HERE ARE THE HIGH SCHOOL GUN PHOTOS!

[hunter]

229. It's my name.

I hunt for a lot of things too, even food sometimes, but I don't need a gun for that, especially since I'm vegetarian most days. My environmental footprint is smaller that way. It would be silly for me to rant about hunting for dinner if I'm not ranting about meat in the supermarket.

I'm not a stranger to gun culture but I've decided not to participate in it.

Mostly I don't believe teenagers ought to be forming their personal identities around dangerous objects like guns or cars. It's better they be mastering a musical instrument, cooking, or some other art.

Personally, as a teen I was building home brew rockets and computers. The sort of rockets I built were not something that I, as a parent, would approve of because a rocket becomes a bomb or unguided missile when things go wrong. Fortunately I didn't do any major damage to people or property, but a few times that was dumb luck. My kids, adult twenty-somethings now, simply didn't go in that direction.

My siblings and I were just as dangerous with guns, cars, and motorcycles. My kids only did idiot things with cars.

One can lecture teenagers about safety, deny them use of the family car or guns when they do something dangerous and stupid with them, but it's quite clear that high school kids are not yet fully developed and tend to act as if they are immortal.