Elementary School Launches Toy Gun “Buy Back” Program
The latest installment of “Guys, I think we’re taking this shit a little too far” comes to us from Strobridge Elementary School in the San Francisco Bay area. An idea conjured and implemented by Principal Charles Hill rewarded students for exchanging, or “selling back,” their toy guns in exchange for books and raffle tickets, good for a chance to win a bicycle.
From Mercury News:
An elementary school [held] a toy gun exchange Saturday, offering students a book and a chance to win a bicycle if they turn in their play weapons.
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.
The program has ruffled a few feathers. A local gun activist, Yih-Chau Chang, spokesman for Responsible Citizens of California, weighed in on the matter, stating, “While the intentions are obviously good on the part of the school administration, this doesn’t really educate children about guns or gun safety.” “Guns are used in crimes, but they are more often used in defensive ways which prevent violent crime from occurring in the first place.”
That’s the rub, a simple pros versus cons debate. Will this help sensitize children to dangers of guns? Who knows? They’re just kids — they’re only concerned with booger picking, cooties, and playing with friends at that age.
Here’s what I want to know: What about the little finger pistolers? What do they get for turning in their weapons? Their toy guns are attached to their grubby little hands, so they obviously can’t turn those over. You think they just ask them to promise to keep them holstered? You can’t leave those guys out.
They’ll make their promises for a chance to win that new bike, but right when the event ends, you know those index fingers and thumbs are coming right back out.
[via Mercury News]
Image via Bay News 9
The kids are still going to play GTA and COD in a couple years so IT DOESN”T FUCKING MATTER!
12 years ago at 11:09 amThat’s right kids. Guns are scary. Give your guns to the government.
You can trust us, it’s not like we’re spying on you or anything.
12 years ago at 11:11 amWhat’s sad is that government spying is something both sides of the aisle agree on. I miss the days when the GOP actually stood for smaller government.
12 years ago at 12:20 pmWhen were those days? Unless you were alive before the New Deal I don’t think you’d remember those days…
12 years ago at 12:55 pm^
12 years ago at 2:35 pmThe NSA is not actually spying on innocent civilians like the media portrays it to be. They were/are collecting the phone records from mobile companies, such as, “This number called this number at this time/place/etc”, and it was done under legal warrant by our courts. Because infiltrating foreign threats with double agents or “moles” is risky and difficult, and due to pressure from the public, previous interrogation methods are no longer being used (damn shame), the NSA has to resort to using signals intelligence. This means they “activate” the phone numbers of suspected terrorists on a network which can only exist by having ALL of the connections (phone calls), and any time a new number comes up, it is added to the network. For those of you who have killed far too many brain cells, the NSA is playing connect the dots with suspected terrorists phone numbers so that you can sleep safely at night.
12 years ago at 4:05 pmThis program was also created during the Bush-era as a counter terrorism policy. So don’t take the words from talking heads to heart the next time an NSA agent pulls a Benedict Arnold.
12 years ago at 4:11 pm^It’s only a problem when it’s warrant-less surveillance. Law enforcement has been able to track phone calls etc since its inception. The Patriot Act/war on terror just makes the conditions more ambiguous, which is the problem
12 years ago at 8:30 pmI can’t wait for the big earthquake to hit California and get rid of those stupid liberals!
12 years ago at 11:12 amlike tornadoes are doing to conservatives?
12 years ago at 11:14 am^THIS. Just remember that the vast majority of land mass in California is red. Just look at Nor-Cal, it’s like somebody gave a 3 year old a red crayon and told them to have fun. Hell even the climate/ culture in Northern California is similar to that of North Texas and Oklahoma. Those ass douches from San Fran down the coast through San Diego are the reason California has the reputation it does.
12 years ago at 11:37 amUnfortunately, the blue areas are where the majority of the population and power reside in the State.
12 years ago at 12:41 pmBuying land on what’s soon to be Arizona Bay. TFM?
12 years ago at 6:06 pmWe can only hope.
12 years ago at 12:22 pmI blame my toy guns from my childhood for my violent thoughts, happy meals and not beer for my gut, and Barny for my views on homosexuality. Sound about right liberals?
12 years ago at 11:13 amYou forgot Mr. Rodgers.
12 years ago at 11:16 amI’m waiting to see what happens to water guns and nerf guns… The companies that make those toys must be outraged.
12 years ago at 11:15 amOur founding fathers would have expelled the Bay Area for the kind of dumb shit those people
12 years ago at 11:18 amPull all the time…
I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA!
12 years ago at 11:28 amThis is the United States of America
12 years ago at 1:11 pm“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.
When we were kids, we used to shoot each other with BB guns while riding bikes. It didn’t teach me not to go crazy and shoot people when I got older. It taught me proper gun control while riding a bike!
12 years ago at 11:28 amCalifornia, Land of the Fruits and Nuts.
12 years ago at 11:31 amVideo games like Call of Duty are way more desensitizing than toy guns or even real guns for that matter, but video games are “art” so they CAN’T be a bad thing, art is too pure! Liberal logic 101.
12 years ago at 11:33 amWhat the fuck kind of liberals do you talk to? I’m pretty sure liberals think violent video games are bad. Check out MAVAV.org if you want to get pissed off real quick.
12 years ago at 2:26 pm