Anger has an edge in the United States. Maybe it has that same edge in other countries and their news media don't come forth with it like ours do.

But here, when a man gets angry, and he has access to firearms, violence happens in ways that alarm us in the spontaneous ferocity of what erupts.

Soldiers — unarmed, vulnerable men and women — were shot dead yesterday at close range by an officer whom they were told to trust. The shooter, if he indeed acted alone, was a psychiatrist.

What we don't know on this Friday is whether that doctor had the capability of firing the 40-some rounds that apparently were spent that early Thursday afternoon. Were some of the dead or injured in cross-fire in what became a gun battle?

In Florida, the next day, a man walked into an office area where he'd once worked and opened fire on those he found there. One died; several were injured.

In Southern California this week, a teen died after being shot in crossfire at a football game. In northern California, a week or so ago, a young woman was brutally raped by multiple young men and left shaking, stripped to the waist, cowering under a park bench. No gunplay there. But Oh, the damage.

What is happening to us? Where is the fury, the rage, the cold hatred coming from? And why do we kill? Where is the compassion for the innocent? Where are the heroes who will stand up for those who are so at risk?

I won't blame it on TV, on Hollywood, on video game producers, on the music industry, on the NFL, the WWF or the UFC movement. No single player can take all the credit.

And it's not political. Please let's don't go there.

Is it the economy? Maybe. But only in the way we'd say rain has something to do with crashes on the highway.

No, it's deeper — something that's probably been building for decades. We're not the nation we once were. The rest of the developed world looks at us in pity. They shake their heads and think about how they don't want to become what we are.

And the denial we live in as our Stars and Stripes flap in the breeze only makes the problem worse. Freedom isn't free.

The role God plays in a nation's life and identity is part of the missing puzzle portion that rarely comes up in news media reporting. It's buried deep in analysis of events like Fort Hood and the Florida shootings — if it shows up at all.

God's people must take notice of the need their country has for healing. And they must pray — repenting, as well, for the sin that so easily besets us. O God, have mercy on us.