Two teens were wounded yesterday, one of them critically, in a classroom in California when a gun went off accidentally. The weapon, perhaps concealed in a backpack next to a bologna sandwich and a geography textbook, belonged to a high school student. 

Each year, around 5,000 children and teens lose their lives to a firearm. Some deaths are accidental, others result from minors playing with firearms, some youths become the targets of stray bullets, and a thousand commit suicide. 

Every one of those needless deaths is a tragedy that, after the shots ring out, becomes buried in the silence of daily life. And that silence is an accomplice in the devaluing of human life before the power of those who benefit from the sale of firearms, and the cultural distortions that have made the gun an untouchable idol.  

For years now the issue of gun control has been absent from the national political agenda. Now, after the recent slaughter in Tucson, Arizona, some members of Congress have raised their voices and cautiously suggested tangential solutions like prohibiting the sale of cartridges with more than 10 bullets for semi-automatic pistols. 

While it is certain that there would have been fewer casualties if Jared Loughner had to reload his Glock pistol after 11 shots instead of the 31 that he released in 15 seconds, that type of remedy is simply a band-aid that wouldn't stop the hemorrhage.

The source of all the bloodshed can be traced to the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right to bear arms. But nobody dares to suggest that it's time to amend the Second Amendment and prohibit the sale of firearms, except to hunters and sportsmen after they pass tests on how to safely use them and a thorough background check of medical and criminal records. 

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is one of the strongest lobbying organizations and well supplied with funding to buy votes in Congress and thereby hinder any sort of law that could restrict easy access to firearms of all types. Behind the NRA checkbook are millions of dollars from companies that manufacture firearms. 

With advances in technology and the international black market, anybody can obtain guns designed for warfare. Seeing how things are going, proponents of the Second Amendment will soon demand the right to own bazookas and nuclear bombs along with the rifles, pistols, and machine guns in their basements.  

The NRA opposes any type of gun control on the grounds that "weapons don't kill, people do." One could say the same thing about automobiles, but laws exist that require safety measures during their construction, that set speed limits to transit through roads, and require the use of seatbelts.  

We should be using common sense and responsibility when it comes to the purchase and sale of firearms. We are living in the 21st century and John Wayne is dead.

We must save the children.