An elementary school will hold a toy gun exchange Saturday, offering students a book and a chance to win a bicycle if they turn in their play weapons.Link
Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill maintains that children who play with toy guns may not take real guns seriously.
"Playing with toys guns, saying 'I'm going to shoot you,' desensitizes them, so as they get older, it's easier for them to use a real gun," Hill said.
At Saturday's event, called Strobridge Elementary Safety Day, a Hayward police officer will demonstrate bicycle and gun safety, and the Alameda County Fire Department is sending a rig and crew to talk about fire safety.
Fingerprinting and photographing of children will be offered, with the information put on CDs for parents to use, if needed, in a missing child case. All youngsters attending will be given a ticket to exchange for a book, Hill said.
Every child who brings a toy gun will get a raffle ticket to win one of four bicycles, Hill said.
Having a group of children playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians is a normal part of growing up," said Yih-Chau Chang, spokesman for Responsible Citizens of California, a group whose goal is to educate the public about the facts behind gun rights.
"While the intentions are obviously good on the part of the school administration, this doesn't really educate children about guns or gun safety," he said. "Guns are used in crimes, but they are more often used in defensive ways which prevent violent crime from occurring in the first place."
So the indoctrination continues. We're teaching an entire generation to be scared and ignorant of firearms...thus ensuring that gun safety becomes a relic of the past....and instilling a deeper sense of dependency on the State instead of accounting for your own safety, and that of your loved ones.
The meek shall indeed inherit the earth...right up until bullies take it away from them with incredible ease.
No word apparently, on whether lego guns, drawings of guns, pop tarts shaped like guns, or a verbal uttering of the word 'gun' will result in a free book.
I have always held the position that whether your child is home schooled or stuck in the public school system, it is YOUR duty as their parent to teach them the truth, what's important and what will keep them alive. All too often, this will go against public indoctrination, but oh well, you are still the parent and they are still your responsibility. Anyone not willing to do that little bit for their child is a lazy coward.
ReplyDeleteThat's right. Baby steps. Communism and evil have unlimited patience.
ReplyDeleteAmerican education morphed into instruction many years ago, then training, & now indoctrination.
ReplyDeletePerhaps some parents can ask that Hayward show-cop about the extent (that being 'none') that police are obligated to protect individuals, or what can be done while a victim is waiting for the police to arrive after (& only after) a crime is committed.
I've been reading some other opinions that this particular paradigm, regarding guns and 'good citizenship' [to the State] began with the DARE program.
ReplyDeleteStart with liberal school administrators and teachers who focus more on self esteem than learning....add in a dash of 'government is good for you'...and viola!
And insist the cop at the exchange be disarmed.
ReplyDeleteExactly....after all, it's a 'gun free zone' right?
DeleteThe thinking of these progressive educators is flawed. We assure greater gun safety when parents teach their children to handle firearms responsibly. It seems as if there just isn’t enough Kool-Aid to go around to a thirsty and thoroughly brainwashed society.
ReplyDeleteYet sadly [or ironically] the same gun control cabal that uses the banner of "gun safety" to hide their true agenda, is the same group of intellectual midgets who have resisted any and all attempts to introduce or retain actual gun safety education in our schools.
DeleteWhy don't they concentrate on the problems caused by so many children growing up without a tradidional family structure? As I recall, myself and all of my friends played with cap guns, graduated to BB Guns and then fully respected the 'real' guns that cane later. But, then again, we all had Fathers!
ReplyDeleteJack, parents can't handle them responsibly!
ReplyDeleteSad.
JonBerg, your response is excellent; I couldn't agree more. And, even in homes where a father had died or something, male family members helped a boy become a man. Today, there are few MEN left.
We played cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians too. That was many years ago. We used our fingers as guns. Not one of us children thought about having real guns. We were just having fun. It was no big deal.
ReplyDeleteBut then, in those days my parents focused on character issues, and expected us to do our best. Yep, in those days "one size did not fit all".
Today it's all about political correctness. Wasting class time, instead of focusing on real learning of academic lessons, teaching children to think! Self esteem can't be given to others, but teaching children to be responsible for their studying, learning, and being attentive in class is the key.
My grandson when he was five years old and in Kindergarten, early on, brought home a paper he'd done, and on it was a sticker from the teacher which said "good job"! I complimented him and he said, "it doesn't mean anything, everyone got one." Now, if a five year old "got it" surely adults with half a brain would "get it" too. He knew it was meaningless at such a young age.
Political correctness is such a negative, yet it's pervasive. Is it any wonder that many average students, will not aspire for merit rather than just coasting along?
Political correctness is a part of the communist agenda. It makes you weak and steals your liberty and freedom of speech.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks there is not a concerted effort on the left to make gun ownership illegal needs to do more reading. Now let’s see … in spite of the warnings by Jefferson and Jackson, the US proceeded with a national bank. No surprise that Woodrow Wilson approved the Fed and national taxation at the same time—one supports the other. Moreover, Wilson managed to make US senators beholden to the federal government, rather than the states from which they come; no mere coincidence that. Then of course, Wilson Progressives created the American education system, designed to indoctrinate, rather than education. So, here we are today: International banking runs the country, states are no longer sovereign, our people are stupid, and now … if the government can just get those damn guns away from us, we’ll finally realize the United Soviet States of America: good job, voters.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably an outlier, as I didn't grow up with a father...but still grew up playing Army. Joined the Explorer Scout Search and Rescue Team....learned to shoot and put all of my Army playing into practice.
ReplyDeleteI think lack of fathers can certainly have an effect, but I think we've also seen a forced evolution of our boys and men, from being the rugged [and yes, at times chauvinist] protectors....to squishy nancy-boys. Look at how we're portrayed in TV commercials.
Political correctness is a bit tougher to nail down, as it really has become a pejorative against anything someone doesn't like. Political correctness can exist on both sides of the spectrum...though each side fails to acknowledge it on their own turf.
So, exactly what percentage of people who played with guns as children have grown up to use guns to harm or kill someone else? Or is this just that principal's misguided thought processes?
ReplyDeleteI suspect the percentage is decimalized and the principal is incapable of rational thought (although I'm certain he thinks he is thinking rationally).
Joe, this sort of study would be an actual wise investment of someone's generally irrelevant Sociology degree. Compare the criminal records of those who were raised to respect firearms, versus those who were raised in front of an X-Box and gun fantasy.
DeleteCI,
ReplyDeleteI agree completely.