Born into cowboy culture, these kids tend to be trigger-happy

In a country where the wilderness is still readily accessible and pioneer tales are passed down through the generations, firearms retain an important place in many homes. Rifles, shotguns and handguns many of them family heirlooms are often proudly displayed above a fireplace or in an ornate cabinet.

In many rural areas, the first day of hunting season is a school holiday and some schools even teach hunting as an optional class. Boysand girls learn to shoot for more effective public safety measures.

Each state or community has the right to enact laws making it difficult to obtain a weapon, but the laws must not infringe on the constitutional right to own a firearm. Only convicted criminals and mentally ill people can be prevented from legally owning firearms.

The National Rifle Association, an influential political and social organization that advocates gun ownership as an American value, reports that between 60 and 65 million private citizens own guns.

The NRA estimates there more than 230 million guns in the United States, including firearms for police, gun clubs and other groups and agencies.

Independent government statistics are not available because efforts to require gun owners to register their weapons have failed in most states. Background checks are only required when purchasing handguns or military weaponry.

The widespread availability of firearms has tragic consequences. The only requirement to purchase a rifle orshotgun is to be at least 18 years old. In some states, such as Texas, a person can obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun by simply passing a criminal record check.

The tradition of gun ownership is not without critics. Hundreds of local, regional and national gun control organizations attempt each year to pass tougher laws, but often with little success.

Meanwhile, many European newspapers prominently covered the school shooting with some blaming what they called lax gun control in a lawless land.

"What kind of society breeds killers like these?" screamed a headline in The Express, a mass-circulation London daily. The story laid much of the onus on violent Hollywood films and the National Rifle Association, the US group that campaigns against gun control legislation.

Britain has had its own mass shootings most infamously the 1996 massacre in Dunblane, a Scottish town where 16 kindergarten children were gunned down in a school gymnasium by an adult. That attack prompted Britain to outlawhandguns.

It has also had juvenile killers. In 1993, two 10-year-old boys tormented and killed 2-year-old James Bulger, a slaying that shocked the nation.

The British Mirror newspaper noted parallels between the Arkansas and Scottish shootings and reported condolences that parents in Dunblane sent Wednesday to grieving parents in Jonesboro, Arkansas. "My Rambo grandson,"proclaimed a headline in the Mirror. "He’d a gun in hand before he could walk," read another.

In general, gun control laws are much stricter in Europe than in the United States. "The law allows children to shoot," read a headline in Der Standard of Vienna, Austria, noting that Arkansas allows minors to own rifles and shotguns.

More children shot dead in Arkansas

"These were murders, we are conducting an appropriate investigation,"said captain Ken Slocum of the Jefferson County Sheriff Department near the town of Redfield, where the killings occurred.

The bodies of the five victims were found in a mobile home late on Wednesday after sheriff’s deputies responded to a call for help from the area from relatives of the victims, Slocum said.