Errant

 I understand that the life of one innocent victim stacked up next to the hundreds of deaths occurring every day in Iran may not be politics as usual, but the loss of seven month old Kaori Patterson-Moore in Brooklyn last week still strikes a chord. 

An ominous one. 

While it is true that my own sight has been diverted to atrocities such as the bombing of a girls' school in Minab Hormozgan at the opening of the war, Neil Young's refrain is never far from my mind: There's one more kid that'll never go to school - Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool

Kaori was being pushed in a stroller when shots rang out. Her parents looked down, terrified to see that their baby was bleeding. Her father rushed her to the nearest hospital where she was pronounced dead. 

Seven months old. 

It should be made clear that Kaori was no more the target of those gunshots than the hundreds of children who died in the unlawful attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School. The truly misguided notion of "stray bullets" and "smart bombs" does not cover up the loss of life. It merely reminds us that all those bullets and bombs have to go somewhere. Those errant shots do not excuse the murder of innocent victims. 

In Brooklyn, authorities continue to hunt for the gunman who killed little Kaori. 

In Washington, Senators led by Georgia's Raphael Warnock have begun their investigation into the deaths of all those little girls in Iran. 

Meanwhile, across the globe, "mistakes" are being made with deadly weapons. Someone really needs to take these toys away. 

Forever.