OUT OF CONTROL

Before the pro and anti gun control lobbies take over the debate on this
latest horrible shooting of a child by a child in Michigan, let's look at
the reality. Police say the 6-year-old boy who killed Grade 1 classmate
Kayla Rolland, 6, with a .32-calibre handgun, lived in a flophouse where
crack cocaine was often traded for weapons.

He reportedly found the stolen, loaded gun in a bedroom, under some blankets.

His father, 29, had been in jail since Feb. 20 for alleged parole violation
involving a burglary, according to the Genesee County sheriff.

The father told police his son liked to watch violent movies and TV shows
and had been previously suspended from Buell Elementary School, where the
shooting took place, for fighting and stabbing a girl with a pencil. The
father said when he asked his son why he fought with other children, the
boy told him he hated them.

The boy, his mother and a brother were staying with his uncle, after the
mother was recently evicted from her home. The uncle has now been arrested
on an outstanding felony warrant.

Police said they found drugs in the home and a stolen 12-gauge shotgun and
described the house as often filled with strangers.

A man who lived there and was believed to have possessed the handgun the
boy eventually used, later surrendered to police. Given all these
circumstances, we find it bizarre that so many are obsessing about the
issue of gun control in this case. Gun control?

Surely that's the last issue to be addressed here. The first is the issue
of adult and parental responsibility for this child.

As for comparisons to Canada and our own ongoing gun registration
controversy, they are irrelevant to this case. Yes, the U.S. is a far more
violent society than ours. But there are historical and cultural
differences between us that explain that. Our stricter gun control laws are
simply an example of how we differ from the U.S., not the reason we're
different as some claim.

Finally, Canada has had handgun registration for decades, which probably
wouldn't have stopped this killing anyway. (What Ottawa is now registering
are long guns and rifles.) This tragedy is not at its roots about gun
control at all, but about a lack of control by adults. It's about a boy who
became a victim of, as the prosecutor described it, "a drug culture and a
house that's really in chaos." That's the root issue here, not gun control.

Let's not pretend otherwise.