Gather 'round, young'uns.

The narrative long has been "well of course that kid tried to murder everyone. He listens to heavy metal music/he's a loner/he plays dungeons & dragons/he is an outlier." Columbine? Check. Georgia Tech? Check. Sandy Hook? Check. Long has it been some form of "disgruntled postal worker" going back to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Kip Kinkel didn't fit any of those molds so people haven't been able to let it go for 20 years. For every "but he listens to Nine Inch Nails!" scream there's a "but also was obsessed with the soundtrack to Romeo & Juliet." For every "loner!" there's a "had lots of friends". And there was a big divide between "but if he's crazy and we missed it then obviously we aren't doing enough to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill" and "cold dead hands" because obviously this country can't function without 5.56 teddy bears.

The narrative around Kip Kinkel, for anyone paying attention or actually caring, has always been "was he crazily murderous or crazy and murderous" but nobody with a love of guns wants to pay attention or care.