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.
molon labe
That reminds me.. it is getting harder and harder to find good toy guns these days. Anybody know of a source for quality toy guns? My husband bought some good looking ones at a gun show last year, but they turned out to be cheap Chinese crap and broke right away.
Yep, these people have the logic of a 6 year old.
“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.”
You mean they are not contributing to the gun violence in Philadelphia? AMAZING!!! And I bet not one of your sons would dare call his wife a Bitch or a Ho either.
It is really hard to believe that even liberals minded people can be this stupid and so devoid of common sense about children and playing and most importantly how to deal with crime, especially in a city like Philly where the crime rate is completely out of control.
One can have legitimate concerns about how guns are controlled and how toy guns affect society as whole, but to be this stupid simply shows we are ripe for a Coup d'état as a nation
Violent crime is way down. If its up in Philly, that is not because of toy guns.
William H. Mackey
Age: 45
Family: Single parent of one son, who will be 3 in September
Profession: Executive director of the Citywide Youth Leadership Agency
Who was your greatest influence on your role as a father?
“I always looked up to John Street, before he was the mayor, when he was the rabble-rouser about 30 years ago. He was the kind of person who used to do a lot of things with his kids and all, and I think that kind of parenting, it showed leadership.”
What lessons did you learn from your past?
A recovering drug addict, Mackey has a long criminal record that includes thefts and DUIs. “We have a lot of folks right now who are in leadership positions who are recovering drug addicts. People are coming home from prison, but they can’t vote for three years....They can’t get certain jobs because of their background. I think what I’ve been through, my trials and tribulations — I think that’s why I was nominated. People who knew what I’ve been through in life can respect me when they see me with my son.”
I would say that at least locally the opposite is occurring. Ten Years ago toy guns were nonexistant even (especially?) in the big box stores. This year Ive already found a number of stores with extensive arsenals to choose things from and the shelves are clearing fast...
Take Christ out of Christmas and blame the toys...
LOL
Our children had toy guns. We also had real weapons in the house. The children knew the difference.
We bought one of our sons some of the Airsoft replicas. Musta worked, he was always the top shooter or #2 shooter in his FAST Team.
He and a bunch of his buds (all Iraq combat vets) still get together and play Airsoft games - gotta keep that skill ser up to speed.....
Public hanging for gang related murders would cure this ill in about tens to twelve weeks.
If you had to distill liberalism into one sentence, this is a pretty good one.
**sigh** I think you are dead right. If Clinton gets in, we’ll get pushed to anarchy.
Yessir you got it !...Schools are churning out barbarians with each graduating class...they feed on gory movies, violent computer games, and tons of bad stuff thrown at them on tv....
What? Are Philly's kids loading blood into their waterguns?
And sticks too. Before we could afford toy guns we used sticks as if they were toy guns.
Try a good Sporting Goods store...
Stick um up!!
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