Where there is an intersection between a person with a potential mental illness and an automatic weapon, bad things happen. And continue to happen.
They did Wednesday when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and teachers at a high school in Parkland, Fla.
What to do?
If you tackle one of the streets leading to that intersection, which one? You know which one the left suggests first - the weapons street. Simply ban assault weapons.
We wish it were that easy. If you stopped their manufacture today, how do you get the ones out of the hands of those who already own them? Does the government pay gun owners to turn them in? Where will it get the money?
After every shooting, we hear the same rhetoric from the left. But it never has answers about how the country would rid itself of every dangerous gun in the hands of thugs and the law-abiding alike.
If you tackle the mental illness side, who determines who is mentally ill? Are you mentally ill if you're mad about your ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend? Are you mentally ill if you post photos of guns on social media? Are you mentally ill if people term you a "loner?" Are you mentally ill if you are expelled from school?
Cruz fit all of those, but who was supposed to tie those strings together? And if they did, did that make him mentally ill?
President Donald Trump said all the right things on Thursday about the shooting, but it won't bring back any of the dead.
"No child, no teacher should ever be in danger in an American school," he said. "No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning."
To "America's children, especially those who feel lost, alone, confused, or even scared," Trump said, "I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be. You have people who care about you, who love you, and who will do anything at all to protect you. If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer, or a faith leader. Answer hate with love. Answer cruelty with kindness."
All of us long to put up a stoplight at the dangerous intersection we mentioned, but we need new instructions. The same all-or-nothing answers have brought us here once again - to cry and shake our heads and feel helpless.