Political assassinations, terrorism, hate crimes, and mass violence such as school shootings are all the same species of thing: an attempt to use violence to make a statement or cause change. Sometimes, these things are driven by calculated evil — by doctrines that preach violence. Sometimes, they are driven by the choice to take some idea (good or bad, political or religious) way too far. Sometimes, they are driven mainly by madness, which simply latches on to whatever flotsam is available. The latter is why manifestos left behind by school shooters or political assassins are often a barely coherent mishmash of ideas that don’t fit together in the way that a sane person’s ideas do.

It’s become fashionable on the political left to mock people who turn first to prayer in the instant aftermath of such things. But as people are calling on social media now for prayers for Charlie Kirk and his family after he appears to have been shot in an assassination attempt, we’re reminded of two perfectly sound and related reasons why we pray first, even above and beyond the reasons why prayer in general is both virtuous and comforting. One is that, of course, our second instinct in these situations — second only to ending an ongoing threat — is to think of the victims who are suffering. In Kirk’s case, as is often the case, that includes the fact that people seeing this event don’t immediately know if he’s going to make it, or if so, in what condition. First things first.

The related reason is that do something should not be our very first response before we even know all the facts. Why did the shooter do this? How was he armed, and from what source? What led him here? How did he get in position to take the shot? These kinds of questions always follow, as they did with the school shooting in Minneapolis, or with the assassination of the speaker of the Minnesota house, or with the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Of course, before changing things in response to any given event, it is usually a good idea to act deliberately rather than in a mad rush. But even when a mad rush is called for, it is prudent to assemble one’s facts first. Twenty-four years ago tomorrow, we were starting to do that — but first, we prayed.