With the level of our national discourse reaching all-time lows, commentators with a bent for 鈥渂ridge building鈥� have been promoting the character trait of putting oneself in the shoes of the Other鈥攚hether that Other is a 鈥渄eplorable鈥� living in Wisconsin or a progressive living in Brooklyn.听

It鈥檚 only by trying to understand one another, the theory goes, that national healing can start.

But what happens when the Other is a mass murderer鈥攍ike the one from Pittsburgh and now the one from Thousand Oaks? Do I unwittingly honor a murderer by trying to understand what makes him reach such depths of evil and destruction?听

I鈥檓 not sure; I hope not. All I know is that I have an incorrigible reflex to try to figure out why people do what they do.

Here are a few questions I struggle with when I see these horrific acts:听

1.听When potential killers see the enormous media coverage of these mass shootings, do they feel that it becomes somewhat more 鈥渁cceptable?鈥� Does media coverage infer an insidious type of credibility independent of the act itself?

2. When someone is miserable and feels he has nothing left to live for鈥攁nd blames the world for much of his misery– does it make it more likely he will consider such an apocalyptic act, as a way perhaps of giving the world the middle finger and leaving with a 鈥渂ang鈥�?

3. Is the combination of #1 and #2 above so lethal that the killer loses any ability to make a moral distinction?

4. Does having a gun make it all that much easier? And what kind of change in gun laws can make a real difference?

I鈥檓 no expert on mental health. I don鈥檛 know what goes on in the mind of a deranged person. It鈥檚 possible that the brains of mass murderers all have faulty wiring鈥攚hether that faultiness comes from irrational hatred, child abuse or the trauma of fighting in a war. 听

But mental health or not, I often wonder if there are life factors and circumstances that can turn a human being with 鈥渘ormal鈥� brain wiring into a monster who can walk into a synagogue or a bar and start shooting.

Or whether people who were damaged psychologically as children are now exposed in our new world to a lot more triggers than earlier eras.

That鈥檚 as much 鈥渦nderstanding鈥� as I can muster for now.