MADNESS AFTER GIRL, 4, DRAWS GUN PIC AT SCHOOL
This article really hit home. I have some grandkids who are afraid of the dark and worry about monsters in the closet. What I often do is tell them we have a special friend named St. Michael who has a big sword to protect them and that I have one too. Then I take a pretend sword out of my pretend scabbard and run it under the bed to kill and chase away all the monsters. Sometimes I give the frightened child the pretend sword and tell them they have nothing to fear.... But suppose I gave them a pretend gun and told them it had magic bullets that were like monster sensors and when they shot the gun it would kill the monsters. Don't you think that child might draw a gun in a picture and say, "My Gramma has a gun that kills monsters and sometimes she gives it to me."
This is one more example of a culture out of control that makes parents the bad guys by default. The people in charge have no sense, common or otherwise. And, as far as I can see, it's one more reason to home school and get your kids as far from these psycho-babble folks as possible. These are the same people who have little kindergarten boys arrested for sexual harrassment because they kiss girls on the playground.
But why do you even use the sword/gun imagery? We have a squirt bottle with "magic water" that scares monsters away. I doubt a kid would get in trouble for drawing a squirt bottle. Guns are violent objects. There is no place for them in my home and I wish there was no place for them in society, either. I teach my kids that guns are not OK, ever. And yes, that means hunting, too. The fact that this is still considered a "sport" is unbelievable to me.
ReplyDeleteSt. Michael carries a sword. Somehow I don't think a squirt bottle has the same impact. And guns are a tool. If I were really hungry, I'd be happy to be able to take a shotgun and go into the woods to find dinner. Hunting isn't just a "sport" but a form of providing. I know plenty of low income folks here in the Valley who supplement their table with venison, squirrel, and various fowl.
ReplyDeleteAnd really, is strangling a chicken less violent than chopping its head off? Perhaps you are a vegetarian. If not, you simply let someone else perform the "violence" of killing your dinner. Butchering a steer is not exactly a bloodless activity.
Guns, knives, etc. are neither good nor evil. And if you look at the statistics between states that have stringent gun laws and those that don't, there is less violent crime where the citizens are armed. http://www.amazon.com/More-Guns-Less-Crime-Understanding/product-reviews/0226493644/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
February 25, 2012 8:19 PM
Insanity is vesting in an inanimate object the will to evil that we fear. Guns are, as my father used to say, among the simplest of all machines. He had a bullet catcher in the basement and we used to shoot all manner of guns down there, some even that shot at transonic velocities (better have ear protection) and it was great fun.
ReplyDeleteThe world is not a safe place but that is not because of guns or swords but because there are dangerous people and events. We have a natural right to defend ourselves and have the means of such defense. My dad when he was young made his own gun powder and used to shoot nails into telephone poles with a steal pipe, his home made gunpowder, and a fuse.
The people who are anti-gun are really afraid of their ignorance. "An armed society is a polite society." I'd rather live in a world where everyone was armed than be a slave to the anointed that think they are smarter than everyone else.