The recent school shootings in Littleton, Colo., and Conyers, Ga., have highlighted the potential for children to commit violent acts. Since February 1996, there have been seven such highly publicized shootings across the country. The perpetrators were all described as depressed, white males between the ages of 11 and 18. In the aftermath, we wonder about their lives, their psychological makeup and how they were raised.

But what about younger children who might not exhibit any "telltale" signs of aggression? Would a preschooler pick up a gun and shoot another child or himself? According to Marjorie Hardy, assistant professor of psychology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., the answer is yes -- especially if your child is a boy.

In 1995 and 1996, she and her students conducted studies in Charlotte, N.C., to determine how best to prevent young children from playing with guns. By educating the children, all between the ages of 4 and 7, they expected to cause them to steer clear of guns. Instead, when left together in a room with a real, unloaded gun, as well as toys and other familiar items, 65 percent of the 130 children in the studies played with the weapon. Only 35 percent went to find an adult when they saw the gun, and they were mostly girls. In May 1999, three years later, Hardy's study was re-created at her son's day-care facility by ABC's "20/20." The results were the same.

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Why did these children play with guns? Perhaps it was simply because they were told not to. Critics of Hardy's studies have pointed out that the children were tempted to play with guns because it was a safe setting -- their day care. But many children commit crimes each year using guns found in their own homes -- another supposedly safe place.

Hardy has concluded that education alone is not enough to deter kids from playing with guns. She suggests that parents monitor their children more closely and set parameters for their behavior. But even that may not be sufficient: When Hardy's own 4-year-old son was faced with the chance to play with a gun, he did. Afterwards, he lied about it. Salon Mothers Who Think spoke to Hardy by phone to find out more about her studies and why she thinks kids play with guns.

What was the purpose of the studies you and your students conducted in 1995 and 1996?

We set out to try to decrease children's fascination and playing with guns. In the first study, we had 60 kids. Half the kids listened to a policeman talk about the dangers of guns and the other half didn't. Then we put them together to see if the ones who'd heard about the danger of guns could persuade the ones that hadn't heard not to play with the guns. What we found was that it didn't work. Just hearing a policeman talk about the dangers of guns wasn't sufficient.

In the second study [of 70 different children] we thought maybe they needed more education. We spent five days educating them about how to make good choices, how to be assertive without being aggressive, how to resist peer pressure. There was a lot of positive feedback when they role-played these situations. Then we videotaped them again, and again we found that it didn't make a difference.

The bottom line from the educational standpoint is that education alone is not sufficient to deter children from playing with guns.

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