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Kids turn in toy guns at elementary school buyback

June 18, 2013

ToygunsChildren at a California elementary school are relinquishing their firearms. [Washington Times]

Strobridge Elementary School in Hayward held a “Safety Day” on June 8, at which students received books and raffle tickets in exchange for their toy guns.

School principal Charles Hill, who created the program, said toy guns teach kids not to take real guns seriously.

“Playing with toy 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 told the San Jose Mercury News.

Advocates of the right to carry firearms disagreed.

“Having a group of children playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians is a normal part of growing up,” said spokesman for Responsible Citizens of California Yih-Chau Chang.

The school safety day also included fingerprinting and photographing of children for the purpose of creating missing child CDs that parents could have in case their kids disappear.

 


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And I suppose everyone…including the kid who forgot his piece at home…..received a reward. Sheeple….that about says it.


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In an unrelated story Amtrak allows passengers to pack firearms aboard!


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I think this is excellent training for our future “sheeple”.


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Any child in public school is no longer educated, rather they are indoctrinated. Hooray for Common Core! Yay!


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ya know r0y, we may or may not agree/disagree at times, but this is silly. people should really deal with the underlying reasons at a high level; why bury oneself in details? no crititism of you, we all need to take it to a higher level. maybe that’s what we can’t deal wtih?


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The only way I see this “buy back” program having any real effect is for the home with children who do allow the kids to play with toy guns (no harm there, really, other than getting used to pointing a pretend weapon at a person) and those same homes have adults who own firearms who are NOT responsible gun owners, and also happen to own some handguns, especially the smaller, easier to use kind that a child could operate more easily. The irresponsible gun owner might leave a loaded weapon laying around or not take great pains to keep them out of harm’s way, and the child finds the gun and not being instructed as to how dangerous they can be, pretends to shoot someone, only to actually pull the trigger on a real, loaded weapon. I would assume that this scenario happening would be pretty rare, but helping to educate children about guns and the uses for them certainly cannot be a “bad” thing. I’m sure that there are kids at this school that do not want to turn in their toy guns; as long as they are not “made to do so”, what is the real harm in a program like this?


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nanny state


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As long as every form of social media, entertainment, politics (domestic and global), sports, parenting, education, etc. provides a constant stream of some sort of violence, turning in toy guns doesn’t have any chance of making a difference.


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yes, especially politics


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I suppose we should have all little girls turn in their baby dolls as well. After all, we don’t want them getting the idea that having a baby around is easy work and then be enticed to get pregnant at an early age.


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especially that Barbie!


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No way! Keep the barbies: give them an ideal to shoot for!


/ducks


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not a bad idea barbie & teals


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My family has had guns since I was a little kid and even those evil toy guns. We played army, cops and robbers, etc. We also learned to respect the weapons we owned before we were ever able to go out and shoot. We have been shooting and hunting ever since and guess what, none of my family members have ever committed a violent crime involving a firearm or otherwise. The school seems to forget that it has more to do with the parents and what is going on at home than it does the toys the kids are playing with.


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but they might, they might. ;>) p.s. find a euphimism for owning guns, someone is listening


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How about we just teach kids the truth–guns themselves aren’t “bad” or “good.” It’s the person who uses the gun. This school principal should know better. Hayward/Oakland/East Bay has a high homicide rate and the thugs using the guns are the problem, not the weapons themselves.


Thugs also use their fists and knives; will this clueless school principal also ask for toy knives to be turned in? How about bow and arrows? Water pistols? Plastic grenades?


The schools should focus on EDUCATION, not indoctrination. I’d be curious to see the test scores for Strobridge Elementary. The principal should focus on teaching kids to read and write–you know, what schools are supposed to do.


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turn in your toy fists?


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while we’re at it, take away the video games and Star Wars movies


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And Dodge Ball. Schools should eliminate all activities that call for any sort of competition or keeping score, as this promotes aggrssive behavior in kids. Then we should make kids all sit in circles singing Kumbayah.


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i sang Kumbayah at camp….didn’t work. never gave kids or grandkids guns, didn’t encourage it and what did they do? picked up sticks and said “bang bang”. and Dodge Ball has been eliminated anyway. yeah, you’re right there, too; everyone gets a trophy.


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beautiful song for kids to sing


need to take away voices and minds because they can incite riots or start wars


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