Part II of the essay presents the factual foundation for concerns about increasing youth gun use. It compares recent trends with prior patterns and discusses some of the ways that current conditions are unprecedented for students of firearms violence and juvenile crime. Part III considers some of the data that are required to make intelligent choices in the design of countermeasures for the misuse of guns by minors. Because most of the relevant data are currently unavailable, the second half of Part III presents a series of best-guesses about the peculiar circumstances associated with guns and juveniles in the 1990's. Part IV shows that the same qualities of irresponsibility that justify laws prohibiting minors from acquiring weapons that are freely available to adults should also limit the amount of punishment that can be administered to those young offenders who violate the prohibition. Thus, it is more effective to limit juvenile's access to guns than to hope to deter them from gun ownership and use by increasing the severity of punishment after they have already possessed or used a gun. 3 figures, 1 table, and 17 notes