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This probably won't come as a surprise to very many, but did you know that 25% of young people injured in assaults own guns ? According to Michelle Healy at usatoday.com, "Among young people ages 14 to 24 who received care in a hospital emergency department for assault-related injuries, 23% said they owned a firearm in the past six months." Even worse, only 17% of those who said they owned guns got them legally, says the report, in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics , published online today, Healy reports. Almost 700 young people who sought care at a major trauma center in Flint, Mich., were surveyed by the  University of Michigan Injury Center for the study.  About 14% were younger than age 18, and "32% had children of their own," Healy notes the shocking facts. Not surprisingly, "those with firearms were more likely to use illegal drugs, have been involved in a serious fight, and to endorse the position that 'revenge was a good thing...

At first I was furious.  PBS opens its special on rampage killers with a source placing possible blame on distant mothers.  Then the series broadened its investigation into mass murderers who were bullied as kids, didn't fit in, yet who, poignantly, longed to be accepted. And to be known. What I found truly disturbing were the mug shots of young killers.  Their eyes were all like Adam Lanza's, bizarrely wide-open and staring. According to the show, the majority of young rampage killers kill themselves. But not before, as in some cases, like Columbine, recording their profound depression and wish to die.  Are these kids we can save?  No one knows.  But the brains of people who are depressed do show physical differences, Miles O'Brien reported in the PBS special.  Researchers use a test that asks participants to identify colors on the screen when they don't match the words.  For example, the word "red" may appear in bl...