He was consumed by his emotions of anger, resentment, jealousy, and vengeance.

Now he will have 60 years or so to think about it.

What did guys do 50 years ago when a female rebuffed him? it was not murder.

I suspect there was murder over these kind of things then too.

With advances in gun technology, it may be easier for these guys to kill more than one person than it was in the past though.

And laws passed have theorically reduced lethality.

In the 1920's you could legally buy a fully automatic Thompson sub machine gun (with 50 round drum magazine) by mail order. While not as effective at extended ranges as the AR-15, mainly due to the type of ammunition it fired, at short ranges (where 99% of murders happen) the Thompson and other weapons like it are vastly superior to the AR. Variants of the Thompson later became a very effective and the most widely used weapon by the military in WW2.

The Valentine's Day Massacre and other shootings like it prompted passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934. Perhaps the only truly effective gun control measure ever actually passed by our government.

Maybe you could start with "Knoxville Girl", or "Gonna Kill that Woman". 50 years ago, it was most definitely murder. Rejection by a woman is one of the prime rationales for murder throughout history. Adolescent men have a predisposition towards possessiveness and fragile egos. And a surfeit of testosterone.

Which is precisely why access to semi-automatic weapons should be strictly regulated, the purchasing age raised to 21 for all guns, and lengthy waiting periods for all purchases enacted (30 days, min. - enough time to get over the butthurt). The kid didn't take a class, he just READ THE FUCKING MANUAL IN HIS CAR.

the difference is now we have the means to take what would have been a local newspaper story the following day and instantly spread it nationwide.

all those isolated "local stories" become data points in a larger picture: sexually maladjusted male violence committed against female partners, abetted by liberal firearm laws.

each story is a unique tragedy, but the same features occur again and again. one being the inaction of people who could have stopped it before it started. in this case, the recipients of those texts. it will haunt them for the rest of their lives. hopefully.