WHAT kind of person could coldly plan the killings of 16 children week in which we have seen this Scotland?

People ask for explanations and reasons, but there may ultimately be no way of understanding the motivation of such a killer.

There are two main forms of multiple victim killers: serial killers and mass killers. The serial type is the best known, and the real life ones (e.g. Fred and Rosemary West) are as famous as the fictional ones (e.g., Hannibal Lecter).

These offenders kill many people, usually one at a time, over months or years. There is often a sexual or even sadistic motivation and they tend to use their victims as playthings. They have no feelings for them as human beings and they enjoy the power over the person and the killing itself.

They are rarely mentally ill.

Serial killers are nearly always caught in the end and they often seem to help in their own apprehension. They want to become famous and they enjoy the media attention and notoriety.

Mass killers are different. These kill a large number of people in one episode of carnage and destruction. Thomas Hamilton was a classic textbook example of a mass killer.

WE HAVE little chance of interviewing these people because they nearly always commit suicide at the end of an attack or they force the police to shoot them by coming out with guns blazing. They seem to want a kind of post humous notoriety and they firmly intend not to be caught.

Hamilton was an odd loner, like nearly all the mass killers. His neighbours seem to have had hardly any contact with him and neither, did his family. Like most of these killers, he did not relate well to people and he had few, if any, friends. This is typical as was his great interest in firearms.

He was a member of a gun club and had at least four guns. The only atypical feature in this case is the paedophile undertones. His choice of five year old victims may have been related to his sexual preference or interest.

He had a festering grudge against organisations and individuals for rejecting him and thwarting his plans to get close to children in his club and also in the Boy Scouts.

He probably acted as he did to get back at those people, or society in general, for what he saw as unreasonable and insulting treatment.

What of the parents families teachers, other children and the local community? They may never get over this almost unimaginable trauma.

Sudden bereavement and loss, especially due to murder, is extremely difficult for people. A child's death leaves a vacuum that may never filled in a parent's life, as parents cannot cope with the concept of their child dying before they do.

SURVIVOR guilt is something the children will probably deal with later. One woman expressed her own euphoria when she realised her child was alive, but quickly experienced profound guilt as she realised other parents' children were dead.

Anger is the next emotion these people will experience. This anger is directed at the man, perhaps his family, the police and society. They will be filled with anger which has no real target but will be part of their helplessness and grief.

Other victim groups are the police, ambulance personnel, medical and nursing staff.

How can people deal with such a dreadful scene and not be affected? Many of them will suffer greatly because they were involved, and they may need as much counselling as the families of the child victims.

Many children in the UK and Ireland may be fearful of going to school because of what has happened. Parents will be less secure about the safety of their children in school or anywhere else. However, we must remember that such an incident is rare.

How should we respond to this unspeakable outrage? Security in schools is not the answer, but the control of firearms is. Why was Hamilton allowed to have access to handguns and why should any private individual have such lethal weapons in his own home?

The reason for high homicide rates in the US and the higher incidence of mass killings there is because of the availability of firearms.

If Thomas Hamilton had access only to a knife on the day in question, the carnage could well have been much less.