Last week, just before Christmas, law enforcement investigators say a local man “just lost it.”

The result was three people shot and one stabbed. One of the shooting victims was killed.

All involved — the victims and the alleged shooter — are members of the same family.

We expect the surviving members of that family are crushed by what happened last week in the Cloverdale community.

As law enforcement officers work the case through the justice department, the rest of are left to wonder what caused this and more important how can we prevent it from happening again.

Investigators said a lingering family dispute led to the incident last week, but did not release details citing the family’s privacy.

What matters most is that we must work hard as a community and as a nation to educate people on how better to handle disputes. All too often Americans are leveling a handgun at the sources of their frustration and causing unbelievable harm.

When a gun is present in a domestic violence situation the risk of it ending in a homicide increases by 500 percent, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence suggests.

Too many people die at the hands of someone who knows them and shares blood with them. For our society to heal and get back on track, we must address the causes of the violence and the tendency of many to simply handle disputes with a gun.