Even in a country where gun violence is commonplace, the story of a small boy with a gun is reverberating in a big way. There has been finger-pointing, confusion, floundering for answers and mass grappling with deeply uncomfortable feelings. There are questions, too. How could something like this possibly happen? Where in the national consciousness do we put it? Police say the 6-year-old in a first-grade class in Newport News, Virginia, pointed a handgun at his teacher on Jan. 6 and then pulled the trigger. One psychology expert says the case hits differently because it violates society's expectations for both school shootings and childhood itself.
