How do you keep kids from fetishizing guns after they’ve been indoctrinated that guns are fun? And do you ever wonder how that happened in the first place?

Well, for Baby Boomers at least, it was widespread acceptance in the form of realistic replicas that actually shoot. I have three of these Crossman replica Colt 45s that I received as gifts when I was a kid. I had hidden them away for decades, but last week they reappeared as though some irretrievably lost valuable. Is it the design of weapons that makes them so desirable or the advertising and propaganda that is the trigger of the gun’s appeal? We are a nation of guns because there is some inexplicable urge to hold, aim and shoot that was nurtured in us before we had a chance to learn otherwise.