Article: A boy, a gun and the death of a squirrel.(Originated from Knight Ridder Newspapers)

AUSTIN, Texas _ In the days that have passed since two adolescent boys fatally shot five people in a small Arkansas town, my mind has often wandered back to a similar place, if not a similar time.

In the small town of my youth, we boys spent a great deal of time with guns in our hands, roaming the fields and bayous of Southeast Texas, hunting, target-shooting _ whatever. Generally speaking, we were armed.

I say this with neither pride nor shame. To us, carrying a gun was as natural as holding a fishing pole or, for that matter, a school textbook.

We collected guns without even trying, receiving them as Christmas gifts and birthday ...

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