What can be legitimately called am assault rifle is a fully automatic — a machine gun. Such weapons have been restricted from civilian ownership since 1934.

The boy’s mother owned guns. There is nothing to indicate that she was either “clueless” or had a “gun fetish.” Since she owned guns, she taught her children how to use them, which is the correct thing to do. Did she have a gun safe? Did she keep them under lock and key? We don’t know. Did the boy have the key or the combination, we don’t know.She was apparently trying to get help for her son— which is what set him off.

The right to own and use weapons is guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Many people own guns because they enjoy shooting at a range, want guns for protection, or because they hunt. Shooting is an Olympic sport. I had been taught how to shoot by the time I was 6 or 7.

An attack on little helpless schoolchildren is especially heartrending, and everyone who has children can imagine sending their kid off to school and having something like this happen, and God knows we want to do something to prevent such things. Newtown has voted to put armed guards in each school. Most large schools seem to have something called school resource officers, certainly one could be trained to act as a guard. That seems to be the best chance we have.