When major tragedies erupt, people ask questions -- as when two boys under 14 in Arkansas allegedly go on a killing spree. But focusing on what's wrong with young people today won't necessarily tell us what we need to know. The better question is what's wrong with adults? PNS associate editor A. Clay Thompson is a freelance journalist and co-editor of The Beat Within, a weekly writing program for incarcerated youth run by Pacific News Service.

What the hell is wrong with our adults?

In the wake of the Arkansas school massacre -- along with similar serious incidents of school violence elsewhere -- adults around the nation are casting their eyes heavenward, furrowing their brows, asking why the kids are so not all right. That's the wrong question. We need to flip the script.

Of course kids can do horrible things. Part of childhood is throwing tantrums, making bad decisions, dealing with the consequences of lost self-control. It used to be that boys put gum in their sister's hair, threw rocks through the neighbor's window. That was before adults began supplying 11 year-olds with weapons of mass destruction.

We are the ones who manufacture guns and ammo and teach our children how to aim. We are the ones who've decided to make assault rifles and machine guns and semi-automatic handguns ubiquitous. We are the ones who leave them in places kids can get them. In many cases adults sell firearms to kids. In the poor Oakland neighborhood where I lived for years, it isn't uncommon to see 12 year-olds toting semi-automatic handguns. We've got to ask why we adults continue to give guns to teens and pre-teens.

Behind every youth using a gun to terrorize, wound and kill is an adult who supplied the gun. We don't trust kids with aspirin -- note the childproof lid -- or alcohol. Yet guns, that most lethal American substance, seem to find their way into the backpacks and lockers of more and more youth.

The media miss this point. Stories on the Arkansas tragedy replayed gory scenes of dying children and let us know how many school kids are killing, but failed to ask where Johnny got his gun.

Politicians like Pete Wilson, California's governor who has called for executing 14 year-olds, are equally clueless. In the last few years, 47 states, including California, have made it easier to try kids as adults for some crimes. The logic seems to be that society must make teens pay for the mistakes of youth -- instead of going after the people who make the drive-bys and school yard massacres possible. And so, increasingly, when kids make terrible, mortal decisions, they are facing adult prison. The Arkansas massacre will offer another opportunity for politicians to stump for get-tough-on-youth-crime legislation.

Youth are now the ultimate 'Other.' A crew of urban teens strutting down the street fills the average middle-aged folk with fear. An angry pre-teen bringing an AK-47 to class is a mother's worst nightmare. The kid in the bedroom -- our own home -- has turned against us.

The authorities confirm those fears. Legislation pending in Washington would give hundreds of millions of dollars to states that lock up teens with adult prisoners. Studies searching for a genetic explanation for youth violence have received more millions in funding. Already youth in California serve terms 60 percent longer than adults who commit the same crimes.

A couple hours from Jonesboro, Arkansas, is West Memphis, Arkansas -- the site of the gruesome triple slaying covered in a feature documentary called "Paradise Lost." Three teenage boys were tried and convicted of killing and mutilating three smaller boys. The case riveted Arkansas. The film won national acclaim and raised the question whether the teenagers got a fair trial. But townspeople interviewed seemed to have only one thought on their mind -- how teenagers--children -- could do something so horrible to other children. "These kids killing and cutting up other kids are truly possessed," people seemed to say.

But to arm yourself to the hilt with massive firepower and go on a killing spree is distinctly grown up. We do it all the time. And our kids know it.