“I looked at it and I seen the word ‘gun’ on it. The first thing I thought was ‘oh no no no,’ I don’t want you reading it, I don’t want you spelling it. I don’t even want you looking at the picture.” – Queens, New York parent Lawrence Gillman objecting to his daughter’s homework assignment, via bronx.ny1.com.  [h/t thegunwire.com]

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37 COMMENTS

  1. Right. Because it has been proven that not telling your kids about something means that something doesn’t exist. FFS. No wonder kids are screwed up.

  2. “I seen the word gun on it”
    Sounds like Lawrence should have spent some more time in English class.

    Hoplophobia on this scale is simply astounding. It reminds me of those kids getting booted out of school for bringing a Glock pen.

  3. People are really thinking this way aren’t they? “If my kid sees a gun, he’ll want one.” I wonder if the same parent turns off broadcast TV in their home? I mean with all the beer and sex laden commercials, your son is going to want to drink a lot of Bud Light and might even want to start wearing Victoria Secret clothing.

    These parents/people are the sheep I honestly do not know how to approach. How do you explain to them in a way that they can understand and be comfortable with, that images of guns alone will not turn your child into a murderer. How do you explain that responsible gun use is safe and just as unsafe as any other weapon used irresponsibly. This is a parent that clearly has never shot a firearm. It saddens me that the word “gun” alone has that much power, to frighten a parent into fearing it. Removing words from our language is very “1984”… Orwellian…

    • “If my kid sees a gun, he’ll want one.”

      I think it’s more along the lines of “if my kid sees a gun, he’ll know that I’m an a$$hole because I’m so afraid of them.”

  4. During the Nazis rise to power in the 1930s, German Jews were instructed by the Chief Rabbi to ignore the Nazi threat. Sticking one’s head into the sand does not cause the danger to vanish. Teaching ignorance, avoidance, and the irrational fear of guns limits a person to understand a gun as a tool that can be a potential danger to them as well as a tool of protection and liberation from danger.

    Lawrence Gillman of Queens NY, sounds like a really Jewish name. Considering the history of the Jewish people, common sense calls for embracing and mastering weapons for defense.

    Here is a link to an interesting article written by Julie Goren called “The anti-gun male” and published at the Jewish World Review.

    Here is Julie’s concluding paragraph:
    “In short, he is a man begging for subjugation. He longs for its promise of equality in helplessness. Because only when that strange, independent alpha breed of male is helpless along with him will he feel adequate. Indeed, his freedom lies in this other man’s containment”.

    http://www.jewishworldreview.com/julia/gorin030802.asp

  5. How can you teach your children gun safety if you feel the need remove the word from the universe?

    I don’t want my kids playing with fire, or explosives, or skanky women, but I’m not going to deny that they exist.

  6. Reminds me of the most recent episode of Blue Bloods, but they went in the opposite direction (surprising for TV, until you remember that Tom Selleck is one of the leads). For those unaware, Blue Bloods is a cop show, where most of the main characters are members of the same family. There was an incident where the family was shot at in their car, and one of the kids was having trouble dealing with it. A couple days later, mom walks in to find said kid holding dad’s issue gat, under dad’s watchful eye (the scene opened with kid repeating the Three Rules back to dad). After fearfully telling kid to give gun back to dad, and sending him out of the room, mom has the following exchange with dad:

    “Linda, he was afraid. He was curious; he asked if he could see it.”
    “So you said yes.”
    “It was time.”
    “Two days after he was almost shot, it’s time for him to play with your gun?”
    “He wasn’t playing with it, Linda. I’m teaching him about it… Look, we can either make him a part of it, with my supervision or we can wait, we can wait until him and his kid brother are snoopin’ around in the closet one day when we’re not home and then God forbid…”
    “Those are wonderful options, Danny.”
    “Look, the biggest mistake we can make is to pretend that my gun does not exist in this house.”

    As I said, I was surprised that this was treated so well on a TV show, until I remembered that Tom Selleck is a staunch pro-gun advocate. I see his hand in this scene. It was refreshing to see common sense in prime time.

  7. I have watched several parenting couples here in Kalifornia raise their children with a strict avoidance of guns only to have the child find the “forbidden fruit” as they moved into adulthood and become avid gun enthusiast much to the “horror” of the parents. A couple of cases led to extremely strained relations between the child and parent.
    There is so much information now available to people via the Internet and expanded TV that it’s sheer folly to try to hide most anything about the “real” world from your children. Not to overlook that the most popular TV Shows and Movies invariably involve gun use in some capacity on a weekly basis.
    This guy will most likely pay a heavy price for his hoplophobia.

  8. I always thought it would be funny to teach my kids the wrong word for something. Like “Tire” = “rubber” or “Blueberry” = “tinyblue”, etc

    This is just like what they’re doing with gun.

  9. I do not agree with this person. I was raised by a father who enjoyed hunting, and as long as my family has lived in the Americas, we have always had guns. That said, I do have a bit of understanding of the way this person, and many anti-anything person thinks. Since this person might well be surrounded by gun violence, he wants what he sees as the problem gone. This is the same way prohibitionists felt about alcohol: since drinking harms the families of alcoholics as well as the drinkers, we must get rid of the “cause” of the problem (“It is for the children” ad nauseam). This is the way people who are anti-drugs feel. It does not matter that prohibiting anything is an ineffective method of combating problems.

    These people are sincere. They are not right, but they want the same things that we want–a better society. From their perspectives–perhaps surrounded by violence and gangs–the removal of guns might seem like the logical way to end the violence . . . and in a world where revenge-killings are too common, this is not an idiotic conclusion. It is not what I believe, but their beliefs do not make them sheep.

    • True – I do not object to their beliefs, but I strongly object to their attempts to impose their beliefs on everyone else in America.

      Hey, I detest brussels sprouts, but I’m not trying to make it illegal to sell them, own them, or eat them. “We have research showing there are children who choke to death on a brussels sprout every year, and millions who come close to gagging to death when forced to eat brussels sprouts. If we can save just one child by banning brussels sprouts, it is worth it.”

      • Agreed, Pete, but I would change that example. While you (and I) hate brussels sprouts, we hate them because they are repulsive and ill-suited to human consumption.

        • Brussels sprouts are awesome!

          Preparation is key: buy fresh, never frozen, quarter, toss in olive oil, season with salt and coarsely cracked pepper, maybe some garlic powder, and roast until golden brown at the edges. Delicious! Goes really well with various roasts and it’s really popular at Thanksgiving with our family.

    • True. I do not object to their holding those beliefs, but I do object to them trying to force those beliefs on everyone else in America.

  10. “I don’t want you reading it, I don’t want you spelling it. I don’t even want you looking at the picture.”
    How does this dad feel about sex?, medicine?, does his obvious paranoia have any limits at all? Is he suitable to even be a parent? Should his children be taken away from him and put into a healthier environment? Anyone that is THAT repressed in my layman’s opinion, needs help and to be carefully watched.

  11. Yet another future screwed-up kid. Maybe I can do my uncle the psychiatrist a favor and recommend this kid now, help him pay for his new boat.

    If sex and drugs have taught us one thing, it’s that total avoidance and denial NEVER entice a kid to do something irresponsible that he at least would have done responsibly with a mature introduction.

    But, really, can we ever expect maturity from antis?

  12. A young mother I know tried raising her children without “gender specific” toys: no dolls, no guns, etc. She told me she stepped out of the kitchen one morning as the kids were eating breakfast and when she came back the boy has bitten his toast into the shape of a handgun and was pointing the toast at his sister and shouting “bang bang!”

    To her credit she realized her folly and bought the kid a plastic gun.

    • Ha! good story. A men’s blog that I read posted a similar story. Both parents wanted to raise their son without “gender specific” toys. One day, they gave the young boy a doll to play with and left the room. When they returned he had broken off the doll’s head and was using it as a puck to play hockey with. They too stopped following the modern feminist promoted gender-neutral script and realized that differences exist between young boys and girls that go beyond the physical.

      • YES! I deal with children as part of my work and, while they are all wonderful creatures, the boys always make me smile because they do stuff like that. There’s something about their irrepressible spirit of mischief that gets me every time.

  13. Better keep ’em out of the toy aisle, too! You never can be too safe (but you certainly can be too stupid…).

  14. “The first thing I thought was…I don’t want you….”

    The father’s first thought was what he wanted and not what might be good learning for his daughter distinct from his own ego.

  16. Imagine if Lawrence said this instead:

    “I looked at it and I seen the word ‘muslim’ on it. The first thing I thought was ‘oh no no no,’ I don’t want you reading it, I don’t want you spelling it. I don’t even want you looking at the picture.”

    What a shitstorm that would start….

  17. “I looked at it and I seen the word ‘gun’ on it.” Dude seems really well edumuhcated………..

    • He grew up in a house where he wasn’t allowed to use the word “saw” . If exposed to the word, he might pick up a saw and cut himself.

  18. Gee…when I was a kid, I had toy guns galore and watched Combat! on TV. Grandparents had real guns galore and Great Uncle had real Civil War guns galore.

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