Elementary School Holds Children's Toy Gun Buyback

[Klassy Kalashnikov 1,393]

I figured this was a dumbass chain e-mail or possibly a repost from the Onion. Unfortunately, this was a real event (and has been held annually for 7 years) and this steaming pile of shit is actually real and appeared in the Boston Globe last week....

 

Maria Cramer, Globe Staff / Dec 19, 2010

PROVIDENCE — Dominic Johnson, a 10-year-old fourth-grader with a fledgling Mohawk, brandished his black, long-nosed toy gun and caressed the muzzle appreciatively.

 

“It’s like a shotgun mixed with a rifle,’’ he said, as his mother, April, told him to stop pointing it at nearby children.

 

Soon it would be junk.

 

Dominic joined dozens of children yesterday at the annual Toy Gun Bash in the gymnasium of Pleasant View Elementary School. There, they lined up to toss their toy guns, from dainty purple water guns to camouflage-painted pistols, inside the Bash-O-Matic, a large black, foam creature with churning metal teeth and the shape of a cockroach spliced with a frog.

 

Prodded by Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who wore a fuzzy Santa hat, the children stared curiously as the Bash-O-Matic mashed up their guns and digested them into a plastic bin near its tail.

 

“He ate it,’’ squealed one delighted little girl.

 

’Tis the season for joy, peace, and grinding up plastic, orange-tipped AK-47s.

 

For seven years, Providence municipal and law enforcement officials have organized the event around Christmastime as a way to raise awareness of the dangers of playing with guns, real or fake. The event is a mix of the macabre and the playful, a children’s version of the gun buyback program in which adults trade firearms for gift certificates.

 

Yesterday, younger children ran through a rubber obstacle course while officials told the older children the story of a 14-year-old boy who police nearly shot after they confused his air pistol with a real gun.

 

In exchange for their toy guns, all the children received wrapped presents that were indisputably not violent — dolls, stuffed animals, and board games like checkers.

 

Some children were not thrilled with the trade.

 

Malik Hall, a round-eyed second-grader, looked apprehensive as he stood in line with his favorite toy, a thick, blue gun with plastic sword underneath the muzzle. The 8-year-old was furious when his mother, Amanda, told him he would have to give it up. Yesterday morning, he tried to hide it under his pillow, she said.

 

“I’m worried,’’ she said. “He might cry.’’

 

But when it was his turn, Malik strode dry-eyed and with quiet dignity to the Bash-O-Matic and fed it the gun. When his mother approached, he said nothing.

 

“You don’t want to talk to me?’’ Hall asked. He looked at her stonily and left to retrieve his gift.

 

Hall said she had no regrets. The 26-year-old mother of six said she has been trying to wean her only son off toy guns for years. In kindergarten, he brought a pop gun to school and shot at a classmate when the child refused to return his toy truck.

 

The police and representatives of the state’s children services department rushed to the school, and the boy was expelled.

 

“He had it in his pants like a gangster,’’ Hall said. Yesterday, she had six other of his guns to feed the Bash-O-Matic, but she admitted she had let Malik keep one, a small pistol that shoots rubber targets.

 

“I mean, he is a boy,’’ she said.

 

Many of the children at yesterday’s gun bash were not making anything like Malik’s sacrifice.

 

Some parents confessed that they bought guns just a couple of days before the event so their children could get a gift or watch the Bash-O-Matic do its work.

 

“He likes the feeling of breaking things without getting in trouble,’’ said Dominic’s mother, April Johnson, who bought his gun just a couple of days ago.

 

One parent was motivated by tragedy.

 

Ardella Powell, 28, who came with her four children, said she wants to see the guns destroyed because it helps her cope with the violent death of the father of her 11-year-old son. The man was gunned down in 2003.

 

“I tell them that this is for a good cause,’’ she said. “It’s not just for a toy.’’

 

About 200 children attended the gun bash, said Jim Baum, a prosecutor with Lynch’s office who helps run it. The event used to be held four or five times a year, but budget cuts have forced them to scale back the program, he said. City and state employees donate many of the toys, along with nearby businesses.

 

“We hope it makes a difference,’’ Baum said.

 

Diane Levin, professor of education at Wheelock College, said police and parents coming together to destroy toy guns sends a powerful message to children.

 

But adults should follow up with children to explain the complexities of weapons and violence so they can more efficiently counter the seductive image of guns in movies and video games.

 

“It’s one piece of what needs to happen around this issue,’’ said Levin, coauthor of “The War Play Dilemma.’’ “There is also this side of [children] trying to understand why are there guns there, and why do people use them? When kids are getting all kinds of other messages about guns, it’s a more complicated issue than just having one day about how guns are bad.’’

 

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.

Edited December 23, 2010 by Classy Kalashnikov

[RobRez 1,895]

This should make it much easier to steal their lunch money!!!:lolol:

[Mullet Man 2,114]

And of course the only gun mentioned by name is an AK47, which was probably just a pistol squirt gun.

 

 

 

Conditioning ......beware!

[antinwo 57]

Link to CK's story..

 

Disarming the toy box

 

They are training the children to turn in guns.

[Heath_h49008 442]

That could be a good way to teach kids about Nazis. Make your kid take his favorite toy gun down and have it crushed... Then tell him this is what the world is like when you let evil people like these cops and politicians have control. Tell him "This is what Nazis do. You have done nothing wrong, but they want to smash your toy because they don't like it."

 

I think these kids might be learning something good after all.

[Bvamp 604]

where are our mass. residents? lets go next year with REAL guns and signs saying "never surrender your firearm to ANYONE, children. you live in America"

[yakdung 2,926]

[ktcm7271 999]

More proof that schools are being used to mold children minds to the will of the ruling power, and not to educate them for the future.

[Mullet Man 2,114]

More proof that schools are being used to mold children minds to the will of the ruling power, and not to educate them for the future.

 

 

No child left behind

[Vicarious_Lee 84]

More proof that schools are being used to mold children minds to the will of the ruling power, and not to educate them for the future.

 

 

No child left behind

 

Now that's Change I don't have to Believe In, it's right there in the government run re-education centers. Thanks for the link, Classy.

[Photoguy 202]

Police were called because a boy "shot" another with a pop gun.

 

 

A pop gun?

 

A POP gun!???

 

Police intervention, with flashing lights and wailing sirens, descending upon this little boy......for 'shooting' another kid with a pop gun.

 

"OMG! That child just propelled a plastic cup-like object attached to a short string at another child! That kid is endangering everyone in this classroom!! He's homicidal!!

 

I have to call 911!!!"

 

 

Guys, I'm sorry, but even exposed on regular occasions of the irrationality of liberals, I have difficulty wrapping my head around this.

[7N6Wolf 61]

More proof that schools are being used to mold children minds to the will of the ruling power, and not to educate them for the future.

 

Schools have been used for such purposes for centuries. The difference is that this school is taking it to absurd new levels. Sure, there are things that are learned, but in themselves, they are secondary to propaganda (and are tied in with propaganda whenever possible). As if things weren't bad enough with No Child Left Behind and thinly veiled privatization schemes with schools (Obama and Arne Duncan are fond of the idea of rewarding "better" schools with additional funding and such). I have worked as a janitor in public schools for over six years, and one can tell that the quality of the education has really taken a nosedive these days (and considering that I am 25 years old, it was not that long ago that I was in school). I have seen projects and such hanging up in the classrooms and halls, and even the gifted and talented students these days cannot spell things like "potato" (the way they spelled it makes me wonder if Dan Quayle is in that class), "tired", "accommodation", etc. They are probably lowering the passing criteria just so they can get additional funding, hence such sub-sophomoric errors being made by "gifted and talented" fifth and sixth graders (hell, by these criteria, the dumbest kids in my fifth and sixth grade classes were "gifted and talented").

 

And given how No Child Left Behind is ruining education these days, the fusion of propaganda and school education is becoming even easier and more blatant, as this story clearly shows. I would not be surprised if they started turning in copies of the Bill of Rights to be fed into the "Bash-O-Matic" one of these days.

Edited December 26, 2010 by 7N6Wolf

[uzitiger 193]

More proof that schools are being used to mold children minds to the will of the ruling power, and not to educate them for the future.

 

Schools have been used for such purposes for centuries. The difference is that this school is taking it to absurd new levels. Sure, there are things that are learned, but in themselves, they are secondary to propaganda (and are tied in with propaganda whenever possible). As if things weren't bad enough with No Child Left Behind and thinly veiled privatization schemes with schools (Obama and Arne Duncan are fond of the idea of rewarding "better" schools with additional funding and such). I have worked as a janitor in public schools for over six years, and one can tell that the quality of the education has really taken a nosedive these days (and considering that I am 25 years old, it was not that long ago that I was in school). I have seen projects and such hanging up in the classrooms and halls, and even the gifted and talented students these days cannot spell things like "potato" (the way they spelled it makes me wonder if Dan Quayle is in that class), "tired", "accommodation", etc. They are probably lowering the passing criteria just so they can get additional funding, hence such sub-sophomoric errors being made by "gifted and talented" fifth and sixth graders (hell, by these criteria, the dumbest kids in my fifth and sixth grade classes were "gifted and talented").

 

And given how No Child Left Behind is ruining education these days, the fusion of propaganda and school education is becoming even easier and more blatant, as this story clearly shows. I would not be surprised if they started turning in copies of the Bill of Rights to be fed into the "Bash-O-Matic" one of these days.

 

This is a way to get the children used to police state and to march in goose steps when told to do so without questioning why their freedom of thought is taken away. Obamonkey doesn't even hide his sinister intentions for remaking this country into a tyrannical state run by his globalists friends. (The Obamonkey name has nothing to do with his half race but his evil behavior)

[bill3542 4]

there are other clues here that are important ( 26 year old mother of six ), no mention of race, whats wrong with this picture.

 

my guess would be inner city ghetto school so standing in line for free stuff would be normal in this case. sterilization for the mothers would be a better option.

[SOPMOD 254]

As their kids are finally being socially castrated and subjegated by an out of control nanny state mine are becoming so disciplined and knowledgeable it will take generations to reverse the effects.

 

My 7 year old's Hanukkah present

 

I don't think this will ever end up in a "toy gun buyback",lol