(Stolen, but I ferget where.)
Posted on 04/09/2005 12:52:10 AM PDT by tarawa
Program teaches dangers of firearms David Casey 04/01/2005
CENTRAL FALLS -- It’s been in the pipeline for awhile but the city’s first-ever Toy Gun Bash, an anti-gun violence event sponsored by Attorney General Patrick Lynch, will go off without a bang on Saturday, April 2.
Channel One Director Angelo Garcia, who spent months coordinating the event with the Attorney General’s office, local police and various anti-violence organizations, said the program is an opportunity to teach children and parents about the dangers of real firearms, while showing them fun and practical alternatives to "violent" and "competitive" play -- nipping the problem of gun violence at the bud and the root, as it were. The fact that real guns are frequently mistaken for toys by children is another concern, according to Lynch.
The spoonful of sugar in this cautionary exercise is the Bash-O-Matic, a wacky toy-gun-crushing device designed for Patrick Lynch by the folks at Big Nazo Puppets.
Kids are encouraged to bring their toy guns to the entrance of Calcutt School, 112 Washington St., around 1 p.m., where they will be ceremoniously crushed and replaced with a non-violent toy.
"What better way to get kids to realize the repercussions of real-life violence and get them thinking of ways to re-think how they see the world and how they play then by offering them a free basketball," said Garcia. "It’s different for kids today. I think they see (guns) as a means to an end, a viable option. When I was growing up in Central Falls we didn’t go around saying ‘if you mess with me, I’ll blow your head off.’ Today it’s almost socially acceptable to use violence to resolve your problems."
The actual gun-bashing will take place in front of Calcutt School’s main entrance (the school has a zero-tolerance policy for any type of gun, real or fake), followed by a fun, educational and delicious reception in the school’s auditorium.
The day’s festivities will include informational booths from various local agencies, free pizza courtesy of The Central Falls Juvenile Hearing Board, free soda courtesy of Coke and Pepsi, raffle prizes, cookies courtesy of Aramark, a live broadcast by Hot106 FM and a three-point basketball shootout in which Patrick Lynch, who used to play professional basketball in Europe, will challenge all comers (including Mayor Charles Moreau).
A local missing children’s organization will be on hand to video tape, fingerprint and document children, free of charge, so parents can provide police with a comprehensive record of their vital information should they go missing.
The Rhode Island Doubledutch League will be teaching kids the lost art of jumping rope, one of many non-violent, non-competitive activities Garcia said he would like to see catch on.
"My staff and I have been working on initiatives to encourage non-competitive play, games where everybody is a winner and no one in singled out. We want kids to learn that play can be cooperative as well as competitive, and that not doing well at something isn’t the end of the world."
The Square Mile City’s inaugural Toy Gun Bash will be the fourth such event in the State of Rhode Island. The Bash was piloted at Providence’s Mount Hope Learning Center in spring 2003. Since then the attorney general’s office has hosted two bashes in Providence and one in Newport.
To date, the "Bash-O-Matic" has destroyed more than 1,000 toy guns, from water pistols to replicas, according to Michael Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
Why don't they just hand out the magic brownies and keep the kids totally zonked out, they'll be easier to handle that way.
I'm sure that crowd would, so don't give them any ideas.
Even if it wasn't at a school, the FReeper would probably be arrested, charged with a felony, probably assault, convicted and so lose their RKBA forever
Future sheep.
(Stolen, but I ferget where.)
It's amazing to me the way that the PC set have pathologized male behavior. If a little boy acts like, well, a little boy, the school wants to drug him (ritalin), and turn him into a little zombie.
No toy guns? What happens is kids will bite a piece of bread into the shape of a pistol (just watch -- it must be instinct), and then the teacher (always female) or mother will make the kid feel miserable and "bad" for using his God-given creativity.
Sick.
Use purple ink, right? Bwahahahaha!
Three letter reply...N-B-A
My staff and I have been working on initiatives to encourage non-competitive play, games where everybody is a winner and no one in singled out
Well thats so special, unlike when we played 'WAR' and if you got shot you 'died' and had to sit around and wait for the rest of the guys to get killed so you could play again.
BTW when did NBA rules change so that there isnt a 'winner' and nobody [ie short white guys ] is singled 'out' ???
This is genuinely beyond parody.
It would take about five seconds to compose a highlight video of every fictional and real life boxer jumping rope.
There is at least one scene in every Rocky Movie, and every title fight dating back to the beginning of the 20th century has newreel footage or still shots of the contestants jumping rope in training camp.
Last I heard Boxing was considered a reasonably competitive sport.
Best regards,
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