I tried to keep my son from seeing a gun, or any depiction of one, for as long as possible. When we did finally happen across a drawing of a rifle just before he turned two, near the beginning of The Story of Babar when a hunter shoots and kills the elephant?s mother, I quickly turned the page and left his questions about the weapon unanswered. But it was unavoidable. Guns are littered across kids? movies?Yukon Cornelius brandishes a pistol to shoot the abominable snowman in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, for comic effect, and in Pixar?s Up the villain takes aim at the protagonists (one of them a child) with a vintage rifle. Meanwhile, there are guns in the hands of umpteen figurines in every toy store. I was recently shocked to find our local shop selling Playmobil?s ?Police Headquarters with Prison,? featuring cops with firearms and jail cells in which to put manacled convicts. My son is almost four now, and my heart sank a few months ago when he picked up a branch that had fallen from a tree and held it like a soldier would hold a rifle, informing me with great excitement: ?It sprays fire!? I suggested we pretend the stick was merely a spear, but he was unconvinced. And later, when my son wanted to put a toy ?bad guy? in jail and my wife gently lectured that ?there are no bad guys, only bad circumstances,? he didn?t want to go there.

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