I grew up with guns. Along with my boyhood pals, I grew up coveting, collecting and running wild with guns. "Let's play guns!" was our sham battle cry during those innocent years, the 1940s and '50s. While girls were jumping rope and playing jacks, we boys were shooting up the neighborhood. Depending on the season, we were just as likely to have been playing baseball, basketball or football. But "guns" was our sport for all seasons, fair weather and foul, indoors and out. From prekindergarten years until adolescence, guns had a powerful grip on our imaginations and our sporting lives,...