It was the year 2015, and people were lined up to visit the Holocaust Museum on the Mall in Washington. No, not the one that commemorated the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis in World War II. This museum was built to honor all those killed by guns in the United States.
The father held his young son's hand. They stopped to read the names of thousands of men, women and children who had been slaughtered by lethal weapons in the past 10 years."How many people were killed by guns in America?" the boy asked.
"Four million, although the pro-gun revisionists maintain that only a million were shot. They claim the rest died of natural causes in emergency rooms."
"Were the people who got shot good or bad?"
"Both," the father replied. "The bad people shot the good people. The good people bought guns to shoot the bad people, but most of the time they shot each other."
"Did we know what was going on?"
"Of course, we knew. But we could not get effective laws passed to keep guns out of the hands of people because the National Rifle Association said everyone had a constitutional right to own one."
The next room featured a large mural showing wounded people lying on the floor of a supermarket. Two masked men were spraying them with bullets.
The little boy looked puzzled.
The father explained, "Those who owned guns became so bold that they just went into a supermarket and shot everyone in it. This painting commemorates a famous incident in which 67 people were shot down for no reason at all."
"Where did all the guns come from?"
"Some were imported, but many more were manufactured right here in the United States. The importers and manufacturers used to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to congressional and local politicians to make sure that no laws were passed limiting the sale of guns."
The next room featured a film of teenagers shooting at each other in the inner city. The father told his son, "This is real film of a gun battle between two gangs. The fight started when one of the gang members parked his motorcycle in the rival gang's neighborhood."
After the film was over - during which 178 people were killed - the father and son entered a room with hundreds of different weapons on display.
"In 1994 anybody could buy one of these as long as he had a driver's license."
The little boy's eyes glistened as he examined the assorted firearms. "I wish I could have one," he whispered.
"They have all been banned."
"When did that happen?"
"In 1994 a deranged man sneaked into Congress and killed 400 members - many of them big gun supporters. The anti-gun people finally had enough of a majority to pass a gun control bill."