Children, schools and weaponsWeapons. The word itself conjures images of bloodshed and death. Yet, instead of instilling fear in people, American society has embraced guns and placed them in numerous homes under the guise of protection. Add children to this image. Children and guns should never have any association, yet it has become somewhat commonplace due to numerous incidents involving the two. For ages 10 to 19, firearms are the second leading cause of death, after car accidents, in America. Of the 5,751 deaths in 1993, 3,661 were homicides while 1,460 were suicides. One American in that age group dies every 92 minutes, regardless of the cause, and for every child killed, four are injured. Between 1996 and 1997, 6,000 schoolchildren were expelled for bringing weapons to school. (http://www.handguncontrol.org/) In April 1999, two teenagers from Littleton, Colorado, went on a rampage at Columbine High School where 12 students and a teacher were killed. Nearly 20 other students were injured during this incident. They turned the guns on themselves once the shooting ended. Then, in May, a 15-year-old boy opened fire at Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia, wounding six students. He had taken a rifle and a pistol from a gun cabinet in his home. (http://www.angelfire.com/wa) In May 1998, in Springfield, Oregon, a 15-year-old expelled from Thurston High School returned to school and opened fire in the cafeteria, killing two students. His parents were later found shot dead in their home, believed to have been killed by their son. The latest shooting occurred in Michigan last February, where a six-year-old boy shot and killed a classmate. Kayla Rolland, 6, was shot in the neck and died later at the hospital. The boy was entrusted to the care of his aunt, lived in a house where weapons were within easy reach and drugs were exchanged for stolen weapons. The six-year-old boy, suspended from school three times before the shooting, once for stabbing a student with a pencil, reached for the loaded gun from under some blankets on a bed in the house where he lived. One would imagine that after all these needless deaths, gun laws would be revised to ensure that guns are kept out of the reach of children. In America, the Brady Law states that anyone under the age of 21 cannot legally purchase firearms from licensed dealers. There is, however, a loophole where young people between the ages of 18 and 21 can purchase firearms from private or unlicensed dealers.