Posted on 11/13/2007 2:21:10 PM PST by Daffynition
City Wide Youth Leadership Agency's William Mackey spends a lot of time talking about toys, but he isn't playing around.
He and other anti-violence advocates believe children playing with fake guns can potentially turn into a game of life or death, and Mackey's group is dedicated to boycotting stores who carry them.
"This is very, very important," Mackey said. "Philadelphia's streets are a bloodbath."
With the holiday season right around the corner -- and people already shopping for presents -- Mackey and his friends want stores that carry toy guns to hear their message.
He and others promise to not only boycott the stores, but also protest in front of them.
Tim Furlong Reports
"The only thing I can say is we don't need the guns, not sold as toys, as water blasters, as BB guns; we don't need any of this stuff," parent Kevin Murphy said.
Mother Maureen Norris, of North Philadelphia, said she thinks the boycott is a great idea because she doesn't buy them and she doesn't want stores to sell them.
"I never bought water guns, play guns, cap guns or nothing," Norris said.
Norris spoke to NBC 10's Tim Furlong as she and her young son headed into a city Toys 'R' Us store -- a good move for parents who want to avoid toy guns that look like the real thing. Toys 'R' Us, along with stores like Target and Wal-Mart, sell Nerf and laser-tag-type guns, but none that look like replica machine guns or Glocks.
Still, despite a September resolution from City Council asking stores to remove the guns from their shelves, some stores like KB Toys in the Franklin Mills Mall sell guns in all colors, shapes and sizes, including a realistic-looking machine gun and handgun purchased by Furlong.
William acknowledged that real guns are the real problem, but said even with the orange tip on fake guns, they are still sending the wrong message to kids in a troubled city.
These young people are brainwashed at such a young age with toy guns," Mackey said. "We must remove them.
"We will start this week boycotting stores in the city and the surrounding counties -- they must remove those toy guns off the shelves immediately," he shouted to supporters.
I buy them real guns, and I take them to the range and let them shoot them.
DITTO.
Well... they can suspend you for that, however.
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=43767
It is truly sad to see people trying to end violence without getting dirty.
Take away the toy guns and they’ll use their fingers or chicken nuggets or something else. I’ve even seen a Barbie used as a gun.
When I was growing up we were pretty poor...well in comparison at least. Us kids didn’t get toy guns but we did get lots of scrap lumber which was supposed to be fire wood. With a few nails we made plenty of toy guns...and some gnarly morning stars too (yea we got in trouble for the morning stars)
LOL! What a bunch of maroons.
If you want guns or gun violence, gun killing, gun worship, gun fetish, gun fantasy,, turn on a TV, any channel will do. Or watch a movie. Most any movie will do.
Most of the crap sold at toy stores are movie replicas or wannabe replicas of some weapon made famous in a movie.
Actually I am sort of in agreement with these people. Guns aren’t toys nor should kids play with guns like they are. Gun safety training should start at a young age.
The problem isn’t toy guns, or real guns, the problem is barbarians. This nation wasn’t intended, for barbarians, and this nation cannot work, with barbarians as the common denominator.
Stupid and insane are two different things. The fear of an inanimate object so profound that the sufferer cannot stand the sight of a picture or representation of the object is IMHO mental illness.
Hoplophobia, fear it.
Boy howdy........I wonder how I ever made it out of the 40’s? We played cowboy and Indians, cops and robbers, built forts and had a ball. We must have shot my buddys little brother a thousand times. He got to get shot a lot cause he was the youngest and he fell real good.
These people need to go get a real job some place so they have other things to worry about. Pretty soon they are going to take the kids bikes away from them because they might, just might, run over someone.
My six year old shot two clay birds from the automatic thrower this past weekend with his .410 shot gun, the number of attempts don’t matter. :) He also got his first squirrel last month. (shameless bragging over)
so it’s the fault of the “toy” that is responsible?????????
held fat-end against the front of the shoulder, a rifle;
held underarm, it was a submachine gun;
placed on top of the shoulder, it was a bazooka;
placed on a mound of dirt on the ground, it was a 50-caliber.
The first multi-purpose weapons system.
We bought all those toys and our kids played with them just fine. They KNEW they were toys and toys only. By the way, they grew up to be good, honest, law abiding citizens and good fathers.
“Guns aren’t toys nor should kids play with guns like they are.”
Is it OK for Kids to play with Toy Guns as if they were Toys?
The English writer Saki (H.H. Munro) made a similar observation nearly a hundred years ago in a short story published about the time this squishy PC crap started to enter the western mindset.
In the story a painfully politically correct set of parents have purchased all non-violent toys for their boys.
While their elders are having tea and bloviating about it all the boys are in the next room improvising blood out of red ink and restaging the latest Balkan or Armenian atrocities comitted by the Ottomans.
I had a friend who was adamant about not buying her son toy guns......he turned the bread in his sandwiches into toy guns, aimed at his sister, of course!
Not at a very young age. Learning responsibility is more important that entertainment. Doing otherwise automatically makes it sound like the first step in safely handling a gun is a joke.
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