Our laws have to be directed at adult conduct in trying to prevent situations that can further inappropriate conduct in small children. And we have those laws. There are the neighbors who knew the kids were in a house where gunshots had been fired and drugs were likely being dealt. There are the school authorities who'd already suspended the boy for violence. And there's you and me.
Communities have a vested interest in more sophisticated answers.
It will happen again. That's a question that should scare us all. Tom Long's column appears in Features on Mondays, Fridays and, starting next week, on Saturdays.