Targeting Toy Guns!
By Doug Hagin (07/01/03)
How far is the Left willing to go to control our lives? How many of our daily decisions are they desirous of taking charge of? How will your parental rights remain if the political correctors of America get their way? Well according to a Washington Times story out of Annapolis, Maryland, Liberals pretty much want to take the place of parents.
In Annapolis, Alderwoman Cynthia A. Carter has proposed a law banning toy guns in the city. The law would also fine the parents if their kids were caught outside with the dreaded toy guns. Now before you overreact and think Alderwoman Carter is some type of toy gun Nazi, consider that she is willing to exempt some toy guns.
Any clear, or brightly colored plastic toy guns would be OK in Alderwoman Carter’s brave new Annapolis. Well isn’t she considerate; leaving at least a little bit of control to parents? Carter, who is a Democrat, as if a Conservative would ever consider such an asinine law, has long been targeting the evil toy guns bring our world.
In 2000, she sponsored a toy-gun buyback drive and managed to get 12 of these tools of destruction off the streets of Annapolis. No doubt Liberals like Carter think hundreds of lives were likely saved because of her brave, if clueless action.
Carter decided this new law was necessary after a seven-year-old boy carrying a toy gun announced he was going to rob a video store. Several employees were apparently terribly threatened by this small child with a silver toy revolver. So here comes Alderwoman Carter to save us all from seven-year-olds acting like kids and playing with toys.
Of course Carter also wants to use her new law to crack down not just on children who dare to act like children, but actual criminals as well. Any would-be robber using a toy-gun to commit a felony would be charged not only with the crime but with possessing a toy gun as well. Now this will surely stop all criminals in their tracks and instantly stop all crimes.
This new law, should it pass, will do nothing to reduce crime, nor anything to make anyone safer. In fact the intent likely is more to control kid’s behaviors and demonize guns than to ensure safety. Alderwoman Carter hopes her law will not only pass in Annapolis but will help create similar laws all over America. In fact one day Carter dreams of seeing am America where all real-looking toy guns are forbidden. “ Anything that looks like or resembles a weapon of any kind or was altered to look like, even the cigarette lighters, they are not going to be acceptable.” Carter stated.
Well there you go my friends, Alderwoman Carter, like the elitist Liberal she obviously is, will decide what is and is not acceptable for our kids in America. Doesn’t this make you feel safer? Or warm and fuzzy? Well it should make all Americans furious that anyone would be so arrogant and condescending as Carter is being.
She has set herself up as fit to punish your child, and of course your wallet, if you dare to allow your child to have and play with a toy gun. And brace yourself if you are a parent, because this law, as useless and inane as it is, is going to pass. Seven of the nine city council members are Democrats, and the Mayor, also a Democrat, recently made this statement concerning the proposed legislation, “ Anything that can be done to deglamorize guns is a plus.” Guess which way she will lean.
So get ready parents because this movement will not stop in Annapolis, Maryland. The people who propose these types of laws and those who foolishly think these laws make them safer can be found pretty much anywhere. The Left has done a very effective job of targeting and then demonizing certain behaviors they do not like. Smoking, eating red meat, and of course guns are among the very favorite targets of the Left.
And in the case of guns, as with cigarettes, the campaign of demonization has been so successful, that many people are convinced guns are just plain evil, even toy guns. Consider a statement from Carter concerning what her bill would accomplish. “ Children have got to be alerted that this is a dangerous thing. Guns are not a toy, no matter how you look at it.”
No guns are toys, as gun owners well know, but toy guns are toys, even if Alderwoman Carter doesn’t grasp that reality. To her, and those who vote for politicians like her there are no moral differences between a real gun and a toy gun. Just as they see no difference in a criminal who assaults an innocent citizen, and a citizen who defends themselves against criminals.
To Liberals guns are all bad, toys or not. Normal people look at a child playing with a toy gun and think nothing of it; millions of us grew up playing with toy guns. We see it as a normal activity with no ill effects on children or society.
Liberals like Carter though, see a threat to peaceful existence and public safety. Now the decision is still ours, we can surrender our liberty to nuts like Carter, or we can demand our leaders respect our freedoms. Which will it be?
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