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Parents who own guns should begin educating children about them at an early age (want to show a kid why he shouldn't play with guns? Load a pistol with Hydra-Shok rounds and shoot a watermelon, I've heard first-hand accounts of people being hit with chunks 50 yards away.) Even though they learn about them, and may even shoot a kid's .22 at the range, the guns should not, under any circumstances, be unsecured and accessible to the child until he is well into the teenage years. Even if your child owns a gun for hunting or target shooting (giving someone a gun for self-defense under 18 is a bad idea, especially in less gun-friendly state,) they should go in the family gun safe until he is no longer a minor, at which point the parents should decide whether their child is responsible enough to store his own guns safely.
If you buy a minor a gun (and it is legal, not a straw purchase as the DA in this case is trying to claim,) you are responsible, ethically and (hopefully) legally for anything they do with it. If you have such a vague idea of what your child is doing in his spare time that he is building pipe bombs, as the kid in this case was, then neither you nor your child should be trusted with guns or anything sharper than a banana. If your child exhibits warning signs of future violent behavior, get him to a psychiatrist.
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