This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." — 1 Corinthians 13:11

That is one verse of the Bible that Utahns, faithful and otherwise, ought to heed. Our childish things — or, more often, our childish ways of playing with adult things — are getting us in a lot of trouble.

For years, one of the most hotly debated arguments in the state, especially in the rural areas, has been between the childish and the responsible over the issue of large, noisy and destructive toys. The long-running dispute is between the federal government and environmental groups on one side and some local officials and off-highway vehicle enthusiasts on the other.

You can listen all day long to the arguments of those who willfully ignore the legal ownership of federal land, who are clueless about the biological truth of the supposed "moonscapes" of land that, like just about every other square foot on the planet, are not lifeless and not independent of the surrounding ecosphere.

No matter what language they use, what laws they quote or principles they try to stand on, every argument they make decodes the same way: "We wanna play with our toys, gol durn it."

The same has been true this summer, as the Second Amendment right to bear arms for self-defense was turned into a right to play with deadly toys.

It became undeniable that more than a few of the many wildfires that broke out in the Utah underbrush were sparked by target shooters who had gone out into the wilderness to shoot at cans and bottles. A well-regulated militia they were not.

Yet any hint that Gov. Gary Herbert or any other state official might acquire or exercise the common-sense power to ban target shooting for the duration of the fire danger was shot down as a clear and present danger to the Bill of Rights.

Bunk. These firebugs were out playing with their toys. Nothing more. Neither the threat of internal rebellion nor the spectre of foreign invasion was going to be any larger if folks put their guns away for a few weeks.

Meanwhile, other yahoos were out playing with fireworks, which clearly have no claim to constitutional protection, engaging in the same kind of destructive foolishness.

More and more, though, it appears the danger of adults with toys is not limited to rural areas or toys propelled by combustion.

The Utah Transit Authority is running ads and turning whole TRAX cars into billboards to warn folks that paying too much attention to the phone call, Angry Birds or iTunes song on your smartphone is a common cause of injuries and fatalities involving TRAX trains. They've even created a new class of misdemeanor — distracted walking — and tried to get the Legislature to allow them to make it an offense carrying a hefty fine.

Meanwhile, there are news reports of a mother arrested for using an iPhone to take nude photos of her 13-year-old daughter and send them to some creepy adult. The daughter asked her mom to take the photos, we are told, because she couldn't figure out how to make the gizmo work.

Also, guns that their owners probably intended for the legitimate self-defense of home and hearth get used as toys — as the toddler who killed himself with his grandfather's pistol — or are employed by adults with a child's level of self-control — as the mother facing criminal charges for allegedly pointing a loaded handgun at her own child and threatening to kill him.

Toys are for children. Adults need to know when to put these things away.

George Pyle, a Tribune editorial writer, has been so busy playing with Twitter (@debatestate) and Facebook (facebook.com/stateofthedebate) that he almost forgot to write this column.