The toy gun exchange. (Photo: WBAC)
Authorities in Hempstead, Long Island held a toy gun buyback this month for local school children.
Fifty little ones were invited to participate in the event during which they were instructed to exchange their colorful plastic toys for other colorful plastic toys that just happened to not be shaped like a gun.
Children who didn’t have toy guns to bring to the party were actually given water pistols and nerf blasters by organizers so they could play the turn ’em in game.
“Saying no to guns is important – even toy guns,” said Hempstead Village Mayor Don Ryan as reported by WABC.
“The purpose is to offer safe alternative to toy guns. We don’t want the kids playing with guns. Guns are dangerous,” added Hempstead Village Trustee LaMont Johnson.
Though it doesn’t need to be said toy guns are not guns, they’re toys! They’re meant to be played with! Unlike real guns, they are by their very nature harmless! A “safe alternative” to a toy gun is a toy gun because it’s just a toy!
Former NYPD officer Sean Acosta sponsored the event. Acosta works with the New York Toy Gun Exchange Program.
“I want to make sure when you grow up nothing happens to you,” Acosta told the children in attendance.
Right, because taking away toys from children makes them safer when they become adults. Makes no sense.
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How about instead of indoctrinating kids to have an irrational fear of firearms, include toys that resemble firearms, we teach them actual gun safety? And when each child is ready, we teach him or her the tenets of responsible gun ownership? Education, not fear, is the answer.
Because despite what Acosta says, there is no way to make sure “nothing happens to you.” Life is dangerous. There are some very bad people out there. And not learning how to defend yourself in the face of such people is one way to increase the odds that something does happen to you.
As clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson wrote in his book “!2 Rules for Life, “Naive, harmless people usually guide their perceptions and actions with a few simple axioms: people are basically good; no one really wants to hurt anyone else; the threat (and, certainly, the use) of force, physical or otherwise, is wrong…These axioms collapse, or worse, in the presence of individuals who are genuinely malevolent. Worse means that naive beliefs can become a positive invitation to abuse, because those who aim to harm have become specialized to prey on people who think precisely such things.”
The folks running this toy gun buyback are naive. What’s worse is they’re setting up these children to be victims later on in life.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole ,”if the kid didn’t have a gun we will give you a gun, to then turn in at the buy back event” this would be like the Police buying actual guns for criminals to then go commit crimes. At the least this story is seasonal. It Reminds me of the Burgermeister in the animated Christmas cartoon where all the toys were banned . Which actually shows how well any kinds ban works .
Not every one was enthusiastic about the display however. Little Billy Wadson was quoted as saying “They can come and take it! I’m not turning in crap! Nerf or Nothin!”
this is exactly how it is in europe. brainwashed, defenseless, unarmed bunch of victims depending and controlled by theyr gvts there! lebensversager!
So what is the next buy-back program – toy knives and toy cars? Both promote violence (sarcasm) one is use to stab the other to run over people (a lot of sarcasm meant here). So much for intelligence within NY government.
There hasn’t been intelligence in NY even before the Safe Act was a law.
“Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.”
~ Vladimir Lenin
“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”
~ Adolf Hitler
“When they convince the little children that guns are bad they will then be able to remove the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States forever.”
~ Pyro 43
We used to play cowboys and Indians.
That is outdated.
Young Patriots should practice by playing Americans and communists.
Aim small, miss small…
Like the pervs, the lunatics have come out of the closet.
These people that came up with this buy-back of toy guns are mentally challenged and therefore should never be ab;e to purchase or own a firearm.
Unbelievable, Perhaps they should sponsor a first person shooter video game buy back???? Seems fair.
Early conditioning for future vassals of the Bismarckean State.
\”Any child caught playing \’Cowboys & Indians\’ from this day forward will be arrested and charged with not only a \’Hate Crime,\’ but NY state firearms violations.\”
This is simply an extension of the Progressive-Socialist indoctrination & \”re-education\” model that has been subverting our educational system for decades. It is the basic plan of the Communists.
Brain washing plain and simple
This is what they call starting them off young. Operant conditioning. The propagandizing of school children is just as bad as anything else. How about making parents raise their children and leaving education to schools?Not the other way around.
Former NYPD officer Sean Acosta sponsored the event. Acosta works with the New York Toy Gun Exchange Program. How in the world could a former NYPD officer sponsor this type of event? It is obvious to me that not only was this criminal Acosta on the take while he worked for the NYPD, but obviously someone is greasing his palm once again to be involved in this horse shit brainwashing operation. This is just a step removed from sexually abusing these children as they are controlling their minds for their own selfish reasons.
Sean Acosta Is an idiot. Nuff said.
The lunatics are running the asylum.
This ain\’t nothing. Wait until Jan., when the lunatics are running the House of Representatives!
This is conditioning, plain and simple. They are basically brainwashing kids into believing that guns are bad. We need to teach kids safety and responsibility. That would go farther than this bullshit. This is pushing confiscation towards being a norm. Basically saying this is going to happen anyway, here’s what to expect. This should be illegal, and whoever sponsored this should lose their career. They are no better than isis conditioning kids to decapitate people.
Yeah…..I’m sure the criminal’s kids will be turning theirs in.
Uber-Libtardia on full display….SMDH
Heaven forbid that they grow up learning to defend themselves.
Wow, wrong and misguided in so many ways.
Or maybe not misguided at all, teaching kids to be compliant and harmless citizens would be useful to a government intent on controlling your life.