The latest school-led indoctrination and brainwashing of our children that firearms in all forms are evil and should not be possessed takes form as a "toy gun exchange" or "buy-back" at Strobridge Elementary School in Hayward, California. Yes, school administrators are now incentivizing schoolchildren to give up their toys - toys that those administrators have decided are bad for them.
Do you think these school administrators gave any thought toward the following?
1) The parents of these children must not be as anti-gun or "zero tolerant" of firearms as the administrators are or the children wouldn't have any toy guns to exchange.
2) These kids, who obviously already have played with guns, are probably turning in their broken squirt guns, other broken toy guns, and toy guns for which they've lost all the projectiles (air soft guns, nerf guns, etc.) There's a high likelihood that they're not turning in their entire functioning arsenals - they're keeping their operational or favorite ones.
Through this campaign, what are they teaching is the going rate for giving up your 2nd Amendment rights? Civil rights come cheaply in California - they're equivalent to a raffle ticket for a new bicycle. That's right, give up something for certain and get just a chance at something else.
Can you believe this nonsense? "Charles Hill, the school’s principal, explained, "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." " Really? Then why don't we have MANY more criminals and murderers than we do? Why isn't every boy and some of the girls I knew growing up behind bars or dead by violence by now? People with extremist views like this should NOT be responsible for teaching our children. Psychology experts can't even come to agreement about whether books, movies, television and immersive video games are responsible for that level of desensitization and Hill thinks it's accomplished through normal play that's occurred throughout our country's history.
Perhaps Hill could provide his intellectual opinion of the negative side effects of simply living in Hayward. Hayward, after all, is very near the mythical town of Charming, California, home of the Samcro Chapter of the Sons of Anarchy - a very violent motorcycle club that not only uses guns regularly but is actually in the business of arms trafficking. This excellent TV show has very strong following. Does living in Hayward or watching the show desensitize people and turn them into future criminals too, or it just just child-play that is so dangerous?
This article, critical of this toy gun roundup, is well written and easy to read.
http://townhall.com/columnists/jamesallen/2013/06/09/the-toy-gun-buyback-program-n1616063
These articles are very short and provide little information not covered in the Town Hall article. There are a couple things though. At least one person understands.
"But at least one gun rights advocate questioned the principal’s stance on guns.
"Guns are used in crimes, but they are more often used in defensive ways which prevent violent crime from occurring in the first place,” said Yih-Chau Chang, a spokesman for the Responsible Citizens of California."
It also appears that a police officer was present to provide actual firearms safety training. I wonder if he had to demonstrate using toy guns due to a school "zero tolerance" gun policy. Thankfully, there were some available at the event.
"A Hayward police officer was also at the event to teach bicycle and gun safety, and the Alameda County Fire Department had a crew discuss fire safety"
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/09/california-school-holds-toy-gun-exchange/
http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2013/6/9/california_elementar.html
This is the longest and most comprehensive of the 4 articles about this event.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23406432/hayward-school-sponsors-toy-gun-exchange
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June 20, 2013
Ted Nugent has some thoughts he'd like to share with Principal Charles Hill of Strobridge Elementary in Hayward, California and those who think the same way he does regarding toys, guns, the effectiveness on gun violence of buybacks of either, the role of education and a few other things.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/indoctrination-not-education/
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Related blogs:
http://us2ndamendment.blogspot.com/2013/06/toy-gun-exchange.html
Firearms Blog Collections
California Firearms Blogs
From Gun Buy-Back to Gun Show
Recovering Confiscated or Relinquished Firearms
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