Former NYPD LEO: Water Pistols and Nerf Guns are Uncool So Turn Them In
courtesy ebay.com

Wait…say what?

Kids can trade their toy guns for other toys…in a program aiming to change the culture around gun ownership, organizers say.

Each child can receive one toy for whatever water pistols, Nerf guns and other toy guns they turn in.

The new toys are being donated by Sean Acosta of Oyster Bay, a former New York City police officer who now helps people grieve their taxes. “It has to start at a young age,” Acosta says. “If we can get them to say, ‘It’s not cool to carry these toy guns,’ then maybe when they get older, they won’t ever carry a real gun.”

– Beth Whitehouse for Newsday, LI Kids Can Trade in Water Pistols, Nerf, and Toy Guns for Other Toys

Grieve their taxes?

 

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105 COMMENTS

  1. Seriously if anyone hasn’t figured out the Anti Left want’s anything that can launch any form of projectile Gone/Verboten,your heads been buried too long in the sand.

    They want everything down to sling shots and spit was straws,EVERYTHING in including squirt guns!

      • I agree , when old enough give the child a replica Black Powder gun kit.

        Help them build it .

        Teach them to safely shoot it and have FUN !

    • Oh, NOW the dumb straw ban thing makes sense – spitball launchers. I knew it couldn’t be because of a 9 year old’s phone survey.

      In fact, I HOPE it’s this, and not the survey thing.

  2. My mom was a “no toy guns.” I carved sticks and played with friends.

    Verdict: ineffective at best, encouraging at worst.

    • There’s really something here about government prohibitionism and making your own guns at home, but it’s Christmas and I don’t want to work for it.

      • That give a gun video was the best part of this thread. When my liberal friends say a situation is cannot be one (e.g., rape attempt), I have one answer #shootback.

        I taught one newbie this week how to shoot. I did my little part. Oh, I didn’t buy my kids toy guns this year. They were happy with what they had, except for the quantity of magazines for nurf darts. So off to eBay….

  5. How about spit wads we used to shoot out of hollowed out Bic pens when we were kids…..can they be turned in too?

  7. I believe I posted this idea in reverse a week or so ago. This is how they will win if we don’t counter it

  8. Seriously? brightly colored water pistols? I realize and am concerned that kids with realistic looking toy guns have been killed by cops but those silly water pistols that look like a pool toy? What is this fool worrying about those for?

    That said, something has changed. We had various toy guns as kids. Especially those cap guns that took the paper tape of caps in a roll and would make a tiny pop and flash when you dropped the hammer. Or later the ones with a plastic ring of caps that you could speed-load in your toy six-shooter. That’s over a half century ago and not a one of us ever shot anybody in our adult lives.

    Water pistols though? Hey, we didn’t stop at no stink’n water pistols. We went full-on water balloon bombs from the upstairs bathroom window onto the heads of door-to-door bible bangers, salesmen, and of course our unsuspecting friends.

    We even tried building a big slingshot to launch our water balloon bombs but the acceleration burst the balloons and we’d get wet instead.

    But hey, at least we tried to invent our own Artillery!!!

    • I had a cap gun that looked exactly like a s&w model 19. Even had the swing out cylinder to load the red round caps. It was black with what looked like wooden grips. You know why I didn’t get shot while playing outside with it? It want cause I turned it in for something else. Its cause my mom and dad taught me to respect firearms. Not to point them at random people or cars that were driving by. If they saw me do that, the cap gun was gone. Permanently.
      This crap trying to scare kids into giving up toys is absolutely insane.

  10. Another media outlet that wants to have a conversation but then turns off their comment section.

    “…We put our Comments section on hold so we could develop a new environment and process to encourage comments that are constructive and informative.”

    That last bit, constructive and informative, means simple the ones that agree with us.

  11. What an evil prick…when I was a lad my mom got us a Mattel shiny metal 38 and machine gun playset(she split it between me & my brother). That 38 would get a kid killed now. I hope this ex-cop got a lump of radioactive coal in his stocking😖

    • NYPD…and you’re surprised by his “Progressive” indoctrination?

      In a world based on performance metrics…the NYPD should be issued only non- or less than- lethal devices after considering their track record of expending rounds (mag dumps) at a crime scene with the resulting high percentage of innocents (and property damage) they traditionally wound, injure or damage in their blind zeal to “take down” a BG.

      • Haven’t you figured it out yet? The police consider us mere “civilians” (said with a sneer) to be acceptable collateral damage in their war on crime and terrorism.

        • I shoot regularly with active and retired LEO’s (Local, County, State and, even, a couple of Feds). They are from Montana, California, Washington State, Texas and a couple of other States…none of them have expressed the hostility towards “civilians” you seem to believe that ALL LEO’s harbor. None of them have equated civilians with “collateral damage” as you so eloquently phrased it. I’ve watched them reach out to “mere” civilians at the range to offer insights or guidance based on their experience and training…some take it and some don’t…their loss.

          This bozo former NYPD officer is reflective of the anti-2A policies of large Democrat-controlled cities and their hand-chosen, politically appointed Police Chiefs …however, the politically conservative areas of the USA contain multitudes of conservative LEO’s (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/08/04/mr-president-heres-a-more-accurate-map-for-you-to-tweet/?noredirect=on). I find it interesting that county Sheriff’s (an elected position in most places) tend to be overwhelmingly Pro 2A compared to Police Chiefs.

          You are entitled to your opinion…however, it’s a shame to allow easily verifiable facts to get in the way of good old emotion-based rhetoric.

        • Old Guy, I will concede your point of view.

          My point of view is formed from the political level hacks who are appointed (often from ye olde Blighty) to run our state police forces (no local level police in my part of the world, only state and federal police forces). And the disdain and contempt they have for us civilians is only exceeded by the hate and bile they have for licensed firearm owners.

        • Had to look “Olde Blighty” up…hadn’t heard that one before.

          Let me see if I understand what you are saying…Australia is an independent country who still offers allegiance to the Crown and in return, the politicos of England saddle the Aussies with political appointees selected by England…reflecting her politics, social values and desires?

          Uff-da, that sucks!

          There are a number of transplanted Aussies and Kiwi’s in my area…many of them participate in local competitive matches and appear to enjoy various shooting disciplines.

          Thank you for helping me to cross Australia off my bucket list of travel destinations.

    • I had a toy gun arsenal that easily supplied the 9 year olds in my neighborhood commando squad. The day my dad took me out shooting for the first time was one of the most important moments in my life. I still have the nickel I hit with my Rimington .22 at 50ft Guns equate with self confidence and independence. There really is no substitute. Perhaps that’s why progressives are so against guns.

      • Guns equate with self confidence and independence. … Perhaps that’s why progressives are so against guns.

        There is no “perhaps” about it: that is EXACTLY why Progressives hate us and our firearms.

  12. It’s not just the gun culture they are after, it’s the entire American/Western culture that they wish to destroy. The belief in the worth of the individual vs the group, the whole equal opportunity vs equal outcome, identify as an American vs your tribe. Make no mistake, all of America is at risk from these collectivists.

    • Which is why they aren’t just trying to ban guns, they are trying to replace us with peoples who do not value individualism by mass immigration.

  13. Of course this guy fundamentally misunderstands the issue. Kids don’t think real guns are cool because they are in possession of toy guns. No, kids desire toy guns because they think real guns are cool. No matter what kind of spin you put on it, guns are effective tools for projecting one’s will at distance, which has inherent appeal to sophisticated apes that feel vulnerable in their mortality. In other words, kids liking guns is more a product of human nature and a basic understanding of how the world works than the result of cultural passivity toward firearms. I’m not making a value judgment as to whether kids should have access to guns or not. Rather, I’m merely stating that they “get” (read: comprehend) the utility of firearms in a way that is completely divorced from political notions, etc., and that’s not going to change in the slightest if we take away their water guns. This is just more leftist, “perfection of man” utopian drivel.

  14. The left isn’t anti-violence- they promote late term abortion, violent illegal aliens, the illegal drug trade, gun trafficking, human sex trafficking and publicly call for violence against political rivals. Where blacks are most oppressed in the USA is where Democrats run the government and setup thousands of ridiculous laws in order to tax and control the population. The ONLY reason they are anti-gun is bcz American gun ownership is a bullwark against the oppressive government they want to setup. There is no more racist, anti-woman, unAmerican, anti-minority political position than being anti-gun ownership.

  15. Boys should play with dolls instead of guns. It teaches them to be caring and nurturing instead of filling their brains full of toxic masculinity.

    • how about that audience?…more and more I think that place needs nuked…it’s the only way to be sure….

  18. Ahh, another moron that subscribes to the Eric Holder school of thought.

    “We just have to be repetitive about this. It’s not enough to have a catchy ad on a Monday and then only do it every Monday. We have to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”

  20. Yes child, you can be just like Daddy and get used to turning in your guns. You’ll be rewarded and so will we. We get to know who you are and who your parents are and that there may be a gun culture in your family. … Don’t forget to tell the truth to officer McGruff at your DARE class. Viva Castro….. Well the fish ain’t biting,,, no , not the squirt gun shyt, the real fish. Rivers low, water ain’t moving, and it’s colder then I thought.

  21. “If we can get them to say, ‘It’s not cool to carry these toy guns,’ then maybe when they get older, they won’t become cops.”

    FIFY, dumb@ss.

  22. Pure propaganda brainwashing designed to change America from a warrior culture or self reliance, liberty and prosperity to a slave culture of weak and dependent serfs.

    Acosta should be hanged.

  23. “…in a program aiming to change the culture around gun ownership…”

    Is this “The mask slips.” or “At least they’re up front about it?” I can’t decide.

  24. I just sent the following to the author of the article:

    I got rid of my son’s toys guns too and replaced them with a real rifle. It is his favorite Christmas gift ever.

  25. I’d think about turning in my water pistol for a unicorn that shoots Airsoft pellets out of its nose when you squeeze its tail. I’m just saying.

  26. “…in a program aiming to change the culture around gun ownership…”

    This is exactly the point: it’s culture. The game is to dissolve the culture of individual competence and capability. Self-reliance. Self-responsibility. And especially discretion — as decent, grown-up people just because you *can* try to shoot up a school doesn’t mean you *will* try to shoot up a school, any more than just because you *can* drive your car into crowds, doesn’t mean you *will* drive your car into crowds.

    In the end, the point is you are not to be capable because, damaged and dangerous, you are not to be trusted. “No even toy guns for you!” goes along with “No, the whack-jobs aren’t an exception: it’s everybody.” That’s why it is not permitted to note that they are whack-jobs.

    Of course it’s about “changing” the culture. The one thing they can’t have you realize is that government, or other “collective” solutions are a way for individual to do for themselves, by working together … as long as that works. They can’t have you re-realize that government and its agents are just shared services of convenience. They can’t have you remember that you exist first: these other things arise from you. They have to “change the culture” because fundamentally everybody knows this, and has. So reprogramming takes a lot of work. One does have to wonder why they do it, though.

    • Communism says, capture the child and capture the nation.
      This water pistol thing is just one facter, legal pot is the follow up, then with the exit of GOD and the government becoming god, it will be almost complete, total government control, do as told and no pot (no rice)……. People, please read the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO and the UN AGENDA 21 and compare them to what is happening in America, they both are online.

      • Is that why Trump made CBD and hemp legal? Now people on the right can go back to making money by marketing CBD and related products on Youtube?

        With the criminal reform bill also being signed, we can finally move on to legalizing cannabis entirely.

        If any religious person complains that pot will make the youth a bunch of soy boys, do you drink the drug that is alcohol? Do you get fat on beer? Do you shrink your brain size by drinking regularly? Do you kill your brain cells by drinking heavily?

        Is it not a sin to drink alcohol like Americans do? I know it is for Muslims. I hear from Christians that drinking or any other mind altering substance is not what God wants you to do.

        The one thing that Trump has done that truly helps the U.S. economy is making hemp and CBD legal. This adds another crop to the line-up and will lead to many new products. Californians will love it. Let’s see if the leftists praise Trump now that they got bump fire stocks, hemp, CBD and justice reform. Trump making that Democrat push for 2020…

    • This is just the indoctrination part of getting the population to cooperate and surrender their legal property. By the time these kids grow up, when Big Brother, oops, the Legislature (or at this rate the Executive), asks them to turn in their bump stocks, magazines, …, firearms they are conditioned to do so. Even Pavlov offered his dogs a treat as he rang the bell, until he got the result he wanted and no longer needed to offer recompense.
      (Not having the edit option has forced me to proof read and proff read and prrof read only so that as I push post button I realize some typo to forever be immortalized)

  29. There was an organization in Illinois that took in a bunch of junk guns to a buyback in Chicago. They were donated, and they all had to be junk or unsafe. They raised a lot of money and used it for ammo and supplies for a youth shooting program! I say teach young ones to take advantage of the anti gun idiots like that organization did by going to the dollar store for a $1 squirt gun and trade it for a much more expensive toy.

  30. I guess they have moved on from using just 1984 as a guide and are now looking at The Time machine. They want everyone to become the Eloi.

  31. Every time you think that law enforcement has dug their way to absolute bottom in how they portray themselves to the law-abiding segment of the population, you wake up to find out that they brought an oversized excavator to the job.

  35. Where do these types of people come from with their communist BS?
    IT IS NOT THE TOOL, IT IS THE USER OF THE TOOL.

  36. When some numb-nut makes some far-fetched comment that is unrealistic, generally it’s dismissed with a degree of well deserved sarcastic disdain, except when it involves guns. When guns and gun rights are involved, then the nitwit gets a platform. These folks should be at the top of the list for our individual inflammatory dismissals.
    Just because it’s a popular at the moment and guns are a whipping child for a left leaning agenda, doesn’t make comments anymore less idiotic and they should be dismissed with even greater disdain and ridicule.
    I gotta say and I make ZERO apologies for it, the Shannon Watts, Hoggs, Bloombags, Pelosis and Feinsteins and ilk can just drop dead and got straight to….where it’s hot. I don’t give a flying bat sh– what they say or think. I have not the time for rhetorical engagement with idiots.
    Merry Christmas!

      • It’s the same thing over and over. I know what the left wants. How many different ways do they have to say it? I’ve grown tired of them. I don’t need to hear anything they say because it’s the same thing.

  38. Groan… and when they remake A Christmas Story I suppose Ralphie will be pining for a Barbie doll.

    • It’ll be worse than that. “Ralphie” will be a gender fluid child with same sex parents who practice Islam and make thinly veiled anti-Trump remarks throughout the film. It will ultimately be re-written as an allegory about climate change. Anyone who doesn’t think it’s better than the original is a racist.

  39. Here’s an idea. Let kids trade a “toy” gun for a real gun to teach responsibility and reinforce the notion that guns are tools, not toys. It seems stupid never sleeps with anti-gunners.

  40. There is a cultural problem with guns and kids. Go visit Chicago or Baltimore and you’ll see it. Nerf gun and water guns have nothing to do with it, though. Nobody makes a backyard rap video with a nerf gun.

  41. I am a Boomer, we grew up with guns, sling shots, Bow and arrows, Knives, Crossbows, Blow guns, and Pea shooters, “for a start”. Meanwhile it’s the young kids “teenagers and twenty somethings” who shoot up schools, and most other shootings, so how does my Grandkids Super Soaker figure into this?

  42. Really, when was the last time I saw someone playing with a watergun? However, during Christmas I did watch cartoons on TV (I never watch TV), and was horrified with the violence and the portrayal of firearms. Obviously it is part of the agenda of demonization firearms in the minds of the youth, but since not only firearms are depicted and blood seeping cranial injuries appear in nearly every scene I watched, this depiction of violence has a deeper psychological effect in furthering the desensitization of the youth to violence by normalizing grotesque violence. The tobacco industry propaganda of the 60’s looks tame by comparison. (Holy cow, Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote were just tickling each other by comparison). As Lt. Col. Dave Grossman said, the media is desensitizing the youth to violence and we are, in my words, breeding a generation of natural born killers.

    • Or, at best there will be a glut of people applying for Craniofacial Trauma Surgery post-doctoral training, but I ain’t holding my breath.

  43. Can you imagine a better way to manufacture a pro-gun human than to give them a formative childhood experience of being forcibly marched down to the police station by their parents to turn in their beloved “problematic” toy guns in exchange for politically correct garbage toys?

    If you outlaw squirt guns, only outlaws will have squirt guns.

  44. Notice that they are trying to change the “culture of gun ownership”, not the “culture of the value of life”. These are two very different ideas and it’s no accident.

  45. My father tried to commit suicide with a hand gun when I was in the 8th grade. When that happened my mother got rid of all of the guns in the house, and would not let any come back in, even my two BB guns I had. She never bought me any type of toy guns. Now I understand because of what my father went through why she wouldn’t want guns in the house. Fast forward to today with me as an adult, I own several guns and love shooting, not much of a hunter because since my Dad was in a wheelchair after his suicide attempt I really didn’t have anyone to take me. Thought about getting into it now as an adult. To get to my point just because you take guns away from kids won’t stop them from entering into the gun community. The gun community needs to be accepting of people that don’t know that much and need to see those people as a chance to mentor and invest in someone. That approach will do more to secure our 2nd Amendment rights than screaming at the gun-grabbers. I live in Illinois, I have plenty of gun-grabbers around me, doesn’t do any good to shout at them, trust me.

  46. It’s all about indoctrination, they’re indoctrinated for 12 years in the public schools,, then they’re indoctrinated for another 4 years in College, and so on and so forth. It’s all about brainwashing. If they start early enough to make gun ownership scary and evil they’ve accomplish their task. That’s how socialism works, it takes many years but once the process is complete you have someone that is completely under your control. Of course as a parent you can supersede and change the indoctrination, but today parenting and the responsibility of parenthood, no longer exists in our society.

  48. I would LOVE it if we could just round all of them up and charge them with TREASON and lock them up. and I would NOT grieve my taxes used for that. although I would try to make sure they get a nice sexually deprived cellmate to keep them company.( although some of them would like that I know). but it just makes me sick to think where this country is headed. and how stupid people are, even some gun owners who vote for anti gun communist ( demokrats) and how it is even affecting the republican side as well. we need new blood in there. people who represent our rights who want to uphold the whole constitution.

  49. When I was nine, some new neighbors moved down the street from me and the new neighbor lady with the “Joisee” accent told us that her son “Peter” wasn’t allowed to play with toy guns of any kind.

    I remember my parents laughing when they heard that and also how glad I was that my parents always had a nice toy gun under the Christmas tree every year for my brother and me. Actual guns came a little later.

  50. People are stupid & the powers @ be know it !
    Point in fact ,, adults watching stupid sitcoms like= alf & erkle & threes company !
    Now a days you look at the 10 posted “so called ” news headlines & on average , 6 out of 10 will be something to do with ” so called ” entertainers ! As if the function of the world hinges on brittany spears sucking off the knee grow standing outside of her limo window !
    America has been infiltrated , and America’s enemies are now our CORRUPT PUBLIC SERVANTS ! Far too many fools have been brainwashed into thinking , teaching homosexuality & trans something to kindergartners & grade schoolers , is civilized progress !!!
    The so called ” education ” system has been incorporated by America’s enemies , to serve as nothing more than dumbing down camps of indoctrination ! And even the dropout gets a trophy !
    Our PUBLIC SERVANTS are completely corrupt , and they are selling out AMERICA to the highest bidder !
    Point in fact , killery & other corrupt public servants sold OUR uranium to russia & then turn & fabricate tails of ” russian collusion ” get caught red handed at it & still , the story rocks on !
    Exxon had a ship , with exxons name on it !
    The crew of exxons ship were exxon employees ! The oil this exxon ship was carrying came out of an exxon oil rig !
    But exxon said they weren’t responsible for the VALDEZ oil spill & has never payed back 1 dime of the hundreds of millions of TAX
    PAYERS dollars , our CORRUPT PUBLIC SERVANTS spent to clean up exxons mess !
    Ah but , you can join the Navy & get a sex change operation @ TAX PAYERS expense !
    While a combat Vet suffers for decades with a service related injury, that the VA keeps wrapping an ace bandage around !
    All the while , we the TAX PAYERS are forced to pay the CORRUPT PUBLIC SERVANTS for their entire life , even if they are only elected for one 4 year term !
    Trans something bathrooms ??? OMG
    Pay iran four hundred million TAX PAYERS dollars , to use to build nuclear weapons ? OMG
    Ft.Knox , the former safe storage facility for all of the TAX PAYERS “GOLD”
    But , our CORRUPT PUBLIC SERVANTS take AMERICA off of the gold standard & hand AMERICAS trillions over to a private bank & hide it behind the name ” federal reserve ” OMG
    Where is the trillions worth of the TAX PAYERS GOLD that was stored at Ft.Knox ??
    What happened to the TAX PAYERS GOLD ? OMG !
    People are stupid ! Proof ? They categorically denie any WRONG DOING ! OMG
    Wrong doing , really , what kind of freakin kindergarten playground crap is that ?
    It’s proof that people are stupid & the bull washing lawyers the fools keep voting into high PUBLIC SERVANT OFFICES are raping AMERICA for a payoff , kick back ! OMG
    AMERICANS had best wake up & TAKE back what is OURS , before the whole thing turns into a shit fight & lots of treasonous snowflakes get hurt !

  51. My parents were not gun owners. I would say they were mildly anti gun, but not crazy against them. My dad sold them at his store, but we never had one in the house. I shot a real gun the first time when I was nine, a 1911 that a relative brought with him when he stayed with us for about 8 months. I can’t say I was thrilled about it. My mom gave him a lot of grief when she found out he had taken me and my best friend out to shoot. When I was 21, I was hired as a security guard, and I was “advised” by a family friend, an ex NYPD officer, to buy a Taurus 38, a model 83, which turned out to be a total disaster and was soon replaced with a Dan Wesson 15-2 and a well used S&W 28-2. The Taurus almost prevented me from getting into guns at all, it was such a mess. A couple of years later, I had about a dozen handguns, from a .25 Beretta 950 to a a half dozen .357’s. My mother moved in with me while her house was being sold (Too much work to keep clean between showings), and when she saw the “arsenal” I had, she kind of freaked out. But after a while, I got her to go shooting with me. She wasn’t too bad! Her hand/arm strength was pretty pitiful, so she couldn’t hold up the 28-2 for long without shaking, but she could and did crank off six rounds into the center of a target and blew away several watermelons on a trip out to the desert. That 28-2 was the house gun and one time, in a kind of comical screw up, she walked around he house with it in the giant pockets of her bathrobe while I was at work, looking for who or what was making the odd noises after my dogs suddenly disappeared one night. She thought they “got out”, when it was them making noises trying to bump the door of the closet she had unknowingly locked them in an hour or so ago.
    She had no complaints about my guns from that point on, and when one of her friends (most all of them) were shocked that I owned one, let alone had a collection, she would just say, “They don’t do anything unless someone pulls the trigger”. Taking people shooting, especially with a .22 as their first experience, cures at a lot of anti-gun hysteria.

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