By now, you have probably heard that a crazy man killed six people and then himself early in the morning on Saturday, March 25, on Capitol Hill. What you might not know is that I used to live really, really close to 2112 East Republican Street, the address of the massacre.

The Stranger has a good, thorough narrative of the events. The creepy thing to me is how normal it all starts out -- people at an event aren't quite ready to go to bed yet, and they all go to a house to wind down with beer. They invite along a guy they don't know who seems lonely and out of it -- a nice thing to do, right?

Then, a few hours later, the guy comes back with an arsenal and shoots everyone he can, after spray-painting the word "now" a couple of times along the way.

After something like this, there's always an attempt to fit it into an overall narrative that makes the rest of us feel safe -- like such a thing can't possibly happen to us.

The Seattle Times has taken a predictable won't someone think of the children! tone, heavily implying that changes to the city's all-ages dance ordinance would have prevented the tragedy, or at least prevented any of the victims from having been teenagers. Because you know, when a "10-year-old can attend dances along with 30-year-olds. This is asking for trouble"!

(What kind of trouble exactly? Are ten-year-olds better off without any thirty-year-olds around? Or are you implying that all thirty-year-olds who find themselves at the same event with ten-year-olds are hideous perverts of some kind, because of course, liking the same music as ten-year-olds is inherently bizarre and untrustworthy? There was one girl at the Sisters of Mercy concert who looked about ten, was every thirty-year-old -- or older -- at that venue some kind of weirdo? When I spotted her she was moping outside the bathroom, and brightened when a woman she knew came up to say hello, they hugged and talked a little bit, should I assume that "trouble" ensued? Or that I was the trouble? Because I noticed her there and liked her outfit?)

By the same logic, our consumer culture needs a major overhaul after the Dangers of Christmas Shopping were demonstrated when a man shot six people at the Tacoma Mall in November 2005. Of course, he took hostages and eventually gave up without actually killing anyone, though one of the victims may never walk again.

At least D. Parvaz of the PI, and Josh Feit and Dan Savage of The Stranger both seem aware that the fact that all the victims had previously been at a rave is about as relevant as noting that all the victims are homo sapiens. The rave simply explains how they all came to be at the same place at the same time. Like in The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

Other columnists are quick to blame the availability of guns, which at least makes logical sense, as guns are, in fact, the common thread among mass shooting deaths. Yet, even guns are not the common thread among crazy people who kill other people, as the Unabomber and Timothy McVeigh and last year's London subway bombers demonstrate.

The only real lesson: weird and horrible things happen all the time, and you probably can't do anything to completely protect yourself from them. Because they are weird.

The other lesson: don't talk to creepy loners, even when it seems like a nice thing to do.

Sorry, creepy loners.