Officer Lee Newbill’s moving funeral opened with bagpipes Friday and closed with “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

The farewell ceremony for this well-loved Moscow police officer and family man should never have come so soon. Many warning signs existed about the dangers of his killer, Jason Hamilton, that might have prevented this terrible day.

Now that the first shocking week has passed, the mourning will continue for considerable time. And as it progresses, the questions that surround this tragic shooting must be addressed.

One of those that pierce deeply is this: How could a man who described in a mental health examination his desire to commit suicide by “taking a whole bunch of people with him” ever have been allowed to do precisely that?

It will be important for the state of Idaho to examine its laws surrounding involuntary commitment for mental health issues, and, even more importantly, its mental health system’s interpretation of those laws.

One leading national expert on the topic believes Idaho’s laws may not be the problem. Mary Zdanowicz, director of the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Va., says mental health professionals frequently believe these laws may be invoked solely when the danger is imminent. Yet Idaho’s statute also covers people considered likely to injure themselves or others.

It’s important to keep mental health professionals accountable for understanding and properly implementing these laws, Zdanowicz says. It’s no doubt even more important to make sure they have the facilities and resources to address these very serious needs.

Idaho residents must insist on a careful examination of all these questions in the months ahead.

It’s still unclear whether Hamilton was diagnosed with a serious mental illness, but he was scheduled for counseling. The Virginia Tech gunman is now believed to have suffered from schizophrenia.

It’s clear that laws designed to protect the mentally ill from past abuses have opened up communities to new dangers.

Neither Officer Newbill, nor First Presbyterian Church caretaker Paul Bauer nor Hamilton’s wife, Crystal, should have died last Sunday. Neither should three others have been injured in the rampage.

On Friday, the toll of this crime loomed so fearfully high. Thousands of mourners attended Newbill’s funeral at the University of Idaho. Hundreds of police vehicles processed through the streets, and hospital nurses who had treated the injured watched with tears streaming from their eyes.

The entire region was stunned by these losses. Now it must examine its laws, their interpretation by mental health workers, and the frightful gaps that allowed Hamilton such freedom.

We must find appropriate ways to stop those who make their dark intent so clear: To leave this world by firing away the lives of others.