Remove Toy Guns From Shelves Or Face Boycott

NBC10.com. ^ | November 13, 2007 | staff reporter

[Daffynition]

City Wide Youth Leadership Agency's William Mackey spends a lot of time talking about toys, but he isn't playing around.

He and other anti-violence advocates believe children playing with fake guns can potentially turn into a game of life or death, and Mackey's group is dedicated to boycotting stores who carry them.

"This is very, very important," Mackey said. "Philadelphia's streets are a bloodbath."

With the holiday season right around the corner -- and people already shopping for presents -- Mackey and his friends want stores that carry toy guns to hear their message.

He and others promise to not only boycott the stores, but also protest in front of them.

Tim Furlong Reports

"The only thing I can say is we don't need the guns, not sold as toys, as water blasters, as BB guns; we don't need any of this stuff," parent Kevin Murphy said.

Mother Maureen Norris, of North Philadelphia, said she thinks the boycott is a great idea because she doesn't buy them and she doesn't want stores to sell them.

"I never bought water guns, play guns, cap guns or nothing," Norris said.

Norris spoke to NBC 10's Tim Furlong as she and her young son headed into a city Toys 'R' Us store -- a good move for parents who want to avoid toy guns that look like the real thing. Toys 'R' Us, along with stores like Target and Wal-Mart, sell Nerf and laser-tag-type guns, but none that look like replica machine guns or Glocks.

Still, despite a September resolution from City Council asking stores to remove the guns from their shelves, some stores like KB Toys in the Franklin Mills Mall sell guns in all colors, shapes and sizes, including a realistic-looking machine gun and handgun purchased by Furlong.

William acknowledged that real guns are the real problem, but said even with the orange tip on fake guns, they are still sending the wrong message to kids in a troubled city.

These young people are brainwashed at such a young age with toy guns," Mackey said. "We must remove them.

"We will start this week boycotting stores in the city and the surrounding counties -- they must remove those toy guns off the shelves immediately," he shouted to supporters.

[hattend]

bttt

[TC Rider]

Maybe they can get the stores to fill the empty shelves with Daddys for these kids.

[Still Thinking]

Hmmm. Sounds like time to respond with "Remove Toy Guns From Shelves Or AND Face Boycott" from us Pro-Rights folks.

[Daffynition]

Well said! I remember the days of Bob Grant on WABC radio out of NYC and his thoughts about mandatory birth control for welfare recipients. He lost his job when Disney bought the station.

[hiredhand]

Toy guns INDEED. We are born with the desire to bear weapons for a worthy purpose. It's Section-9 housing and federal handouts which have created a culture of violence, death and sexual disease...perpetuated in ad-nauseum by those who blame it on toys?

Let's see now....out of the five in my house, three are between the ages of 12 and 17. Between the three of these youngsters, they own -

2 ea - Armalite AR-15 (A-2 Model - 5.56mm NATO)
2 ea - M59/66 Yugo SKS( 7.62x39)
1 ea - Hungarian AMD-65 (7.62x39)
1 ea - Ruger 10/22 (.22RF)
1 ea - Mosin Nagant M44 carbine (7.62x54R)
1 ea - Marlin 335C lever action .30-30
1 ea - No. 4 Mk-II Enfield (.303 Brit)
1 ea - H&R 20ga single shot shotgun

If I root around under beds and behind doors and such, I can probably turn up another couple of .22RF rifles and we'll dicker about who owns them, so I'm not counting them.

Oh...and somewhere around the house are two or three paintball guns. I suppose it was these toys (the paintball guns) that caused my youngsters to be so VIOLENT and have (an average of) three weapons each.

Yeah...that must be where I went wrong...with the paintball guns.

Here's for all of you cringing in the corner, gun fearing idiots in that once great city which had been a seat of patriotic thought. Plant your lips on the little scrunched up spot, just under ole Stink's tail!

:-)

[ktscarlett66]

It comes more from the culture kids are raised in than the availability of toys. Death, injury, arrest, they just aren’t big things in the ‘gangsta’ culture.

My mom (63) played with water pistols and cap guns and a Roy Rogers-type gun. My sister and I had water guns and cap guns. My husband played with toy guns. He decided that our boys wouldn’t be allowed to have guns - so they ‘made’ guns with Legos and sticks, their hands and everything else (what is is it about boys and guns???? lol). But hubby caved after seeing them build guns. They were allowed big water guns and when our oldest was about 6, he wanted a ‘buffalo gun’ (his words) a ‘rifle’ that cracked when you pulled the trigger. Both sons have grown up around guns - shotguns and muzzle loaders, husband hunts - and both of them are gentle and loving and not violent at all. Fighting and namecalling, hurting anyone else, was prohibited.

Grow up in a culture such as inner city kids do, and not one toy in the world is going to make a difference.

“Kid, you’ll put your eye out!”

[ktscarlett66]

“Ten Years ago toy guns were nonexistant”

Baloney. My mom is in her 60s and had cap guns, water pistols and ‘cowboy’ six shooters. I’m 41 and had cap guns. My son is 20 and had his share of caps, water and prairie ‘buffalo guns’ as he called them. Hubby played with his share of guns growing up.

And Ralphie? Well he grew up in the ‘40s and wanted a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.

[gnarledmaw]

Ya...10 years ago, not 50, not 30, but 10.

The Million Morons and other groups had successfully threatened a number of even the big chains not to carry "violent" toys during the reign of Clintigula. Even the swords and such had disappeared and only recently returned.

If your kid had even a squirt gun that wasnt shaped like a fish or hamburger or something then someone was going way out of their way to find them or happened to have had access to a sporting good store or someplace similar that was aware of the problem and decided to take advantage of it as some chains had dropped those products nationwide. They certainly werent being bought at Toys R Us, Walmart, Shopko or anywhere similar.

Do you not remember the protests? I do, I know at one point I had even called Toys R Us HQ to complain that they left the herd of stinking hippies out front for me to walk through and then it turned out that they had already given in defeating my whole purpose for being there.

[Squantos]

Ole Stink is a looker .......:o)

LMAO !!

[oyez]

Let me think. Buy toy guns for kids. The shoot someone. Nothing happens. Buy video games for kids. They shoot someone. There is a full display of death.

I bet these parents buy their kids video war games but would not even think of buying them toy guns.

[Daffynition]

"Grow up in a culture such as inner city kids do, and not one toy in the world is going to make a difference."

That's it in a nutshell ...but we'll barely hear that uttered because society owes them. And we have the likes of LBJ to thank for that.

[Dick Bachert]

Ignorance is curable. STUPID is forever.

And some day, these wimps will call upon yet another generation of American boys and girls to sallie forth with — shudder — REAL guns to defend them from the international thug du jour who did not live where guns were taboo.

[hiredhand]

Yeah...he was VERY smelly too! That's picture is his essence :-)

[meyer]

"This is very, very important," Mackey said. "Philadelphia's streets are a bloodbath."

That isn't due to toy guns - it's because people in Philadelphia aren't very bright. They can't be the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree if they keep electing democRATS to run their failing, overtaxed city.

[Daffynition]

Be heartened. I was at the range this morning and the small gun shop connected to the range had a huge display of “Red Ryder BB Guns” for sale. The manager said he never saw a year like it ...they can’t keep them in stock. And the club was FULL of youngsters waiting for their line to open up for junior rifle club competitions. Did my heart good! ;)

[ktscarlett66]

Did anyone tell these kids they’ll put their eye out? lol...

[Dante3]

Noting wrong with toy guns. This is absurd.

[Daffynition]

LOL ... nothing, except maybe a gun show, can renew my faith in America, to be around kids who are learning about the fine sport of competition shooting and the discipline it teaches. ;)

[longtermmemmory]

seems the marketplace has spoken.

Does this include video games?

Will Halo3 selling stores be boycotted?

How about stores that sell war based DVDs? (all those drive bys caused by “Tora Tora Tora” or “The Patriot”...)

Since when do pacifists have money? They don’t.

[Hardastarboard]

shot two clay birds from the automatic thrower this past weekend with his .410 shot gun

Do you know how hard that is to do with a .410, even for an adult? A .410 doesn't throw much of a charge of shot, nor does it throw it very far or hard. You kid may be some kind of prodigy, seriously.