How many more will die today?

The family and friends of Lamonte “CoCo” Stone miss him terribly. They want his violent death to be Danville’s last.

They know what they’re up against.

“This is a problem that needs to be handled,” said the Rev. John E. Coles. “It’s bad. It’s destroying our community.”

Violence, of course, solves nothing. The shooting of this 14-year-old solved nothing, just as the next violent death on our streets will solve nothing of any great importance.

Stone’s family said he was at a party when he heard gunshots. Unable to find his sister in the house where the party was being held, he went outside looking for her when he was shot.

Of course, even if Stone had stayed in the house, he might have still been shot and killed.

What’s sometimes referred to as the cycle of violence is really more of the lifestyle —people who are predisposed to carry weapons they don’t need (or aren’t legally entitled to posses) use them in situations that they should walk away from.

Stone’s family and friends who rallied outside his Bradley Road home last week know how senseless this tragedy was. They are not the ones that need to be reached. They’re not the ones causing the violence on our streets.

They’re just the latest victims of it.

“My son was a lovable person,” said Paul L. Stone. “We’re just hurt that people got to come together in a way like this.”

Unfortunately, they’ll keep coming together like that until more people understand that there are better ways to solve problems than with a gun and a willingness to use it.

The effective investigation, prosecution and sentencing of those responsible for violent crimes is one part of the solution.

But that only addresses the aftermath of a violent crime. Locking violent criminals up and throwing away the key doesn’t prevent the creation of new generations of people who are willing to live in a way that threatens the lives of everyone around them.

It’s much tougher — but just as important — to work to change people’s attitudes about violence. We live in a society that has taught people about the dangers of driving without seatbelts, smoking, using illegal drugs and even drunken driving. People still do all of those things, but not as much as they would have had society not fought those battles.

Given the success of those efforts to change social behavior, it’s not impossible to believe that more could be done to prevent the street crime that has shattered so many lives. Too many good people have been lost, both here in Danville and around the country.

The violence has got to stop. It hasn’t given anyone anything of value, and it has taken too much from us.