Page Two

Guns Galore

The more guns, the more shootings, the more massacres. In the United States a gunman sprays a hundred rounds from a rapid-fire assault rifle into a crowd of schoolchildren: 5 dead, 29 wounded. In England a crazed man slaughters 16 people with an AK-47 assault rifle. In Canada a man who hates women goes to Montreal University and kills 14 of them. In San Salvador guards patrol supermarket aisles with shotguns, and shoppers are required to check their weapons at the door.

More women are now buying guns. They flock to the pistol and rifle ranges, squeezing off round after round of ammunition into life-​size target posters of men, putting bullet holes right between their eyes. Special designer pistols for women are selling well.

And don’t leave out the children. One case of many: A ten-​year-​old boy “loaded his father’s high-​powered hunting rifle and shot to death a girl who had bragged that she was better than him at video games.”

The domestic arms race is on. Where will it end? When will it end?