Alexandra Petri: When white men turn into lone wolves

Alexandra Petri | The Washington Post The change came upon him almost as soon as he lowered the gun. His words became unintelligible. He ceased to belong to anyone. He became that most dreaded of creatures: the “lone wolf.”

Once he was a white middle-aged man. He was a son, a brother, a boyfriend. Words accrued to him like “normal” and “regular.” “He did stuff, ate burritos,” his brother said. But the second he did this horrible thing, opened fire on a crowd with an automatic weapon - a transformation took place.

There is an epidemic ravaging America. Not gun violence. These mass shootings, as the president so sagely points out, are simply “pure evil,” not the work of human hands and cannot…