“In a video released by police, a boy of about 10 is seen pointing a gun at a woman in a crosswalk near 16th Street and Allegheny Avenue Monday evening,” philadelphia.cbslocal.com reports. “The boy, along with two teens, eventually pointed the gun at a man who called 911 . . . After the video was released, the parents of the young boy brought him into police, who determined the gun was a toy.” Well now, hold on there a minute Jim. I’m not so worried about whether or not the gat’s a toy as I am about the fact that there’s no mention of blowback for a boy who terrorized a stranger. And I’m sure as hell seeing something more than just that one incident—although exactly what I’m not sure. [Click here for another account.] The Philadelphia Police Commissioner’s reaction to the incident is equally mystifying . . .
Police commissioner Charles Ramsey says it’s fortunate no one was hurt, and he says it’s a reminder to parents to be careful if they buy their children a toy gun that looks real.
“If you’re confronted with a gun that looks real, you just don’t have a chance to determine if it’s made by Colt or Mattel.”
Instead of replicas, he recommends the bright orange or yellow plastic guns that are clearly toys.
Wait. So it wasn’t a toy gun. It was a replica. Wouldn’t that make the boy’s threats more like, I dunno, a crime? And what about that wilding action on the car? Isn’t that worth discussing on some sort of law enforcement level? Unless they knew the guy in the car. Huh.
“Parents have to be very careful when they buy kids replicas like that, to make sure that if they’re going to allow them to play with it, that they definitely never allow them to take it out of the house. But, I would encourage people never to buy those kind of toys.”
Toys, replicas, replicas as toys, cops who don’t want kids to play with toy guns. Weird.
The issue is not with the kids, but yet the parents. Children, in this sort of foolery, is not uncommon. I even did it once as a 5yr old when a certain family would not let their kid come out and play. It was not just anyone but the chief of police of said town. After he returned me to my house I recieved quite a severe repremanding from my mother that by todays standards would be undoubtedly considered borderline child abuse. I never did anything like that again, nor did she ever have to do that again herself. At the age of 12 I completed the FL firearms training course & my mother was right there with me at every class. I love my Mother dearly for this lesson in life. Kids make mistakes, that is why the law prohibits children from being charged & convicted. The ultimate responsibilty is to that of the parents.
Right you are. It’s ludicrous to issue the sweeping axiom, “don’t buy a toy gun.” (V-chip, anyone?) How about “take responsibility for your kids and if they’re not heedful, then don’t buy them toy guns.” That “child abuse” may have saved your life.
and then we wonder why we have overmedicated youth shooting up schools. Mom and Dad beat the devil from me anytime I needed it… shootings: Zero
My Generation called it ‘personal responsibility’
I think we’ve lost that
Yeah, as soon as one were to finish caning that little bastard, move on to the parents.
Pretty sure Eddie Eagle programs cover this, you know, if Philly can overlook the rest of the organized pure evil concentrate that is the NRA.
Why, I bet you they could call them up on the bat-phone, and even though Castle Dracula is a busy place, they would take time out of their busy seal-clubbing days and send them some materials for the schools.
The doesn’t really look like “wilding.” More like smart-ass kids thinking they’re funny. Likewise, the reaction of the people the kid’s holding up looks like they knew it was a toy. Still, I don’t let my kids run around with black toy guns. You never know what some cop or armed citizen might think.
Lots of CC in Philly. That wilding stunt pulled on the wrong car could have easily turned mega tragic. And then it would have been the bad, bad gun held responsible as opposed to the parents and a system that encourages this type of behavior. The mobs will soon return.
Does anyone recall that scene in Lethal Weapon 3 where the gangbanger’s mom slaps Murtagh for shooting her kid? The dad then stares him down and growls, “You find the person that put that gun in my boy’s hand.” I wasn’t a gun person then, but that scene still reeked of wrongness to me. Grief aside, I couldn’t believe people would blame someone else for their kid’s murderous behavior.
It’s always sunny here in Philadelphia, but the cops aren’t that bright.
Ramsey wants kids to stay away from toy guns because they’re dangerous. I want kids to stay away from real cops because they’re dangerous.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but anybody proximate to a real cop with a replica (‘toy’) gun is in real danger. Many a suicide-by-cop has resulted from a fool with a replica gun pointing it at a cop. The person, whether law-enforcement or not, who hesitates to deal with someone pointing a firearm at them at close range, assuming it is a replica or toy, may very well never have the chance to hesitate again. Only a fool gives their kid a replica ‘toy’ gun to take out into the Real World and is surprised when Junior meets a sad end.
The worst kind of fool is he who teaches his small children that cops are ‘dangerous’. That sort of reasoning, or lack of it, makes one sound like a screw-loose loon.
I agree with the Philadelphia Police Commissioner that parents should not buy toy guns that look like (are replicas) of real guns. I agree with him that parents should buy toy guns that are painted bright colors and do not otherwise too closely resemble real guns. He is correct that if confronted with a toy gun that looks real you cannot quickly determine if it is real or not. That uncertainty can lead to someone from a cop to a private citizen, fearing for their life, to use lethal force upon the child. It is weird to me that this point would be debated by adults.
I agree with this 100%. Buying your kid a replica firearm then allowing to run around on the street pointing it at strangers is simply dumb, not to mention dangerous.
Sometimes I wonder if we on this blog have lost all perspective.
“Sometimes I wonder if we on this blog have lost all perspective.”
Thank you. I think some people on this blog have lost perspective. Any ideological belief taken too far becomes an irrational religion of extremism.
Lol no. You are right on the money. Buying your sub 5′ kid a replica seems like bad news waiting to happen.
SOME of us HAVE lost all perspective. “I teach my kids that cops are dangerous.” “I wish O and Company had been blowed up by the bomb.” The JOOS, the JOOS did it!” “Flying Space Monkeys Are Eating My Brain!”
But not everyone. Thankfully.
In Philly no less? They boy is going to get shot, probably by a cop. It won’t be the kid’s fault because he’s a kid and doesn’t know better and the fact he’s doing this at all indicates strongly he has deficient parent(s). It will be his parent(s)’ fault for being idiots and not raising him (properly, at all, etc). The media will blame the toy gun and gun culture. The parent(s) will blame the police. The community will blame guns and us rural sportsman. No one will blame “the guys” in the neighborhood that the kid is emulating. Action movie stars will say “enough” on TV. They’ll put flowers and stuffed animals out on the street corner. Darwin will rest peacefully in his grave. The parenting-deficient kid will no longer grow up emulating “the guys” and one day be recruited to be one of them and contribute to the gang violence in the city. Everyone will feel uneasy.
He’s got a point, I’d never allow my child out on the streets of Philadelphia with a toy gun.
I’d want him to at least have a Glock 26.
I’d never let my kid out on the streets of Philadelphia ….period
When I was a little kid it was normal for toy guns to look like real guns at first glance. Making them all brightly colored, obvious toys didn’t start to happen until the 1980s, when the increasing unaccountability and militarization of cops led to several incidents of them murdering small children and then getting away with it by screaming “officer safety.”
Horse. . . um, feathers. The time it takes to ‘determine’ whether a gun pointed in your direction is real or a ‘fake’ is far less than the time it takes for your adversary–if they have ill intentions–to pull a trigger and send a bullet on its way. ‘Unaccountability’ or ‘militarization’ has nothing to do with it. Taking the job of law enforcement is not a suicide pact; Cops agree to accept the possibility of losing their lives in defense of public safety, but don’t agree to throw it away senselessly.
It isn’t ‘murder’ to kill someone in a justifiable shooting, whether or not the threat was ‘real’ or not; Only the ‘reasonableness’ standard applies. I assume that you would NOT gladly accept a murder sentence should you negligently kill someone, child or no, who pointed a replica gun at YOU. No, you’d be screaming, “I was in fear for my LIFE! I want my LAWYER!” And so on.
That’s called “projection.” You’re assuming that because your a murderous psychopathic scumbag who would murder a child with a toy and then make excuses, that everybody is.
Clearly, in your rage to label, you failed to read and comprehend.
There’s no point in going any further with you.
Can’t blame the kid…he is African American. It is the unwritten rule of mass media. Can not say anything bad about anybody black unless they are a rapper. If you do, you are racist. But, if a Hispanic shots a black kid…he is suddenly white (the shooter). There you have it.
Part of the fascist mentality to scar kids away from guns and by brainwashing in school by adult hood make a complete generation of antigun fascist. This is fault of the parents for not watching the kids and also not teaching morality to them. Punish both kids and parents for this. What do you think RALPH? and Gtfoxy???
No, by all means buy your kids realistic toy guns. We’re overpopulated enough as it is, and these toys a great way to weed out the people society can afford to lose.
It sounds cruel, I know, but let’s face it: If some kid thinks it’s a good idea to point realistic-looking fake guns at the po-po, he probably isn’t going to be the one that grows up to discover the cure for cancer.
nothing wrong with toy guns, or kids playing with toy guns, but kids do need to be taught not to point toy guns at people who aren’t “playing”, and that no matter how tempting it is, to leave the orange tip on.