It's so easy to be glib about this. Blame the parents, blame the kid, blame guns. But for me it's a bigger issue of parenting and these times. I must say I've never lived with a gun in the house. It's just not a part of my life, but I understand that some people do.

I do, however, live with lethal tools and raised a pair of very active boys. When they were about 3, while I was cooking supper, they took a pair of very sharp scissors from a (not high enough) shelf, climbed over the couch into the bay window, and used the scissors to prune the brand new 10-foot-tall lace curtains up about 3 feet. After my tears, I had a decision to make, and I think it was the right one. Tools can be dangerous and they can be useful. My children needed to understand that, and in the long run I wanted them to use tools. I found them non-pointed but sharp enough scissors to use. They started cutting up potatoes with knives (just butter knives, but that will do for a cooked potato) for salad. We built things of wood with real hammers and nails. By the time they were 7 or 8, they were allowed to buy jackknives. My dad always carried one in his pocket. They by then knew what knives were, and there were rules (mostly for the neighborhood kids - they had to stand back at least arm's length to watch my guys whittle). There were accidents, but none were serious and certainly none were malicious. When they arrived at school, my kids had to deal with "childrens' scissors" that were so dull and loose that they didn't work and a total ban on even carrying a folded knife anywhere on school property.

They also knew that dead was dead. Whenever a pet or wild animal died near our home, we'd have a viewing for a day or two. (We had the privilege of having a road-killed owl for one day). We'd draw kids from blocks around, just to see. Then we'd all bury the animal in the back yard. IF we'd had guns, the very first thing I would have done is kill something with it. Perhaps eat that something as well, if hunting was the point.   But even if target shooting was the point, killing one bird or squirrel and having a good look at the result would be the very first lesson about what guns are.

So I'm making an effort here to turn this thread from name-calling, easy finger-pointing and various other blame games. Let's have some stories about kids and tools or lethal weapons!