The story on its face is horrible and shocking.  Six people are dead, 11 more injured, and the gunman is also dead in Isla Vista, California, near the UC Santa Barbara campus.  As news develops, police suspect that this was an intentional mass murder.

The gunman has been identified by an attorney as 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, son of a Hollywood assistant director.  This was a young man who, by all accounts, lacked for nothing materially.  So, why would he gun down innocent people on a Friday night?

The chilling YouTube video he left behind tells us pretty much everything.  It is entitled “Retribution,” and I have decided not to post it here.  If you so choose, you can follow the link to watch a sociopath try to justify a reason to murder innocent people, particularly women who have refused to date him.

Which leads us to the word we are going to be hearing about in connection with this shooting from now on out: “incel.”  The word is a shortened version of “involuntary celibate.”

Elliot Rodger, who claims that he has always been an “ultimate gentleman,” says in his video:

“Girls gave their affection and sex and love to other men but never to me,” he says.

“All those girls that I’ve desired so much, they would’ve all rejected me and looked down upon me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance towards them while they throw themselves at these obnoxious brutes,” Rodger says to the camera.

Rodger then promises violence.

“I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you,” he says. “You will finally see that I am in truth the superior one the true alpha male.”

“After I’ve annihilated every single girl in the sorority house, I’ll take to the streets of Isla Vista and slay every single person I see there.”

“If I can’t have you, girls, I will destroy you.”

Reports are also out that his family was so troubled by his previous YouTube videos (this final one was uploaded to YouTube the day before the mass shooting) that they reached out to police.

Shifman (the Rodger family attorney) said the family called police several weeks ago after being alarmed by YouTube videos “regarding suicide and the killing of people.”

Police interviewed Elliot Rodger and found him to be a “perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human,” he added. Police did not find a history of guns, but did say Rodger “didn’t have a lot of friends,” had trouble making friends and didn’t have any girlfriends.

Be prepared for these narratives in the coming weeks:

First, the word “incel” is going to come up a lot.  Be ready to hear from men who complain about how women reject them.  Be ready to hear the objections from women about these men.  Be prepared for the feminist left to weigh in.  (Some of that has already begun.)

Second, if what the Rodger family attorney says is true, and the police cleared Elliot Rodger as a threat, then be prepared to hear a new round of proposed gun bans.  At this point, it is unknown if the killer had any criminal record or mental health history that would have prevented him from legally owning a gun.  Even if he was clean, that won’t prevent the pundits and anti-gun groups from trying to come up with something, anything, to stop a mass shooting from ever happening again.

And finally, be prepared for another long conversation about the inability of family members to get mental health help for adults, even up to the point of having them involuntarily committed.  Did Elliot Rodger give off enough “red flags” to his family that they might have pursed this?  Did the police take their concerns seriously?  Would there have been a way to stop this?

I once said in reference to Sandy Hook that there is no law that can stop a lightning strike.  There is also another sad truth we need to remember – evil people walk among us.  And often, we recognize the evil far too late.