“‘The replica guns are what’s dangerous,’ Moore said. They remind him of the toy cigarettes prevalent during his own childhood. ‘It was orienting kids to smoking. I think toy guns, in many ways, are doing the same thing.'” – Baltimore kids give up toy guns, get a prize — and a lesson on peaceful living [via baltimoresun.com]
I rather enjoyed toy cigs as a child, but miraculously didn’t end up a chain smoker.
Welcome to Reefer Madness: Guns Edition.
I remember th toy cigs too. Fun and delicious. But we all knew they weren’t real. Also didn’t turn into a smoker.
I also enjoyed the toy cigs as a kid and have never smoked. Growing up there was never a shortage of toy guns (even in Chicago) and I spent most of my time from about 10 – 14 with a genuine U.S. Marine Corps surplus Springfield 03 replica training rifle (what they now refer to in the military as a “rubber duck”), complete with a ceramic bayonet. Many hours of good times running around the neighborhood shooting at Japs and Nazis with that set-up.
And I did not grow up to be a gang-banger or mass murderer. Go figure.
And look at that, you didn’t get shot by the cops either. My grandfather biked across town with a real shotgun slung over his back and a bunch of shells in the handlebar basket to go shooting with friends. This was in suburban, south western Connecticut in the early 50’s. Nobody batted an eyelash at the sight of five teens on the sidewalk with an assortment of guns on their backs on their way to a shooting trip in the woods. In fact most people, cops included, smiled and waived.
I often tell people that until 1968, you could have guns delivered to your doorstep after signing a paper slip to certify you were 18 with a check in an envelope. The most common response I get is “Wow, I’m surprised kids weren’t forging dad’s checks left and right and ordering guns for themselves.” What does that say about how far American culture has plummeted?
You can see stuff like that even more recently. In 1998 lots of the kids in my high school had a gun in their truck for hunting after school during the various seasons, especially deer season. No one was ever shot or stabbed or anything even though we had guns on campus and everyone had a knife.
Then in the Spring of 1999 Columbine happened. Over that summer the legislature changed the law and that Fall, for weeks, the morning announcements reminded students that it was suddenly a felony to bring your deer rifle with you in your truck. It went downhill from there.
17 years ago guns were legal on my high school campus and nothing bad happened. The world sure has changed in terms of the mindset. I’m sure guns will not be legal again on a high school campus in Michigan during the my lifetime.
I’m still pissed about those candy cigarettes going away… although I occasionally still find ‘candy sticks’ that look an awful like they did except without the bit of red coloring on the end…
Do you have Mexican groceries in your town? They often have them.
I was always more of a big league chew kind of a kid.
If there was ever a cancer-meets-band-aid program for Baltimore this is it.
Add me to the list of those who had those candy cigs as recent as the 90’s and didn’t become a smoker either.
Yeah – I could see this happening in Baltimore.
The lesson on peaceful living is if the state is the only one with legal guns then there will be world peace, just look at all of the real world examples.
This made me chuckle. People can’t get their heads out of the sand to look at history–or even current events–for examples of this truth.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/pj-gladnick/2016/10/30/atlantic-magazine-accidentally-reveals-importance-second-amendment
Or perhaps it’s thug culture…but I guess you can’t have a meaningless “buyback” on that, can you?
No, you can’t buy back sky high illegitimate birth rates, irresponsible parenting, laziness or the glorification of gang violence.
Ah yes, the liberal chimera of art changing bad things in the world. The “surrendered” toy guns will go into a mosaic forming a peace sign. This will of course make all the gun-totin’ rubes, villains and ignorant children stop and say, “Well gee, I never thought of it that way.”
Seeing such a mosaic made from toy guns would make me stop and reflect on how the presence of guns in our society does in fact enable most of us to live a peaceful, orderly life. God bless those firearms.
And what little boy of his own free will trades a toy gun for a stuffed animal? One of my prized possessions as a child was a beautiful child-sized DBS made from real wood and metal that I got as a souvenir from Tweetsie RR. I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.
On the topic of children smoking Carlin nailed this whole thing back in the 1990’s.
Is there anything that Carlin and all the other dark comedy sages didn’t get right?
The role of the court jester has always been to point out the real truth of the situation, while making you laugh about how stupid it is. Carlin’s been drilling down on it since Class Clown.
I would tend to disagree with Carlin’s inclusion of gun enthusiasts in his routine on “people who should be killed”, and his characterization of NRA members as “dickless lunatics”.
He was a smart, funny dude, but he had some swings-and-misses.
Amazing all the memes and quotes folks use with anti-gun azzwholes feaatured. Carlin got very little “right” ….I also had candy cigarettes as a lad. I tried to smoke like all my friends but I never got hooked. Same with booze. And shot guns as a kid with my dad(and the boy scouts) and never shot anyone or robbed anyone…Cubs win!
Another cesspool of failed Liberal Progressive utopianism….Along with the fuzzy thinking Liberal Politicians, and Police…Hopefully, there police departments will follow suit in “real” community policing and “turn-in ” all their firearms, and weapons…For what’s good for citizenry…Is good for the police as well…..No special privileges!
It needs to be a Nationwide battlecry…Liberal progressive safety-police need to STFU ! You want preach civil disarmament! Then lead by example: “Disarm! NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT!” What’s good for the people is good for you as well…Personally, I believe it’s fine time we the people bring more scrutiny to the Law Enforcement community…Their in dire need of independent civilian oversight…We the people need to ban all police unions from public services…Full independent civilian review boards for ALL rank and File Police officers! No Tribunals, or “Law Enforcement officer’s Bill of Rights”. A gag-order/legal restrictions need to be put in place against police officers, or administration about engaging in political propaganda, politicking, or illicit infringement of We the People’s Bill of Rights…It’s time to takeback our government….
There are some excuses for LE to have carveouts. Here in TX our cops include combat boats equipped with twin MG mounts, dunno whether .30 or .50, for use against cartels smuggling drugs across the border. While I believe I should be able to buy all that (if I could afford it!), while we wait for that day our cops may actually need those toys. We’ve already had people playing with their jetskis murdered by machine gun on border lakes.
Well, now that you mention it…Texas certain qualifies as “another country” all together…I’m drawing my experience from the “Eastern Bloc/Police-safety states”. Such as ; Connecticut, NY, Maryland, NJ, Massachusetts, RI.,etc…Where Local/State Police have near, or absolute control over a residents 2nd amendment rights…Where draconian laws, and enforcement reign supreme…Where there is high amounts of “crime”, political, and police corruption…Where there is a significant amount of paramilitarizied police, and aggressive police traffic stops/or “so-called Terry stops—aka, stop, and frisks…”Where there is a “Soft-sell version of Authoritarianism ” present…Or our fellow Americans on the “left-coast” who suffer simlar issues…Unlike other “Free-States”. Where the 2nd amendment is respected, and background checks are indifferent…Not politically designed to intimidate the citizenry with hostile police bureaucracy, or infringements…..Where police are possibly courteous, uphold the rights of the citizens, and act with stewardship…as guardians…Not Black Beret *Sandinista Police Commandos*……[*Which of course, those guys became MS-13….]
Millions of kids all around the world have grown up with toy guns. This fact alone dispels the notion that kids playing with toy guns leads directly to inner city gang violence (or any violence for that matter).
The biggest danger of kids with toy guns now is of them being reported to the police by an overly concerned ‘safe space’ progressive type.
Teach kids to carry their toy guns concealed. Problem solved.
A former pastor once told the story of how he wouldn’t let his son have a toy gun, because he was against guns. Later, he saw his son in the yard, playing with his friends using a stick shaped like a gun.
That liberal pastor may have had an epiphany that day, but most of them will never figure it out.
Truth is we’re a warrior species. Back in the day you fought for what you wanted.
Progs just enjoy the whole social engineering thing. “We’re in power, let’s do this and that.” It combines and exercise of power with virtue signaling. Heck, maybe Bloomberg will even toss some dinero their way.
Social engineering ends in 8 days.
Oh, how I wish that were so. But the truth is, no matter the outcome of this election, our government (regardless who is in charge of it) won’t stop abusing its authority in an effort to increase its power over us. The bureaucracy is so large, so entrenched, and so concerned with self-preservation that it will continue to engage in all manner of “social engineering” to force its will on others. That’s what governments do. They take whatever power they have, no matter how little, and use it to gain more power, and on and on. Democrats do it, Republicans do it, it doesn’t matter. They all want to tell you what’s best for you.
“If they give us a toy gun, we’ll give them a prize,” said Moore, adding that the project has several symbolic meanings and a very practical one: “It’s to get the guns out of the kids’ hands.”
And everything was all better and then a unicorn walked by and we all sang kumbaya….
I wish I still had the Toy guns my brother and I grew -up with. Some of them were really well made and are fondly remembered. We played some sort of armed combat every Saturday afternoon with our friends in the neighborhood. We “pretend” shot each other countless times. My Brother and I grew-up to own and shoot “real” guns. Funny thing…neither of us has ever used a “real” gun to threaten or injure anyone else…and watching TV in the 1950’s and 60’s, as kids, it wasn’t for lack of exposure to the idea that people do shoot other people for “real”. I wonder how the libtard utopians sponsoring this nonsense in Baltimore would explain us?
I have watched several of my adult friends raise their children with strictly “forbidden” and controlled exposure to various components of life, only to see those children come of age and go apesh*t wild over the “forbidden fruits” of their childhood, some with calamitous and tragic results.
Isn’t it interesting that after thousands and thousands of years raising children we Humans, apparently, still do not know how to do it with consistent success…
Mr. Moore FLAME DELETED I grew up with toy cigarettes as well and I remember eating them I’m a cigarette smoker today but it wasn’t because I ate candy gum that look like cigarettes give me a freaking break. It was because my whole family smokes so I did as well. Toy guns give me a Flippin break Jiminy crickets this country’s political correctness is gosh damn nauseating. Could you imagine having your son or daughter bring her toy plastic water guns to be bought back or traded for sneakers at some moronic gun buyback program that has been proven in the past not even to work. This country is screwed if Hillary Clinton gets elected. Some of these Mayors need to take a long look at themselves in the mirror and ask these questions Amaya Flippin moron? Do I come up with ideas that are absolutely comic book style? Do you write jokes for comedians? Am I actually a governor of a state? If any of these were answered yes you are a freakin retard.
How many of us who grew up with toy guns ever played “Be the Best Murderer” or “Kill the Cops”? We played “Cops and Robbers”, but everyone knew the robbers were supposed to lose; we played “Iwo Jima”, and everyone knew the Japs were supposed to lose; we played “Daniel Boone”, and everyone knew the bear was supposed to lose. The only game we played with guns that wasn’t a morality lesson like that was “Settlers and Injuns”, which was a free-for-all because we had enough native blood to be aware they were fighting for their people and families.
Playing with toy guns was a way of reinforcing right and wrong, good and bad, and driving home that no one wanted to be bad. Maybe what this country needs is to be sure every kid has a toy gun and start teaching societal morality again.
The kids from Baltimurder should take a page out of the Clock Boy playbook and turn in a few toy IEDs.
This is more than just prepubescent gun confiscation. It is a lesson given to the kids about obedience to the State. When the State calls, do not question or resist, just get in lock-step and do the bidding of the State no matter what the personal cost. It is a variation of Nazi Germany’s very successful conscription of young boys.
Yeah, toy guns being exchanged for other stuff, nazis, pretty much the same thing.
Geez sometimes I wonder if people here try and purposefully fit the narrative of the nutty right-wing conspiracy theorist (who embodies Godwin’s law at every turn) or if it just happens.
Maybe trolls are just too dumb to see it…
Well, it looks like even some of the kids figure out quickly that if they’re going to give up a toy gun for a “prize” they should give up their crappy guns.
If it does anything constructive at all, it could teach children early that promises from people in authority are usually lies, which could be a good thing in the long run.