The gall! The effrontery! Bronx parents are up in arms over arms for sale in their midst. Toy arms sold from a vending machine in a neighborhood bodega. Two inch pistols and rifles that go for fifty cents a pop to any kid who wants one. From all the panty twistidude, you’d think the store was randomly doling out kiddie porn. Actually, the store and toy distributor would probably be getting a lot less flak – and almost certainly less press – if they were handing out kiddie porn…
Fortunately, nydailynews.com has three crack reporters on this barnburner of a story:
“That’s insane!” said an aggravated Luz Anthony, 24, mother of a 3-year-old daughter and a 15-month-old boy. “We have enough guns on the street.”
Kelly McKinnon, 40, a mother of three, said making the teensy-weensy 2-inch weapons available to kids only reinforced a deadly message.
“Kids see the guns in a gumball machine and they think it’s okay to buy guns,” McKinnon said. “I’ve never heard of something so crazy.”
Check out the the firepower that’s terrorizing the good people of the Bronx. Fair warning, though…you’d be well advised to cinch up your Depends first:
Caught your breath yet? Somebody pass the Xanax.
The number of shooting victims in the Bronx neighborhood increased 34.5% so far in 2011, and felony assaults were up 2.3%, according to the NYPD.
“In this neighborhood, it really matters,” said McKinnon. “We need to do whatever it takes to get those machines out of our neighborhoods. What kind of message does that send to the children?
“It corrupts our young.”
Anthony echoed her neighbor’s concerns over the product clearly intended for kids.
Pictures of the six plastic guns decorate the machine, luring small customers.
“Why would they market guns to children, especially in this neighborhood where we have so much violence?” she asked. “I didn’t think they were allowed to sell that kind of stuff to kids.”
The mothers of the Bronx suffering the Scarlett O’Hara-like vapors over a few two-inch plastic gats would be better advised to gin up some actual outrage over the fact that the city they live in won’t allow them the actual means to defend themselves or their families. No matter how high the crime rate may rise.
But no, it’s much more satisfying to work up a little righteous indignation over a few plastic toys in a gum ball machine. Next, the militant moms will likely be organizing the neighborhood homeless for a spirited round of Occupy the Bodega. Better to put the store out of business than have scary toys in the hands of impressionable kiddies.
