mass shootings and the 'ethnic angle'

Here's a good piece by Andrew Lam reacting to recent high-profile incidents of violence in the Asian American community -- Virginia Tech, Binghamton, and now the Korean Catholic retreat center -- and the media's unhealthy habit of "finding the ethnic angle": Debunking the 'Ethnic Angle' to Mass Murders like Binghampton and Virginia Tech.

Whenever something like this happens, there is inevitably an attempt to understand what drove the killer to such horrible acts. Why is it when we're talking about an Asian shooter, the discourse tends to swirl around something to do with "revenge" and "losing face"? Lam suggests that we should be shifting our attention to what's right in front of our face: America's gun culture.