Pure cowardice.

What's one of the first things we hear after nearly every shooting massacre, at least in the US, about the perpetrator? That they ended it by turning the gun on themselves. The first major international one in my lifetime, Columbine in 1999, ended that way, as I'm sure many previous ones did. Since then, the 2006 Amish schoolhouse massacre in Pennsylvania, the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, Sandy Hook in 2012, the 2013 Ilsa Vista killings, the Pulse nightclub tragedy and last month's massacre in Las Vegas, to name but a few, have continued the trend. And I'm glad their perpetrators all suffered.

But I wish it had come in another form. Because whatever a mass shooter's motivations, be they political or psychiatric, by blowing their own brains out immediately after the fact, they show pure cowardice. It's their way, I believe, of not having to really face the music. This time, the scum behind the Sutherland Springs, Texas church massacre Devin Kelley was actually fatally shot by a civilian as he left the site, contrary to what the media has reported. I suppose that's somewhat better, but only just.

If you do the crime, you shouldn't just have to also do the crime. You should have to face the legacy of the damage you've inflicted. And most of all, whether for rehabilitation or humility and compassion, you should at least hang around to endure it.