Indeed! I literarlly felt my heart sink.
I agree whole heartedly that this is insidious propaganda and it's meant to soften up future generations when the REAL gun confiscation begins.
No doubt, as it has absolutely nothing to do with the lies of Providence municipal and law enforcement officials about having "organized the event around Christmastime as a way to raise awareness of the dangers of playing with guns, real or fake." Following their logic and example, let's organize an LEO-dismissing event around Easter to raise awareness that law enforcement is dangerous because they carry firearms.
Yes, I said
lies. Read on:
Accidental motor vehicle deaths are more than 28 times more prevalent than accidental firearms deaths. Do we "raise awareness of the dangers" by crunching toy cars, including HotWheels and battery-powered kidding carts?
No, as that would be utterly absurd. Instead, we teach our children basic laws and common-sense rules of the road, such as only crossing the street when the light's in your favor, driving on the right side of the road, not allowing yourself to become distracted, etc., as well as taking them along with as as we drive places.
In short, we teach them that cars can be dangerous if handled inappropriately, but useful tools when handled appropriately, and we certainly teach them the latter. In fact, I think drivers' education is mandatory in all 50 states, as it is throughout most of the civilized world.
Guns are far less dangerous than motor vehicles, nearly thirty times less, even though we have approximately the same number of firearms here in the U.S. as we have motor vehicles (at least the ratio is less than 2).
Do firearms require respect? Yes.
Should parents educate their children about the dangers of firearms? Yes.
Should they do so by saying, "Bad gun! BAD gun!" while tossing it into a cruncher? Given their children are 28 times more likely to die in a motor vehicle accident, should they "Bad car! BAD car!" while tossing it into a junkyard?
Remember all those SATs and ACTs we took in high school? Here's a question for you:
Motor vehicle safety is to parent and school-based driver education as firearms safety is to:
1. shredding and/or banning firearms
2. joining the Brady Campaign
3. parent and program-based firearms education i.e. the NRA's Eddie Eagle programs
4. initiating "man with a gun" calls to 911
Guns are neither inherently evil nor good. Yet, I posed the question to one of my FB friends, did they suppose that the guns in the hands of the American GIs that liberated Auschwitz-- were those also EVIL guns?
Very sane thought!
I'm sorry, but sadly the populace has become so damned stupid these days...
Sad, but true, and I hate to say it, but our boys in blue often do it to themselves when they come up with totally illogical, hare-brained ideas like the one mentioned in the OP's link.
...it's hard to make the case that many of these folks are worthy of the rights that our founders fought and bled for.
I suppose if these people are that stupid, perhaps they or their children
shouldn't have access to guns. After all, isn't a gross lack of IQ merely another form of mental incompetancy? Would that not disqualify them under the usual psychological incompetance rule?
And for that matter, what if they're law-enforcement? Given the unmitigable danger of firearms, I'm quite certain they should be the first to toss their firearms on the burning alter of gun-free justice! No? Well, if not, then by not doing so while demanding we do, they've raised the specter of facism over our beloved country, but that's a topic for another thread...
I'll say one thing, by eliminating themselves from the gun-toting gene pool, they're making a good argument that they're either only borderline cases, or simply those who would prefer not to handle or otherwise think about firearms, and that's fine! If the latter, I respect that choice as much as I respect anyone's choice to carry, whether open carry, or concealed carry.
The problem, however, is when people who're convinced "guns are evil," start insisting everyone else believe as they do.
Phooey!