After Another School Shooting, Doing My Best to Parent in a Scary World

Since last week’s shooting at Umpqua Community College, I’ve been thinking a lot about the problem of gun violence in our country. This isn’t a typical topic for me, but of all the things that we worry about as parents, this should probably be among the top of our list.

My 4-year-old daughter, Cee, is full of questions, and she looks to me to help her understand the world. Why was the moon was so red on the night of the lunar eclipse? How do our eyes work to let us see? Can Mary Poppins reall...