"I don't like squirt guns," said Mendez, 45, of the Northside. "I think toy guns send the wrong message, because what's next? I don't even like my daughter to touch them."
Julianna Thibodeaux, 40, who lives in Meridian-Kessler, doesn't like squirt guns, either.
"We're so saturated with violence as it is in the media and in our culture," she said. "Anything we can do to mitigate that is good. Besides, there are so many other water toys to play with, like bubbles or water balloons. It doesn't have to be a gun."
Good grief.
-eyes rolling-
ReplyDeleteSo sad. My usual line to ignorant parents like this is: Your child is going to be inundated daily with images, stories, and information about guns and violence. The sources are endless: movies, video games, magazines, playmates...it's just a reality of life.
The question is...where do you want him to learn about it first? From you, or the outside world?
Reminds me of when an industrial client wanted me to stop using the word "gun" when talking about an air gun.
ReplyDeleteAir guns and squirt guns don't lead to violence. Absolute stupidity, however, creates an environment where violence can thrive.
How to screw up your kids? Let them watch TV all the time. That'll do FAR MORE DAMAGE than exposing them to firearms under proper supervision.
ReplyDeleteI'd bet there were parents who didn't want their kids playing with wooden gladius and sticks for spears even as they tittered about the rumors of Goths pouring out of the Alps and onto the plains of Italy. It is well documented that the Romans,especially the Patrician class, came to depend upon mercs, instead of training their own to defend the Empire. I can almost see some indolent having his afternoon grapes, reclining and looking out over the area,noticing the smoke rising from a villa a couple of miles away and saying to Mums and Dads,"Say,it looks like some kind of trouble at Corneliuss' place."
ReplyDeleteI agree with Wesley, we've taken things too far. Let's start accepting responsibility for raising our lids ourselves instead of letting the computer and video games to do it for us.
ReplyDeleteaj
Excellent post Sean.
ReplyDeleteTruly empires tend to fall from within rather than without.
Early Rome could not have been conquered by the barbarians, but by the end Rome was weak, corupt, and soft, an easy target.