That is a load of horseshit roughly equal to that in Augeas’ stables.
When I was in 7th grade I bought a little derringer cap pistol like that on a school field trip to Disneyland. I showed it around to my friends on the bus ride back, in clear view of teachers and other adult supervisors, and as I recall no punitive action followed.
In ninth grade, I carried around a live .45 ACP cartridge with the name of a kid I couldn’t stand inscribed on the jacket of the 230gr round nose bullet. During one altercation with him I displayed it so that he might fully appreciate the implied threat. He never bothered me again, and I was neither expelled, suspended, nor recommended for psychiatric evaluation, and yet somehow I never perpetrated a school shooting.
Different fucking country then.
[/quote]
A place where Men were Men and Women were Women. Now the lines are blurred.
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Not really, the line are not blurred. The above is still true, it’s just the incredible stupidity of people not to understand it that’s the problem. A man in a dress is still a man. A sissy for sure, but a man.
I have a bizarre perspective on this.
I am a leftwinger who is against gun control. We exist.
I am against children playing with toy guns, but in favour of them learning to handle real ones.
I’m aware that’s going to take a bit of explanation, but the way I see it, toys are not guns and guns are not toys and that lesson is best learned at an early age.
[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
I have a bizarre perspective on this.
I am a leftwinger who is against gun control. We exist.
I am against children playing with toy guns, but in favour of them learning to handle real ones.
I’m aware that’s going to take a bit of explanation, but the way I see it, toys are not guns and guns are not toys and that lesson is best learned at an early age.
[/quote]
I tend to think that if somebody learns the habit of waving a toy around as if it was a weapon, he may later acquire the habit of waving a weapon around as if it was a toy. I have handled various weapons as part of pest control on local farms, and I can say frankly that those who played with toy guns as children were the worst.
Every word out of their mouth, they would gesture with the weapon at who they were talking to, they kept the things loaded when they shouldn’t have, they did loads of stuff that IMO their fathers should have confiscated their weapons for, whatever their age.
[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
I tend to think that if somebody learns the habit of waving a toy around as if it was a weapon, he may later acquire the habit of waving a weapon around as if it was a toy. I have handled various weapons as part of pest control on local farms, and I can say frankly that those who played with toy guns as children were the worst. Every word out of their mouth, they would gesture with the weapon at who they were talking to, they kept the things loaded when they shouldn’t have, they did loads of stuff that IMO their fathers should have confiscated their weapons for, whatever their age.[/quote]
Aren’t you generalizing a bit? For example, I played with toy guns my whole life. Heck I still play with toy guns. Yet I don’t wave any of my real guns around like they are toys, I was taught to respect real guns .
It sounds like you’ve experienced poor parenting more than anything.
Should we not allow girls to play with Barbies because it could lead to a poor body image?
[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
It is generalising, yes, but I think when you’re writing a general rule, you should pay attention to general examples.[/quote]
Well, in general, people don’t shoot other people and I can say with relative certainty that the majority of American boys played with guns growing up.
Probably, yeah. Like I say, I absolutely oppose any legislation whatsoever of firearms. Certain things are too dangerous to write blithe, generalised rules about and prohibition is an invitation to disobedience.
What I do argue for is for parents to take firearms education seriously. I also think that weapon handling should be taught in schools. There is nothing wrong with dedicating, say, an hour of gym class a month, to practising handling a .22 rifle (I despise shotguns as they damage valuable timber trees. IMO it’s the weapon of an aristocratic knob.)
[quote]Der_Steppenwolfe wrote:
Probably, yeah. Like I say, I absolutely oppose any legislation whatsoever of firearms. Certain things are too dangerous to write blithe, generalised rules about and prohibition is an invitation to disobedience.
What I do argue for is for parents to take firearms education seriously. I also think that weapon handling should be taught in schools. There is nothing wrong with dedicating, say, an hour of gym class a month, to practising handling a .22 rifle (I despise shotguns as they damage valuable timber trees. IMO it’s the weapon of an aristocratic knob.)[/quote]
I’d like to see firearm safety taught in school. It will never happen in Maryland, but I’m still holding hope that we’ll (Western MD) be the 51st state.
I’m not sure American should sacrifice gym time though
True. Gym class in this country (the UK) is a joke, btw. We used to get two hours every two weeks. Maybe an additional, afterschool class would be appropriate. I don’t know, I’m not a teacher. But dammit, a generation of kids who can’t shoot is a generation of kids who have no knowledge of how to protect the country’s means of production.
Me and my sister have made a round shoulder bag with a length of string sticking out of it. You know, like danger mouse bombs?
Some day, I plan to take it through airport security. I haven’t dared to or had the opportunity yet though.
