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.
The local order of violent felons has thrown it's support to Attorney General Lynch after polling members and finding that 100% of it's membership prefer unarmed victims.
Me, neither. It simply defies parody or sustained serious ridicule, being so inherently silly on its face...
the Bash-O-Matic, a wacky toy-gun-crushing device
Why don't they ever use the Abort-O-Matic, a wacky toy-baby-crushing device?
I agree
What a bunch of loosers! Antigun because they are too dumb to realize guns don't kill people, azzholes kill people.
Basketball:" A lib's new definition of a "device" one can use to protect themselves from rape, robbery, home invasion, etc.
What about hunting? "Yeah, I bagged me a six pointer at 50 yards; I beaned it with my basketball."
G-d protect us from fools, retards and libs. Oh,that's right, they are the same aren't they?
Socialism, liberalism and communism are alive and well, and continuing to make inroads in America. Competition is dead in this town, if the lib-dem garbage get their way.
..."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,".....oh yeah...a basketball would have come in real handy on flight 11.....
My gun is less violent than the basketball game at Madison Square.
Than the riots in Detriot at the game.
Than the fans ripping their cities apart after BBall wins.
My gun never bonked anyone in the nose.
What they should do is have a nice game of BasketBall DODGEball. :o)
...and don't grade papers with red ink either, might hurt a felling
Seems the reason for jumping rope was to see how many times you could jump without missing. I tried to jump more times thanb you could. Some of the rhymes to which we jumped were so cute, non competitive and kind as well.
Kids are encouraged to bring their toy guns to the entrance of Calcutt School…
Shouldn't the text read, “…a wacky toy-gun-crushing device designed for Patrick Lynch by the folks at Big NAZI Puppets.”
This kind of brownshirted indoctrination must be countered.
We got our 3 year old a BB gun for Christmas. He also goes with daddy when he shoots trap, sights in his rifle and they have gone squirrell hunting together. My son already knows that he is not to touch any guns because they are dangerous and he is too small. He knows not to touch his BB gun unless daddy is with him.
He hasn't shot his eye out yet either.
....Big Nazo Puppets...
Catchy name, Big Nazo.
On the bright side, between the two RI gun clubs I belong to, we have a hundred twenty junior rifle shooters, who compete regularly.
There are two Rhode Islands, the commie pond scum inside 295, and the rest of us out in Dorr's country.
It is easy to teach youngsters the dangers of guns and the need to respect them. My husband said that the most powerful message he got was as a cub scout. They shot a .22, a shot gun and a rifle at stacked pine wood. The lesson was if this damage can be done to this wood, imagine what could happen to a person if you are not careful and using good gun safety.
Our son has his own earmuffs and has gotten a small dose of the safety and respect lessons. On a funny note when he sees turkey or deer, he says that he can't wait to get bigger so he can hunt/shoot them. We got our boys their lifetime hunting and fishiing licenses for their first birthdays.
If more children were raised with a healthy respect for firearms and were guided in the appropriate use of them, we would have fewer accidents less gun violence.
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