Balanced response needed to Boston tragedy

It's always been a small world, but an event like the Boston Marathon bombings draws us all closer in this time of social media and instantaneous, personal communication.

So far, we've been grateful to hear that Boston marathon runners we know -- and there are a surprising number of them -- all came through the tragic event safely, but that doesn't make the three deaths and 145 injuries of the innocent onlookers any less shocking.

So far, no terrorist group has come forward to claim credit, and we can only speculate whether it was foreign or domestic, an individual or a group.

The Boston Marathon is definitely an international event, as illustrated by the flags of many nations that blew in the wind generated by the finish line blast, a factor that points overseas.

On the other hand, it fell on the IRS tax day and Boston's Patriot Day -- could home-grown terrorists be involved?

The tragedy illustrated that assault rifles are far from the only dangerous tool available to mass killers, and simple bans and piling laws upon laws will have little effect on the root causes.

More caution at all types of mass gatherings is in order, of course; law enforcement and private citizens alike must be vigilant.

But we hope and pray America doesn't become like Middle Eastern countries, where pedestrians avoid walking by mailboxes for fear they hold a bomb, or where each family is issued a fully-automatic weapon for self-defense.

Only if we allow the threat of violence to leave us paralyzed in fear, or over-react to the point that we give up more freedom in exchange for "security," will the terrorists have won.