A little girl sits crying in a yellow school bus, her hand pressed to the window pane. Fear, horror and unbelievable sadness are reflected in her face. It’s the image that went through the American media after the massacre in a Nashville elementary school.

On Monday, 28-year-old Audrey H. stormed the Christian Covenant private school and shot dead three nine-year-old children, the principal and two other teachers. The heavily armed gunner was caught and killed by the police a little later. As in all places that have become crime scenes in the past, one question hangs like a leaden cloud over the city in the days that followed: Why?

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