Editor, Gazette-Journal:

A little boy in Hayden, Idaho, will grow up never knowing his mother. Whether he will even recall having killed her is unlikely. She was carrying a handgun in her purse and had a permit to do so, so one must assume she had demonstrated basic gun safety and use to be permitted to carry.

One has to then ask the obvious—how was her 2-year-old son able to shoot and kill her with it? Did the weapon have a safety and, if it did, why was it off? If it was a revolver, why wasn’t it chambered empty? There will be no firm conclusions because the gun owner is now dead.

Almost anyone in this country can buy a gun. In many states we can now carry it, concealed. What is not a given is that gun owners will use basic common sense when it comes to handling or carrying them.

Young children are curious. They love sticking their hands into pockets and purses, glove boxes and drawers. A gun fired on TV or in a video game has no consequences; one fired in real life c...