With the 2016 campaign season in full swing politicians are coming out of the woodwork with ridiculous ideas that they think will win them votes by trying to curb gun violence on America’s streets, and offering the same old “solutions” which never work.
And as is usual, instead of blaming the behavior of the criminals for violating any number of already existing gun laws, liberal Democrats continue to look towards infringing on Americans' Second Amendment rights as the answer to the gun violence that is primarily occurring in America’s inner cities, which just happen to be governed by you guessed it, Democrats.
In Maryland, a legislator has recently come up with the hair-brained idea to outlaw toy guns in the state. According to the legislation the sale or even the mere possession of toy guns would become illegal. And any toy guns currently in people’s possession would not be ‘grandfathered in’ under the new legislation. I’m guessing that means police will be tasked with the confiscation of toy guns ?
I’m just guessing here since I don’t reside in Maryland, but it seems to me that putting the police to work enforcing the gun laws currently on the books and punishing criminals would be a better use of our public safety resources than taking toy guns away from kids.
As a kid of very modest means growing up, and since my parents couldn’t afford the toy Tommy Guns for sale in the Five and Dime store, when I played ‘Army’ in my backyard most of my weapons were hand-made from pieces of lumber laying around our property.
I became very adept at carving, shaping and painting a two by four into whatever military weapon I needed that particular day to ‘storm the beaches of Normandy’ with the other kids in my neighborhood. I suspect not unlike what most Maryland kids would end up doing if this law were to go into effect. Would I have been and will they be breaking the law just to be able to play soldier?
The legislation also called for any replicas or other existing toy guns to be painted a bright color to distinguish them from real weapons. A noble thought but as anyone who grew up playing soldier, cowboys and Indians, or cops and robbers knows, authenticity is important! If I was able to fashion an ‘assault rifle’ or a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol out of a chunk of wood, I also knew how to handle a can of black spray paint or a paintbrush.
Will Maryland legislators also soon put restrictions on owning a can of black spray paint since it might be misused to paint a bright orange toy pistol into a more realistic-looking black one?
Since Hillary Clinton has decided that taking on the National Rifle Association of America as a campaign tactic, in the misguided belief that it’s going to win over voters to her party, other politicians have been jumping onto her bandwagon with misguided attempts to deal with the problem of gun violence by once again punishing the law-abiding gun owner instead of the thugs doing the killing.
But that’s really par for the course for Hillary Clinton, attacking the innocent and protecting the criminals. After all, it was Hillary who led the charge in attacking the “bimbo eruptions” during her husband’s administration. Instead of holding Bill accountable for his criminal behavior she chose to attack those he victimized.
Not unlike her current effort to attack the NRA, the organization that fights hardest to protect the Second Amendment rights of American gun owners, instead of attacking the lawlessness running on the streets of America’s cities, the city of Chicago just one case in point.
But then again if she confronted the problem of violence in Chicago she’d be attacking her old buddy Rahm Emanuel from her husband’s days in the White House. Another clueless Democratic politician who governs a city with some of the most restrictive gun laws in America, while blood runs freely on his city’s streets from criminals who violate those same gun laws on a daily basis.
And her pandering to certain voters might not be quite as effective since she’d be blaming the gun violence on ‘behavior’ instead of on an inanimate object. And holding criminals accountable for their actions might not go over real well with the constituency that she’s desperately been courting.
No, outlawing toys won’t solve the problem of gun violence in Maryland or anywhere else across America. Neither would punishing the misuse of a can of spray paint if it came to that, and it probably could since Democrats are never solution-oriented, but instead they are instinctively reactionary when it comes to addressing any problems.
The way to solve the problem of gun violence in America is to enforce existing laws. And bring common sense gun safety education back into our schools. Make teaching character part of the school curriculum once again. And worry more about holding people accountable for their criminal behavior, instead of trying to regulate who uses which bathroom.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member