I'm still haunted by a cartoon I saw some 30 years ago. A clean- cut man in a business suit stands next to his wife. She's pushing a baby carriage and holding the hand of a little boy. They're all peering into a jail cell.

The man says, "It's looks so nice and safe in there."

I'm also haunted by something else. According to the most current report of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (based on 1996 data):

A couple of weeks ago I remarked that I didn't know much about gun control. Well, since then, I've been doing some reading. In the process I've learned some things that the NRA doesn't want you to know. Here they are.

Every one talks about "the right to bear arms." There's much speculation about just what the Founders of this great nation had in mind.

Well, there are two theories, and neither one of them is what you'd expect.

Several years ago, I served on something called the Colorado Library Card Committee.

I once read that it was the custom among the leaders of certain Plains Indian tribes to exchange sons. The exchange lasted from the ages of 8 through adulthood. The sons guaranteed peace -- who would attack his own children?

The practice also bespoke the willingness of tribal leaders to pass on to their own children the lifestyles and perspectives of former enemies.