This is GPS, the Global Public Square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and

around the world. I'm Farid Zakaria.

Today, the massacre on the Las Vegas Strip.

Get another stark reminder of America's extraordinary gun problem. The time to talk about it

is now and that is what we are going to do for this entire show. What can we learn from

other countries? What does the Second Amendment actually say? What could the United States

government do to keep its citizens safer? Call this the stop the madness show. And now here's my

take. That was Donald Trump trying to explain the latest mass shooting in the United States. We

hear this view expressed routinely after every new incident, but it is a dodge, a distortion of

the facts and a cop out as to the necessary response. There's no evidence that the Las Vegas

shooter was insane. You'll notice by the way I prefer not to use his name and give him publicity,

even posthumously. We won't show his photo either. He did not have a history of mental illness

that we know of. Nor had he been reported for behavior that would suggest any such condition.

He was clearly an evil man, but evil is not crazy. If we define the attempt to take an innocent

human being's life as madness, then of course every murderer is mad. If not, we should recognize

it is a meaningless term that adds little to our understanding of the problem. Actually, the

quick assumption of mental illness distorts the discussion. First, it smears people who do have

mental disorders. Such people are not inherently highly prone to violence. They are more often

than not victims of violence than perpetrators. And to the extent that some are violent, they are

more likely to inflict harm on themselves. Second, turning immediately to the sickness of the shooter

and piously calling for better mental health care is more often than not an attempt to divert

attention from the main issue guns. Every conversation about gun deaths should begin by

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