The boy and his gun

Townhall.com ^ | November 6, 2003 | Rich Lowry

[Gritty]

Where's Charlton Heston when you need him? All across America, 12-year-old boys should be grasping their toy chests and vowing, in the words of the former National Rifle Association president, "From my cold, dead hands."

The recent scare caused by a toy gun that closed down a congressional building has prompted Brooklyn Democratic Congressman Ed Towns to declare a new urgency to passing his proposed ban on "realistic looking" toy guns. His bill would "ban toys which in size, shape or overall appearance resemble real handguns." Next Towns will be after "realistic looking" daggers, bows and arrows, battle axes and lightsabers -- which, after all, could confuse Stormtroopers into thinking they are facing a threatening situation.

The spirit behind the Towns bill is outrage that toy guns exist at all. "It seems that the only thing toy guns accomplish," Towns wrote in a letter to congressional colleagues, "is to make it easier to commit a crime or whet kids' appetite for a real gun when they get older. They serve no purpose in society and should be banned." This is false. Toy guns serve an enduring, hallowed purpose -- the delight of boys.

Boys are the littlest "gun nuts." For them, joy is a good cap gun. If it shoots something, makes a big bang or looks fearsome, boys love it. Many parents have seen their ambition to keep their boys from toy guns frustrated by their kids' unstoppable trigger fingers. If denied a toy gun, a boy is liable to use a stick, or bite his sandwich into the shape of a gun, or pretend to shoot with his sister's Barbie doll. As the essayist G.K. Chesterton wrote back when bows and arrows were the issue, "No society, claiming to be sane, would have dreamed of supposing that you could abolish all bows unless you could abolish all boys."

Why? It's human nature, the way boys are built. Liberals believe that, given enough persuasion, it somehow can be changed. This is the ambition of an outfit called The Lion & Lamb Project. It sponsors violent-toy "trade-ins" around the country as part of its "toys for peace" campaign. The project explains on its Web site: "Many children's toy chests have been transformed into war chests full of action figures, toy guns and swords, war toys, laser guns and other implements of destruction." At the trade-ins, children fashion their "violent toys into a dramatic Peace Sculpture."

The average overenthusiastic boy might comment, "Great -- and can the Peace Sculpture be turned into a cannon?"

There have indeed been tragic incidents of police accidentally shooting people holding realistic toy guns. But accidents happen. A man in Louisiana was shot recently when he brandished a cell phone that police mistook for a gun. Should cell phones consequently be banned? It's reckless behavior around police, not the objects involved, that tends to be the problem.

A famous case of applying the opposite reasoning has been playing out in Annapolis, Md., this year. A 7-year-old there attempted to hold up a video store with a toy gun -- the most absurd caper since Woody Allen tried a prison break with a gun made of soap in "Take the Money and Run." A city councilwoman promptly called for a ban on such toy guns, earning herself national derision. The first order of business should have been to tell the kid not to try to rob people.

Unfortunately, Towns, the scourge of toy guns, is not some outrider. Similar proposals are bubbling up in state legislatures, and it's impossible to buy a decent toy gun from Toys "R" Us. Too bad. As Chesterton wrote earlier this century about a different toy and its attraction: "The toy sword is the abstraction and emanation of the heroic, apart from all its horrible accidents. It is the soul of the sword, that will never be stained with blood." The toy-gun banners will never understand that -- or the souls of boys.

[CSM]

I can't wait to see who posts in protest to this, yet posts in support of subjegation of private property rights and the WOD!

[DeFault User]

Give me all your money. I have a gub.

[HELLRAISER II]

Ed Towns and anyone else who thinks that this a good idea are idiots. Just like the article say's the kids are just going to make their own toy guns, boy's by nature are more agressive and love guns. The Liberals are so intent on castrating all Males that they forget that some of us are going to bite them when they try. They can have my guns and my kids guns when they pry them from our cold dead fingers!

[stevio]

You should see the things my 4yr old boy calls guns (AKA bang bangs). He's got some imagination.

[El Laton Caliente]

It is time for the eight year olds to march on Washington with the Red Riders;^)

[Terry Mross]

Thirty years ago on ALL IN THE FAMILY "Meathead" was pissed 'cause "Archie" bought "Joey" a toy gun. These guys just won't quit.

[ladylib]

My sister-in-law's nephew (4 years old) made a knife out of a section of toy train track. It goes with him everywhere.

It really annoys me off when feminazi school officials (and that includes wussy "male" school officials) suspend kids for going "bang, bang" with their fingers.

[KC_for_Freedom]

The spirit behind the Towns bill is outrage that toy guns exist at all. "It seems that the only thing toy guns accomplish," Towns wrote in a letter to congressional colleagues, "is to make it easier to commit a crime or whet kids' appetite for a real gun when they get older. They serve no purpose in society and should be banned." This is false. Toy guns serve an enduring, hallowed purpose -- the delight of boys.

I sure liked my "Fanner Fifty" cap pistol. (I am really not sure of the name, but the good guys always liked to fan the hammer of their six gun for faster shooting from the hip.) I also had rubber knives and you had to hit your friend with a thrown knife to make him go down. Not so with a cap pistol, you simply had him and told him he was dead. (Then the arguement could begin, about how the bush deflected the round or the gun was aimed too high.)

[Atlas Sneezed]

Bang

[Atlas Sneezed]

There have indeed been tragic incidents of police accidentally shooting people holding realistic toy guns. But accidents happen.

---

Consider the argument. Because our enforcers are increasingly lacking in judgement and skill based on these "accidents", the people should cede more of our power to these enforcers.

[riverrunner]

By the time a boy is 12 he should be grabbing his gun case rack or where ever he stores his really guns he owns. 12 yoa boys should all ready have a .22 at the least maybe a shotgun and a good deer rifle to his name.

[HELLRAISER II]

I agree, most normal male children are going to act this way, I did. It's the Feminazi's & their little sissy whipped meteromales that want the rest of us Testosterone males to be changed before we reach adulthood. The schools have gone so P.C. correct that male children don't stand a chance of being treated fairly.

[E Rocc]

"No society, claiming to be sane, would have dreamed of supposing that you could abolish all bows unless you could abolish all boys."

What do you think the purpose of Ritalin overprescription is?

-Eric

[Old Professer]

At the heart of all liberal passion is the principle of perfectibility.

[CSM]

"It's the Feminazi's & their little sissy whipped meteromales that want the rest of us Testosterone males to be changed before we reach adulthood."

I guess that makes us Testrosexuals!

[hopespringseternal]

Consider the argument. Because our enforcers are increasingly lacking in judgement and skill based on these "accidents", the people should cede more of our power to these enforcers.

Yeah, I have always thought that a cop who shoots an eight year old with a toy gun never should have been a cop in the first place. It's about common sense and good judgement.

[The Scorpion King]

Dimocratic Congressman Ed Townes is rumored to be a flaming wussy!

[William Tell]

I have fond memories of my brothers and our neighbors battling in an open field near our home. We dug shallow fortresses and then pummeled each other with "mortars" consisting of clumps of dirt and grass.

[Legerdemain]

By the time a boy is 12 he should be grabbing his gun case rack or where ever he stores his really guns he owns. 12 yoa boys should all ready have a .22 at the least maybe a shotgun and a good deer rifle to his name.

let's see, when I was 12 I had the following

1 Benjamin .22 cal pellet rifle...to shoot the local chipmunks that continually tried to ruin the foundation of our house..(there was a bounty on them from my father)

1 Remmington .22 cal rifle with scope

1 410 shotgun do not remember the brand.

1 .22 cal pistol

1 Bear Alaskan Bow/ with grosses of arrors including bowfishing tips and broadheads.

And assorted pocket and bowie knives..

Man if I was a kid today DFS would have taken me away from my parents