"This is a part of the country where it's unusual if a child doesn't grow up going out with dad and granddad to go hunting, and maybe using some very powerful weapons," said Bill Sadler, an Arkansas State Police spokesman. "People enjoy their hunting privileges, and they say they don't want something like this to ruin those privileges."

Here, father-son deer hunts are a rite of passage, with children too young to drive toting shotguns into the woods. Many people own not one gun, but five or six.