he is. We know only one thing: that he is more prepared than we are. Indeed, he is preparing right now. He is buying his guns. He is accruing his arsenal. The grudges of a lifetime are coalescing into a delusion, and the delusion is articulating itself into something like a plan. In two months, or two weeks, or two days, the plan will be all that he thinks about, and the pressure will become unbearable. He likes to be alone, but his plan needs people, and before too long he will seek out a place where they gather. It might be a school, or a crowded theater. It might be Times Square.
If he lives in Queens, and if he started his journey in, say, Pakistan, we will call him a terrorist, and have a reasonable chance of stopping him before he kills anyone. If he lives in an American town instead of an American city, and started his journey in his American bedroom, we will call him a "shooter" and we have almost no chance of stopping him at all...
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