Eric Holder said it himself; that if we want to ban guns then we need to do to guns what we did to cigarettes. And part of that campaign against people having a small smokey bright spot in their days was a program in elementary schools called “D.A.R.E.” in which students were instructed on the ills of smoking. I have fond memories of attending the lecture about how smoking was bad, then walking outside to see the instructor taking a smoke break. Kinda put the whole thing in perspective. Anyway, an elementary school in California is trying to get kids to accept the concept of turning in their private property to the government voluntarily by staging a gun buyback… for toy guns . . .
MercuryNews.com has the details:
An elementary school will hold a toy gun exchange Saturday, offering students a book and a chance to win a bicycle if they turn in their play weapons.
Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill maintains that children who play with toy guns may not take real guns seriously.
“Playing with toys 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 said.
[…]
“If we want older kids to not think guns are cool, we need to start early,” he said.
See, here I was thinking that schools are supposed to give students the information they need to think for themselves and make their own decisions. Not to crank out drones that believe what they are told to believe.
In addition, I completely disagree. Guns ARE cool. In the same way that muscle cars and airplanes are cool. And even though both of those things can be deadly if not used properly, somehow schools still find time to teach rudimentary safe driving habits instead of simply telling people that cars aren’t cool.
“Abstinence only” education never works, folks.
Read back to when they started the public school system. Look at the opinions and notes of everyone involved in its creation. It was never meant to actually educate the masses. It was meant to create obedient factory workers. They wanted people smart enough to sign their name and to be just educated enough to where they could be trained to work. The US public school system has been an indoctrination camp from the beginning of its time.
You are exactly right. It is the best way for the State to shape the minds of the next generation. They would like to have them 10 hours a day year-round. No way are my kids going to participate. Education of your own children is the most libertarian and anti-Statist thing an individual can do.
“It was never meant to actually educate the masses. It was meant to create obedient factory workers. They wanted people smart enough to sign their name and to be just educated enough to where they could be trained to work. The US public school system has been an indoctrination camp from the beginning of its time.”
100% DEAD ON, Mr. Crispy. And now that there’s no more factories (here), they’re being prepared for prison or the military. Or both, since there’s not that much distinction left.
The smart kids will steal the guns of the honest kids and turn them in for a chance at the bike. No questions asked gun buybacks.
My dad suggested something far better. Draw a gun on a piece of paper. Xerox. Hand in whole stack. Profit!
With nothing but respect. Your dad is an evil genius.
Absolute BRILLIANCE! I am in awe. The schools’ position, obviously, is that a gun, the word gun, and a picture of a gun are one and the same. MAKE ‘EM CHOKE ON IT.
Wow.
But Robert! Why wasn’t this picture a weekly caption contest?? Y’know… “From my cold, wet fingers!”?
I was thinking pop-tarts shaped like guns, sticks vaguely resembling guns, and possibly a few small scale models of the great state of Idaho.
Also, I am sure I could scrounge up enough spare lumber in the garage to make a backpack full of functional rubberband guns.
Think like a pirate. There is profit in this thing somewhere.
Don’t forget the extremely dangerous #2 pencils.
Heh, this story is everywhere. I saw it late last night and sent it to you guys, only to then open the Daily Digest from about 9 p.m. (which I hadn’t read yet, obviously) and discover that Frank had included this as the last item, 5 hours earlier than my email.
Of course this is stupid. Kid turns in toy gun, kid (maybe) wins bike, kid picks up stick and uses it to mime shooting a rifle. What was gained, exactly, except for wasting the money the parents spent on the toy in the first place? And on that note, I spent my hard earned money on that toy, don’t you go giving it away for a lottery ticket, you little shit. And the flip side… for the parents who approve of turning in the toy gun for a lottery ticket, who bought the toy gun in the first place? This isn’t like where someone inherits a real gun and doesn’t know what to do with it. It’s a toy, and it’s highly unlikely that kid bought it for himself. Someone gave it to him. Some serious wtf going on here.
so can the kids who like toy guns stand outside the school buyback offering a cash for the oncoming arrivals?
I think if I were a kid I would fund buying ring caps by collecting broken toy guns to turn them in to the buyback….
COMMIEFORNIA is forcing these mindless little kids into becoming good little COMMIES. HITLER had his NAZI youth, and he taught them that it’s ok to murder anyone who doesn’t agree with your views.
On the flip side, 25 years of California’s oppressive laws and taxes spent on lining the pockets of idiots have made me yearn to get the hell out. Luckily, I’ve got family in Georgia and Oklahoma that have offered to help find me a new place to live.
Maybe the same kids that “they” think will not take guns seriously because they play cowboys and indians, GI Joe, Cops and Robbers will be the same kids that now will not want to grow up and be Law enforcement or join the Military and protect this nations … because ALL guns are bad and ALL people are good . . Right ?
Wayward >> Hayward Kalifornia… If there are any good people left there I hope they mock, berate and just plain stomp this idea into oblivion… If they want to cut off their nuts and wear them as earrings whatever but keep that crazy sh*t out of the schools. These mutants feel empowered now and we need to beat them back into the hole they crawled out of…. I’ve got a 9 year old at home with more toy guns then we can keep track of. They’re good clean/creative fun and a great teaching tool for gun safety and responsibility…
But if the community wants to be really safe, it should hold a teacher and administrator buyback.
School districts should be encouraged to turn in their broke-@ss teachers and administrators so that they can be humanely destroyed, no questions asked.
In return, the schools will get students who might actually have an original thought in their otherwise empty heads, and the parents will then have children who might break the welfare cycle.
Agreed, need to start over. How about this:
Every child at the age of 18 (graduate HS) automatic 4 yrs in military service. After 2 yrs. they can choose to continue for 2 more yrs. or go to 2 yr. college equaling their 4 yrs. Your new teachers can come from this group. Your older teachers could come from experienced businessmen and women that could teach real entrepreneurial skills for the children’s future in a Capitalist society.
Too many benefits to list. But a big one is school shootings waaaay down, since every teacher is qualified to pack.
Conscription is a form of slavery. No thanks.
+1
Why are so many conservatives fans of slavery? It’s rather sickening to hear people like you whine about freedom then say “My solution is mandatory slavery for a minimum of X number of years and that slave labor will be used to expand our government and increase our military so that we can further expand our wars of aggression against countries that pose no threat to us”.
“Why are so many conservatives fans of slavery?”
HA! Didn’t you realize that SLAVERY BUILDS CHARACTER?
So your solution to government indoctrination in public schools is mandatory government service?
What could possibly go wrong?
NO. A THOUSAND times no, fascist running dog!
In time of war draft.
The US military does not need millions of useless unmotivated draftees (see the 1950s-60s). Can’t afford to properly train and utilize them and most endup standing around peeling potatos or painting rocks.
You want to improve the Army/USMC,get the damn chick and queers out. No more horny 19yr old guys living with useless 19yr girlies = no more “sexual harrassment” whining from libs (who forced the chick/queers on the military). Perhaps the AF/Navy can use them.
The efforts to ostracize gun owners continues apace. Since some of those damn adults can’t be convinced that their guns are unnecessary, we’ll focus our efforts on children instead. Since tobacco is clearly a sin, and we need to protect people from it, then the same could be certainly be said about firearms. And what better time to make a positive change than during those formative childhood years?
Can we expect a tobacco buyback any time soon? Now that would be fun.
I don’t think the anti-smoking campaign even worked. There certainly are a sh1tload of people under the age of 30 that smoke.
Cali, go figure.
Here we have shooting events for our schools. They go on field trips to Hunt Clubs & gun ranges. Our hunting age begins at 10.
I do not have a problem with toy guns. I love playing “Varmint Hunting” with my 3yr old. .. Good luck with this “ad compain” in schools here.
No doubt his will help to make the streets safer as much as tue real buy-backs, will it not?
Somewhere down the line it’ll be a “turn in your parents for a dozen Snickers bars program”. They won’t call it that (probably), but you know how it’ll work.
Yeah the D.A.R.E cop that gave the presentation to our class was arrested for drunk driving a couple years later.
I agree that schools need to teach critical thinking and common sense (real common sense) and not “Do what you’re told, OBEY! sheep-ism”.
my kids would have gone to the dollar store, bought a cheap, Chinese made toy gun, then got the free book and the chance to win a bike. Smarter than most, they are.
Street smart, they are.
Do we have any boots on the ground behind enemy lines over there? It would be nice to set up a “book buyback” in the area, where children can take the books from the communist buyback and trade them in for Airsoft guns or something cooler than whatever play guns they turned in.
That’s actually a cool idea.
Except think of the books… If there’s one thing worse than a homeless, unloved gun, it’s a good book going unread and unloved.
Send every kid in that school to the “buyback” with a 59-cent squirt gun, until they run out of books. I’ll donate.
But then someone is going to have to teach the little b@stards to read.
Inconceivable.
@Ralph
Not if the books are already in Spanish.
Or here is an idea. Teach people about guns and the importance of being responsible. With great powers, comes great responsibility.
Coming from the state that pumps out movie after movie making guns look cool??
I’m confused here…. Or should I be?
My brother and I and now my son have all been raised without toy guns. My son was taught Karate and was welcomed to go to gun safety/hunting safety class and he had no interest . There is one little pistol ( I have no idea what it it) up at our family property in Idaho and I think my husband and him may have done some target shooting but I’m not sure. Honestly, this program sounds like a great idea for families like us who may be entirely different from you .
That is your choice, which I fully defend. But this is a “state sanctioned” event paid for with tax payer money, not the right to raise your children the way you see fit. There is a HUGE difference.
Well a Boise Idaho policeman came in to my son’s second grade class and taught his version of gun safety without my knowledge or permission slip-consent.Yet I have to give permission for every holiday class party and movie over the rating of G.
Well, while I agree with you that you should have been notified, what would you have done if you were? Kept your kid home? If so, do you really think keeping them ignorant is the best course of action, as opposed to teaching them the safety basics (even if it’s just the NRA Eddie Eagle rules of “Stop, Don’t Touch, Tell An Adult”)?
Not really the same comparison. My children are exposed to ultra-liberal high school teachers (private school) spewing crap that I don’t agree with. Fortunately my wife and I have taught them to think on their own and not follow the tail in front of them. That is MY job as a parent.
But that makes no sense. If your kids were raised without toy guns, then they wouldn’t have any to turn in. How does that make it a great idea? It sounds like a waste for me because I think it’s stupid, and it sounds like a waste for you because it does you no good.
In response to both your comments , I am simply trying to give another point of view. Perhaps I would like to know what the policeman program is demonstrating( and maybe sit in myself) Perhaps this program in CA is trying to show another point of view about toy guns. It may be hard to understand that my exposure to guns has been almost non existent.
You are not hard to understand at all.
You see, while I was raised around guns there have been times in my life that I did not own any or consider it an importance. I had other things that I saww fit to spend money on.
I did, however, always know that the Right to keep annd bear arms is a non-negotiable in terms of civil liberties.
Look at firearm possession like the right to vote; You may not always do it, but its still a right.
Another example would be the 5th Amendment; You might not always need to exercise your right to self incrimination, but you certainly want it if you are ever interigated by police or prosecuted unjustly.
Just giving you another perspective as to why I do value your 2nd amendment rights. Without the 2nd, none of the others can be protected.
Thank you for your post, you’re in the right place if you want to get educated about what Firearms ownership really means in America. If it wasn’t for arms Citizen standing up to King George there wouldn’t a USA in the first place… Our Forefather put in place safe guards like the second amendment because they knew Tyranny first hand and what leads to it. This in mind… IMHO the school is overreaching their authority (and may even be ignoring their real responsibility to the kids with this distraction). This is along the same lines as trying to convert and child’s religious beliefs. This needs to be a family teaching moment not left up to the schools…
By defining yourself as “Moderate-Idahogal”, you are, of course pointing a finger at us and defining yourself by your difference from us. That’s well and good, but to me, you’re just the “ho” part:
Perhaps you need to research moderate views in general William. Or perhaps you prefer to dilute this discussion to a 7th grade level.
If the school administridiots are REALLY worried about kids being “desensitized” towards violence, they need to offer a TV/laptop/video game buyback, so the kids will stop playing violent video games. Those really make it “easier for them to use a real gun”.
And I bet the liberal mommies and daddies would support trading their TVs/laptop/game controllers for a book and a chance to win a bicycle!
Idiots.
They should be worried about kids being desensitized to stupidity.
Ugh I haven’t had coffee yet! This is killing me.
I say we setup across the street and give em $10 cash, and an appleseed voucher. That should make their heads spin!
Meanwhile, when they turn 12 and discover Call of Duty, guns become cool again.
This is sick. I would remove my children from that school.
This and things like the suspensions and general demonizing of firearms in our schools and universities are the single biggest threat to civilian gun ownership in the future. Dont agree? Ask the tobacco industry. There is a state religion and it has a willing church in the universities of our country. Right now the word from on high is to demonize firearms and firearm owners. I see no coherent strategy to deal with this either. If this goes unchecked, in 20 years we will be but a shadow of what we are now.
Is it wrong to wish some smart ass kid, a.k.a. one who knows how to make a political statement (or at least has a parent or mischeaveous relative that does), would bring a freshly minted liberator to school . . . minus the the roofing nail firing pin of course? Plastic ammo would be a nice touch.
Books for guns?! What’s next clothes for candy?! WTF. You might as well take away Christmas while you are at it. Give me Santa bringing weapons to kids (ala Narnia) anyday. Take this quarter. Go downtown and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face!
I wouldn’t be worried about this, as it is the parents who would allow them to do this are the ones who will perpetuate the anti gun nature.
perpetuate the anti gun nature? that would be called a choice which is not affecting the way you live your life
You know, if your kid grows up and votes in a way that restricts my rights, then it affects the way I live my life.
I’ve taught my kid to think for himself so it could go either way I suppose
When anti 2nd Amendment propaganda is promoted by local state, federal and school administrations it does affect my life. If you do not endorse guns don’t buy them, raise your children to be victims, and bare the consequences. If you kid(s) went to tiger schullman you must realize self defense is a requirement for survival, which is good, but you don’t have the right to limit my level of preparedness to the level of what you find appropriate. Quite frankly, and I don’t know how to put this politely, I find you arguments verging on trolling.
If you consider any opinion that does not completely parallel with your beliefs” trolling” then perhaps I am.
A choice does not mean forcing your views upon others and, in the case of schools, terrorizing children and telling them that legal activities and civil rights are bad and only horrible people exercise those rights. At least once a week anymore we get another story about a kid who did nothing wrong being severely punished by people making the “choice” that you’re promoting.
Soon, Kris Kringle will be declared an outlaw in California.
Books for guns? I hope they’re tossing in some crayons too.
My brothers and I played with toy guns as far back as I remember. We also grew up with Dad’s shotguns and rifles in the corners of closets. His instruction on firearms respect and safety was embedded in our minds and attitudes from little on up. None of us turned to a life of violent crime. We turned out to be dedicated patriots who served this great nation, avid hunters, and life-long defenders of the Constitution as it was written and amended by our fore-fathers!! It is not the right of a school district to teach personal beliefs. 4 of my 5 children are grown, three married and through college, the fourth just graduated high school. All 5 raised with the same mind set as I. Thinking they turned out just fine!!! God Bless America AND the Constitution of the United States of America!!! U.S. Army, Sgt., Veteran
My kids elementary school had a fun day fair last day. Gave out dozens of squirt guns as prizes. Not a gov’t school though.
Eric Holder – We Must “Brainwash” People Against Guns! – (1995)
http://youtu.be/RXwo9lARAgg
This is one of the many reasons why home schooling is growing at 3 times the rate of public school enrollment.
“See, here I was thinking that schools are supposed to give students the information they need to think for themselves and make their own decisions. Not to crank out drones that believe what they are told to believe.”
It has always been about about creating mindless drones that can assimilate into a work force to be a “productive member of society”! It’s never been about teaching kids to think for themselves.
I grew up, as probably many of you here, with GI Joe’s as my main toys.
Among those toys was a child-size army set with Colt .45’s, hand grenades,
and a cool belt to hang them on, yet I’ve never been involved in any crimes
involving firearms. Hmm? If I didn’t turn into a spree-killer shooting-up
schools and shopping malls, and you didn’t either, then who came up with
the theory that today’s children would? What we have here is an unproven
liberal theory in search of a liberal solution. Fear is the only thing liberals
are teaching our children. Fear of everything, except…for the government.
The question in my mind is ‘what is the book’ they are giving away?
I came from a anti gun household, never was taught the basics of safety. I was not told Guns are bad, evil, or anything these scumbag liberals are trying to tell us. I was told I can not have a firearm “under my roof” but I was also told to read, gain knowledge and make my own decisions. I am a proud firearms owner with a Conceal Carry permit and a voter. I intend to use one of my rights to speak for the other as should any proud American who values their rights… even if you use one and not the other. Say what you will, the day we start feeling embarrassed about one of our Constitutional Right, we have lost.
What a bunch of California Stupid Idiots.
As much as I find this program to be a waste of school resources, i can think of one redeeming quality. Had lots of toy guns growing up, broke most of em, if these kinds can take a toy their bored with or have broken and trade it for a book. why not?
10/1 those same kinds will one day advance to paintball.
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