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No Christmas Truce in the Culture War: Gun Controllers Indoctrinate Kids with Toy Gun Turn-in
NRA-ILA ^ | 12/21/18

Posted on 12/24/2018 8:52:34 PM PST by LibWhacker

During the Christmas of 1914, some French, British, and German soldiers along World War I’s Western Front informally ceased hostilities in order to celebrate the holiday. The truce offered the combatants a brief moment to celebrate their shared humanity amidst the otherwise ghastly conflict.

No such luck for Americans weary of the United States’ all-consuming culture war. For anti-gun zealots, the Christmas season offers fresh opportunities to mold the next generation of obedient statists.

On December 13, the Village of Hempstead, N.Y. hosted the Long Island Toy Gun Exchange Program, modelled after so-called gun “buybacks” that target real firearms. According to a report from local newspaper Newsday, each child received one politically correct toy in exchange “for whatever water pistols, Nerf guns and other toy guns they turn[ed] in.”

The toys for the turn-in were supplied by local businessman Sean Acosta, who made clear that the program is intended to influence impressionable children against firearm ownership at a young age, with the goal of shifting American public opinion against guns. As reported in the Newsday article,

“It has to start at a young age,” Acosta says of changing gun culture. “If we can get them to say, ‘It’s not cool to carry these toy guns,’ then maybe when they get older, they won’t ever carry a real gun.”

The Newsday report does not indicate that Acosta made any distinction between lawful gun ownership and the criminal misuse of firearms.

This was not the first year Hempstead has hosted this yuletide propaganda effort. In 2015 and 2016, a series of toy gun grabs were organized by Manhattan socialite Jean Shafiroff. At the 2016 iteration, Shafiroff told Newsday her motivation behind the event, stating, “I wanted children to know toy guns are not good toys… By exchanging them for a much better gift, it shows a toy gun is not worth having.”

Toy gun turn-ins have long been a staple of anti-gun activists’ indoctrination efforts, with various types of payouts and foolish spectacle.

In 2010, Providence, R.I. held a Christmastime turn-in where tots were encouraged by the state’s attorney general to toss their toys into a plastic shredder dubbed the Bash-O-Matic, which the Boston Globe described as “a large black, foam creature with churning metal teeth and the shape of a cockroach spliced with a frog.” A 2011 toy turn-in in Buffalo, N.Y. bribed the local children with pizza. When asked about their plans for the pretend ordnance, the Buffalo organizers said they would place the toys in a coffin and bury them as a “symbolic” act.

A 1997 toy gun “buyback” in Rockville, Md. gave children who placed their violent toys in a “peace drum” a new “toy of peace” and asked them to help construct a “Peace Pole.” Another 1997 turn-in at Northern Light School in Oakland, Calif. resulted in a bizarre statue of the ruined toys and the praise of real firearms confiscation advocate Hillary Clinton.

As NRA-ILA has repeatedly pointed out, there is nothing unhealthy about playing with toy guns. In an interview with WebMd.com clinical psychologist and best-selling author Michael G. Thompson, Ph.D. stated, “Everyone has an informal causation theory that playing with guns leads to the use of guns in adulthood,” but that, “There's no scientific evidence suggesting that playing war games in childhood leads to real-life aggression.” The Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development notes, “If playful aggression is supported, it is highly beneficial to child development,” and that, “The act of pretending to be aggressive is not equivalent to being aggressive.”

As Acosta pointed out, toy gun turn-ins aren’t about the toys. These events are about conditioning children against all firearm ownership and use. Covering a 1999 toy turn-in in Buffalo, N.Y., a Buffalo News article titled, “Toy gun buyback sends disarming message to young,” reported this fact, noting, “The idea behind the buyback, community leaders said, is to send a message: guns are bad – all guns are bad.”

It’s unfortunate that the deep hatred some have towards America’s legitimate gun culture has compelled them to exploit the Christmas season and impressionable youngsters to score cheap political points. A November 2016 Gallup poll found that 77 percent of U.S. adults thought that “Americans are greatly divided when it comes to the most important values.” Rather than replace a few perfectly good toys, these anti-gun extremists could help provide the entire country what it wants for Christmas, a short respite from the ceaseless political strife, if only they could manage to curb their intolerance for a few brief moments this year.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; buybacks; christmas; gun; in; indoctrinate; kids; toy; turn; turnin
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To: Secret Agent Man

Oh the liberal hypocrisy.


21 posted on 12/24/2018 10:27:01 PM PST by Jaded (Pope Francis? Not really a fan... miss the last guy who recognized how Islam spread... the sword.ag)
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To: bonfire

I hope she does.


22 posted on 12/24/2018 10:35:54 PM PST by Lockbar (What would Vlad The Impaler do?)
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To: LibWhacker

So lemme get this straight. Kids who play with oty guns become potential killers? Does this mean providing kids with sex ed makes them potential porn stars and prostitutes?


23 posted on 12/24/2018 10:44:54 PM PST by Impala64ssa
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Hempstead Village is the inner city. It is gang central in Nassau County with crips, bloods, nietas, ms 13, the whole nine yards. School district has like a 25% grad rate and the gabgs and their guns are heroes to the kids.


24 posted on 12/24/2018 11:04:33 PM PST by xkaydet65
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To: LibWhacker

The Hampstead area of LI is where MS 13 killed a couple of teenagers in a nasty way. The victims would have wished that they had guns.


25 posted on 12/25/2018 1:53:08 AM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Jaded

Believe it or not, I too have banned toy guns from my household.

When my daughter was born, I commissioned my blacksmith knife maker to build a custom skinner/hunter for her. It’s beautiful.

When she was 3 I started to build her her first rifle - While other kids will be getting a single shot 22, I built her a 10-22 that looks like an archangel. I have her AR15 80% lower ready to go too.

She’ll get these probably this year. She’s 4.

i decided to teach my kids the severity of guns as “All guns are real” and simply don’t want her playing with toy guns. I want her practicing with a real one.


26 posted on 12/25/2018 4:44:52 AM PST by Celerity
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To: LibWhacker

Have a toy replica Colt. 45 peacemaker, great for a spinner.

Someday I wanna spin as good as Sammy Davis.

Practice, practice, practice.


27 posted on 12/25/2018 5:02:23 AM PST by Gasshog ( Fight climate change - Try beating the air and scream at the sky)
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To: LibWhacker

I think this is a good idea I am thinking of a private gun buy back. $25 for all functioning firearms turned in with a small premium paid for DAniel Defense Westley-Richards purdey original colt Saa Springfield Socom les Baer pre 64 Winchester’s CZ 75 etc


28 posted on 12/25/2018 5:06:16 AM PST by 2nd Amendment
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To: Secret Agent Man

so they cannot stop lobtard socialist policies

You made a great new word, good show.

Liberalism is a type of lobotomy for sure.

Lobtards!!


29 posted on 12/25/2018 5:08:48 AM PST by Gasshog ( Fight climate change - Try beating the air and scream at the sky)
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To: Impala64ssa

Close if you change potential Killers to Professional Killers!!


30 posted on 12/25/2018 5:11:02 AM PST by Gasshog ( Fight climate change - Try beating the air and scream at the sky)
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To: LibWhacker

The pansy that provided the toys really needs to go to the gangbangers with this.


31 posted on 12/25/2018 5:16:22 AM PST by raybbr (That progressive bumper sticker on your car might just as wll say, "Yes, I'm THAT stupid!"to)
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To: LibWhacker

Remember Remco toy products? They had a full line of military combat toys. Like the Monkey helmet, mortars, grenades,M-14, and Laws rocket launchers. Boy those were the good ol days.


32 posted on 12/25/2018 6:08:09 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: 2nd Amendment
I think this is a good idea I am thinking of a private gun buy back. $25 for all functioning firearms turned in with a small premium paid for DAniel Defense Westley-Richards purdey original colt Saa Springfield Socom les Baer pre 64 Winchester’s CZ 75 etc

I'll up the ante to $50 for any H&H double...
33 posted on 12/25/2018 6:34:52 AM PST by farming pharmer
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To: LibWhacker

My brother and I received starter pistols and 200 rounds of blank cartridges... they were snub nosed beauties and we played Elliot ness and the untouchables off our front porch in baltimore ... what a literal blast.


34 posted on 12/25/2018 6:40:11 AM PST by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world.)
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To: Freedom4US
They don’t particularly care about the violent, thuggery types. It does scare the shit out of many, and makes everybody OK (sort of) with an over-reaching police state. So there’s that. It is the normal, peaceable people, the great mass of citizenry who need to be disarmed, in their view.

The inner-city thugs will not oppose socialism. They don't pay taxes, and their relatives benefit from welfare.

It's the conservatives they want to be able to control and suppress. Our being armed is a barrier to their ultimate intentions.

35 posted on 12/25/2018 6:41:54 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
All this nonsense got started with the murder of Bobby Kennedy back in 1968.

It really got rolling with the murder of John Lennon. It drove home to celebrities and elites that it doesn't matter how many bodyguards you have, if some nutcase with no prior record wants you dead.

36 posted on 12/25/2018 6:54:45 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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To: Celerity

We did the same with our girls, but we waited until they were a few years older, 7 if I remember right.


37 posted on 12/25/2018 7:50:09 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: bonfire

Only very weak men are influenced by MIL’s.


38 posted on 12/25/2018 8:04:37 AM PST by Demanwideplan
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To: bonfire

They’d get a cap busted on the sorry, white liberals a***s if they did that. And someone would be getting some nice jewelry, a cellphone or a Rolex for Kwanzaa. Dead folk don’t need none of that stuff anyway. If you don’t believe me ask the two girls from up north about going into areas where they don’t believe the PC crap. Oh sorry you can’t, someone cut off the pretty little heads.


39 posted on 12/25/2018 8:06:01 AM PST by redangus (actually hit her?)
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To: Impala64ssa

I do not think that sex-ed teaches boy-girl sex today. It might, but I do not think so. What I believe that they teach today in sex-ed is boy-boy and girl- girl sex. Along with boys can be girls, girls can be boys, men can be women, women can be men. With some trans this, trans that included.


40 posted on 12/25/2018 8:18:50 AM PST by sport
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