No parent should have to answer children who want to know why someone is trying to kill them. No one.
Yet after a shooting at a housing complex in Steubenville last week, one woman had to have that discussion with her children. Who can blame them for thinking they are targets? According to their mother, there have been five shooting incidents in the neighborhood during the past month.
Unless this stops, innocent people - perhaps children - will be hurt or killed.
Steubenville and Jefferson County authorities have vowed to stop the wave of violence. "This is the beginning of a citywide crackdown," Prosecuting Attorney Jane Hanlin vowed Thursday. Police Chief William McCafferty revealed arrests had been made in two shooting incidents, including the one that so frightened the children.
Good. But the authorities will need help from the public to bring this reign of terror to an end. Only by working together will police and the public make that happen.
