I maintain a private RKBA list for articles of particular note, important legislation, immediate action and other things that I deem of high enough value. For most things, the "bang_list" keyword is sufficient.
Posted on 01/23/2005 10:24:13 AM PST by Gritty
If my daughter runs off with a fellow named Clyde and starts shooting up banks, I'll know I made a terrible mistake — as my wife will no doubt remind me. Call me a "gun nut" if you must. But I'm really not one. Still, I did give my sweet, innocent 5-year-old daughter a gun for Christmas. Not just any gun, mind you. It's commonly called a "street-sweeper." It's automatic or semi-automatic. Honestly, I don't really know much about guns. My wife is horrified. It's not that she is anti-gun; it's just that when you pull the trigger, it is awfully loud. Especially when the trigger is pulled in the house. Did I mention it's a toy gun? Which certainly didn't make it any easier to find. Had I wanted a real gun, one would imagine from watching TV news that finding a gun is child's play. But a toy gun? None in the toy stores. Slim pickings even on the Internet (and I'd waited too long to have it shipped). It was as if toy guns had been banned. Not that superstar-shoppers like my wife wouldn't have uncovered one, somewhere, but this amateur was willing to admit failure. Then, just days before Christmas, I went to Global Foods, a local grocery store that caters to Asians and Latinos. I like to go there because they have vegetables I've never seen or heard of before. It's very educational. And they also carry vegetables I actually recognize. Cheap, too. On this enchanted day, I bumped right into a display of junky toys. Laying there, telepathically calling to my macho-kid-Christmas-neurosis, was a shiny black submachine gun. The kind of gun that might not have worked so well for playing cowboys and Indians, but my goodness would it shine in any remake of the Untouchables or in an imaginary battle with the Nazis, with me as part of the underground resistance, or a member of an elite commando squad. Just what my daughter would want! Right? Needless to say, I plopped down my eight dollars. Look, I know you think I bought the gun for myself. And there is a small element of truth in that, of course. We all live vicariously through our children, especially at Christmas. I always loved playing army when I was a boy. With all my children being girls, admittedly, I do sometimes miss the more macho sights and sounds of the holiday. But my daughter did want the gun. Granted, it wasn't on her expertly honed final Christmas list. There were simply too many dolls, a wagon, games and DVDs. Nonetheless, my little cutie had asked for a gun. Months ago, during a commercial break in some TV program, she turned to me and said, "Daddy, can I get a gun?" Before what she had asked even registered in my mind, my brilliant and bossy 13-year-old daughter told her in no uncertain terms (as if to even ask had been a major breech of protocol), "Absolutely not!" Miffed by my older daughter's usurping of my august parental authority, and now waking up to this unexpected question, I asked the little one why she wanted a gun. She explained in a matter-of-fact way that there were good guys and bad guys and she wanted a gun to protect herself from the bad guys. "What would you do with a gun?!" her older sister shot back at her. "Shoot the bad guys," she replied. I explained to her that she was too young to have a real gun and that our neighborhood was very safe — a whole lot safer than television, that's for sure. But I also told her that I agreed with her thinking and that, yes, guns can be very, very helpful to good guys in stopping bad guys. (And I double-checked what she was watching, for good measure.) I decided, then and there, that I wanted her to have a toy gun. And, thanks to the wonders of multiculturalism, I was actually able to find one, no doubt manufactured in China. My 5-year-old makes a heckuva lot more sense than those who fear, without a shred of evidence, that playing with toy guns will somehow turn kids to crime. She makes more sense than the school in Indiana, where officials altered their school's mascot — a Minuteman — to remove the musket he carried. They feared the armed minuteman symbolized gun violence. I guess they hadn't yet gotten to American history. My young daughter knows the musket as a symbol of freedom, and if a symbol of violence, of justified violence. She knows that guns are not good or bad, but people can be either. (Apparently, reading her my Common Sense e-letter at bedtime is paying off.) Her toy gun is just a toy. But it is a grand symbol of freedom, self-defense and a healthy disdain for political correctness. And sometimes she lets me play with it.
Paul Jacob is Senior Fellow at Americans for Limited Government, a Townhall.com member group.
So what have you done to educate your 13 year old? Can't have a lib in the house, you know.
FMCDH(BITS)
Sounds to me like he needs to de-program the 13-year-old next.
Not by $1,000, anyway.
Well, ok - he is ten - but he has had the gun for a while...
LOL
---as sort of an aside to this , I went to a so-called "gunshow" in Las Vegas yesterday at which there were probably as many of the realistic looking toy guns amid the jerky, camo clothes, gold-platers,etc., as there were genuine firearms--
I'll have to make this a short post, I'm getting ready to take my 12 YO daughter to the range..........
I'm counting the years before my 3 and 5 year-old girls are ready. I've got Ruger 10/22 and a Colt Carbine ready for them ;)
For sure. That just goes to show what strong effect the anti-gun culture has on young minds, not to mention the b@ll-less toy stores who refuse to carry toy guns. It's a PC thing which needs to be turned around quickly or we'll never win the war against this unAmerican culture.
Don't you have a Bang List for articles like this?
L
Excellent idea on the .22 revolver. I'll admit I hadn't considered that for him. Now it's between that and one of those Chipmunk rifles.
He's rather small statured, so I have to pick carefully.
L
"I didn't have anything with a stock short enough for her"
Still have the 16 guage break-over that was my first gun. Dad cut 4 inches off the stock then put it back on in pieces as I grew into it. Get her the gun and get a gunsmith to help with the stock if needed. She'll treasure it and the memories.
That gun along with the Model 1911 (note: not 1911A) he gave me are among my most prized possessions. My brother stole and pawned the .35 cal auto and .22 cal Springfield trainer so those guns and many, many good memories are about all I have left from my dad.
You are correct. When a child is properly trained (the lessons just didn't take with my little brother), a gun is no big deal. You are doing well.
I maintain a private RKBA list for articles of particular note, important legislation, immediate action and other things that I deem of high enough value. For most things, the "bang_list" keyword is sufficient.
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