THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, U.S.A.
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume V, Issue # 187, July 21, 2003
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
LEGISLATION BANNING TOY GUNS: A SENSELESS ABUSE OF GOVERNMENTAL POWER
By Tom DeWeese
What would you do if a seven-year-old kid walked into a store where you were working or shopping and brandished a gun and said
he was robbing the place? I'd slap his rear and take him home to his mother. Liberals shake in their shoes and misplace their backbones
with legislation to ban toy guns.
In Annapolis, Maryland, a seven-year-old child walked into a video store holding a toy gun and announced he was holding up the
place. Now, Alderman Cynthia Carter has introduced legislation in the Annapolis City Council to not only ban all toy guns, but also
fine parents of any children caught playing with them, even in their own yards. What a senseless abuse of government power!
When I was a kid, my heroes were Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy. They carried guns and so did I. I had a large arsenal of pistols,
shot guns, derringers, and air rifles--all toys, of course. I spent many an evening after school with my friends playing cowboys and
Indians or cops and robbers. We formed armies and built forts. We shouted, "bang, you're dead." Then, when our mothers called us,
we went home and had supper.
Let me also explain that I didn't live a utopian "Leave it To Beaver" lifestyle. I was the original latchkey kid, as both of my parents
worked and no one was home when I got out of school. And my possession and use of toy guns didn't groom me to be a gun fanatic
or violent predator. Though I am a member of the National Rifle Aassociation (NRA) and fully advocate gun ownership, as an adult I
have never owned a real one.
My play was about good and evil. As my friends and I wore our gun belts, we were after the bad guys--people who stole other people's
property or threatened lives. Very few of us ever wanted to be the crooks. That's how we played it because that's how Roy and Hoppy
played it. Guns were an extension of morality. They helped equalize the weaker over the bully. The cowboy shows of the day called
guns "peace makers" because being able to defend yourself was almost a guarantee that nobody would mess with you.
Skip to today, to a world where guns are always depicted as an evil, something to fear. The contemporary era is a world where kids learn
that guns are only for violence. It is a world where "zero tolerance" laws make a school suspend children simply for pointing their fingers
at someone and saying "bang." With such fear of guns drilled into our society, is it a surprise that a store full of adults would simply
freeze as a seven-year-old held up the place?
Nothing today is beyond the reach of those who would control all aspects of our so- ciety by banning anything with which they don't
agree. No idea is too far-fetched or outrageous to be considered. No invasion of personal family choice is unreasonable.
There is no need to ban toy guns. There are already laws on the books making it illegal to rob stores. If a gun is used, even a toy
gun, the crime committed is armed robbery, for which there are very severe penalties.
Perhaps, of course, the bystanders in the store can't be faulted for taking no action against this brat. Had they taken my recommended
course and spanked him, they would have been arrested for child abuse. No wonder Liberals want to ban guns. Their real fear is that the
rest of us will gleefully shoot them. Bang, bang, you're dead!
More on Liberals, Statists, Socialists, & Other Leftists
Tom DeWeese is the Publisher and Editor of THE DEWEESE REPORT and President of the American Policy Center, a grassroots
activist think tank. Headquartered in Warren- ton, Virginia, the Center maintains an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org. Mailing
Address: American Policy Center, 50-A South Third St. (#1), Warrenton, VA 20186. Telephone: (540) 341-8911.
Copyright 2003 Tom DeWeese
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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