You need to supervise them. Don't let them go running around the town with toy guns or BB guns that look like the real thing.
This is what happens: The kid points the gun at an adult. The adult calls the cops. The cops show up to a "armed perp" call. Then maybe your kid points the gun at the cops.
Now, if your kid is maybe six years old, the cops might ask the kid to please put down the gun and you're going to get a hell of a lecture. You might even have some legal troubles.
But if your kid is 12 or 13 and he (for it's almost always boys) points what looks to be a gun at a cop, he is going to get shot to doll rags. That will be even more likely to happen in cities and places where it is not unheard of for kids that age to commit armed robberies.
It's possible that the person that the kid pointed a gun at has his or her own gun and they shoot your kid. Whether your kid was killed by a cop or an armed citizen, they will probably feel really bad about it afterwards. But legally, they're going to be in the clear, maybe 99.44% of the time. What a rational person would assume to be a gun was pointed at them; the law does not require them to take fire before defending themselves.
You will be left with some mementos of your child and a grave to visit.
True, race and class enter into this and may have an effect on the outcome. But that's a bigger problem to solve.
Don't let your kids run around with realistic-looking toy guns.
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6 comments:
I know of a case where a 12-year-old was taken down for pointing his hand in a gun shape. So, no... toy guns are a bad idea.
"kids run around with realistic-looking toy guns"
What boy kid would be satisfied with some toy thing that didn't look like a realistic gun? And if you don't provide them with it, they'll save up for one or trade for one. Particularly in neighborhoods where guns endow you with respect.
And our media where pornography is (was) hidden away but violence and macho testosteronic violence is glorified....and guns with them.
Then there's the larger problem: kids that never grew up or grew up wrong running around with real guns.
I keep coming back to the 12 year old that Nangleator refers to. Hey, you know what? Real bullets can come out of a pointed finger.bAll you have to do is imagine real hard and say, "Bang Bang!"
That's why the cops had every right and reason to shoot a 12-year-old who pointed at them. If you really, really, really want to protect your kids from "tragic mistakes," cut off their fingers.
Yours very crankily,
The New York Crank
In my anecdote, the kid being "taken down" was tackled and screamed at. I should have been clearer.
His dad was also ordered to sit on the sidewalk and be yelled at too, by the off-duty officer.
Point taken, Nengleator. But it's only a matter of time until some kid points and a cop shoots and says, "Well, with the light in my eyes, it looked like a Glock."
Crankily,
The New York Crank
I had a Daisy BB gun when I was six. I was taught to treat it like any other gun. Took me a while, though, and I had screwed up with it a couple of times before my dad "cleared" me for an actual firearm when I was nine. Can't do it that way any more. I'm glad I was born when and where I was.
-Doug in Oakland
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