There is no refuge from the senseless gun violence that plagues the United States. Homes, offices, places of worship, city streets and even schools -- no place is safe. This week, there was an especially horrifying episode: the shooting of one first-grader by another. The details tell a tragic story, but the real tragedy is that even this pointless death is unlikely to change anything.

Six-year-old Kayla Rolland, a first-grader at Buell Elementary school, outside Detroit, was shot and killed by a classmate, a 6-year-old boy. The reason for the shooting is unclear; there are reports that the two children had had a fight the previous day. In fact, the reason for the shooting is irrelevant. A child is dead, and another child is the killer. That is all we need to know.

How did this happen? Some will blame the environment that the boy lived in. His father and grandfather are in jail on gun-related charges. His mother is reportedly a drug addict, and the house that she and her children had been staying in was said to be a "flophouse," where people came to trade weapons for drugs. The boy is alleged to have taken one such weapon from under a bed to school to shoot the girl.