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Toy gun, or not to toy gun?
Earlier this week, I presented a pro-gun argument against purchasing toy guns…but given that TMC hasn’t started their A Christmas Story marathon yet, I’m shelving the “you’ll shoot your eye out” argument for now. Today, I’d like to present the pro-gun case for purchasing toy guns for the kiddos on your Christmas list, and I’d like to start with…A Christmas Story.
If you haven’t seen the 1983 classic, then I just don’t know you anymore (sob). In it, young Ralphie longs for nothing more for Christmas than “an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle.” Of course, everyone he tells about his obsession replies that he’ll shoot his eye out. What’s ironic about this is that Daisy Outdoor Products has, over its 125+ years in business, probably done more to promote firearms safety than any other company out there, simply by virtue of being the first introduction that most of us get in how to handle a real firearm. Now, Daisy has never wavered from their stance that BB guns are not toys, nor should they. But the idea that letting a child own and handle something that looks–however superficially–like a gun is detrimental to that kid’s safety is given the lie by the Daisy BB guns we all grew up on.
Back to real, actual toy guns–ones that don’t shoot a projectile more serious than water or foam-rubber. The first thing to remember about any toy is that they’re really just props. Toys are placeholders for a child’s imagination, a physical object onto which they can overlay their fantasy play. And by that definition, very few things cannot be repurposed into a toy by a determined child. And when said determined child wishes to play a game that involves guns, it really doesn’t matter much if their parents won’t let them have a plastic gun. They’ll just break off a stick into an L, or chew a breakfast pastry into a gun shape. (By the way, if you’re up to date with your blood-pressure medications and you delight in getting really angry, you should check out that link.) So, unless you enjoy finding bits of bark or stale crumbs all over your house, you might as well shell out the $10 and get the toy gun anyway.
Finally, my favorite reason to purchase toy guns for the kids in our lives, if they want one: It’s a terrific first lesson in critical thinking. After all, the school has them for 6-8 hours a day, and during that time, they’re forbidden to so much as draw a stick figure holding a gun. And yet, they come home, look at their toy gun and realize that its presence hasn’t turned them into a murderer…just like a real gun won’t.
Trace, a proud Special Farces who goes commando, is dedicated to pubic service. Although he’s a legend among YouTube commenters, he actually began life as a humble dingleberry farmer. Now, no subject is too moist or sensitive for his incisive odor and scintillating lymph nodes.
Doug says
So much crazy crap these days. S9 many looking to put blame on things with the goal of taking away the choices and rights of others. For centuries kids have played with toy/fake weapons without mass murders. As kids we watched marshal Dillon and the Cartrights gun down many bad guys in the name of good and justice without the mass hysteria over guns. And the video game thing, I used to be an avid gamer along with others and we played the first person shooters and none of us got the desire to run out and kill (but it did make some always wonder about hidden supplies in walls and ductwork), The problem is with the sickness of today’s society, the lack of shame, the lack of pride in doing a good job, the desire to get on the something for nothing game like welfare and disability. It is also due to mental illness being called normal choice and things like the promotion of the urban scum bag culture. Also the constant promotion of anger by the media and people and groups that use it to control people and opinions. It is the constant division used to promote anger that is used to prompt people to support those that claim they will protect and save the supposedly oppressed groups.