Here’s the latest in the effort to get the guns. No, this isn’t a story about banning so-called “assault” weapons (whatever those are) or “high-capacity” magazines (how high is too high?). This time we are talking about toy guns and a program one elementary school is using to get them away from kids.

I don’t know about you, but when I was little, we played war, cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, and all sorts of games with toy guns. None of us freaked out, and none of us ever confused a plastic toy gun with a real one. We were PLAYING, but apparently these games are no longer politically correct, and some are saying the guns have to go.

As reported by MercuryNews.com, an elementary school in Hayward, CA is running a program in which children are encouraged to turn in their toy guns and receive a book in exchange.

Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill said last week he organized the trade-in out of concern that children who play with toy guns may not take real weapons seriously.

More than 200 people attended Saturday’s safety fair at Strobridge. Students turned in an estimated 50 to 75 toy guns in exchange for a chance to win one of four bicycles, and everyone who attended received a book.

As students arrived at the campus, they found a table set up with books. They dropped their toy guns into a bucket, in exchange for raffle tickets for the bike drawing, and were allowed to pick out a book.

“Whether they had a gun or not, they could pick out a book for the summer. Any siblings with them could take a book, too,” Hill said.

This bothers me on several levels. First, there is NOTHING inherently wrong with a gun. Guns protect. Guns defend. Guns are used for sport. Yes, people can abuse them, but people can also run someone over with a car, or take a gallon of gasoline and use it to burn a house down. Do we now start a taxpayer-funded program to get rid of cars and containers of gasoline?

The other thing that people overlook is this ongoing effort from those in power to take away power from the people. You may feel that this toy gun program doesn’t fit that description, but it’s all part of an overall effort to make people less able to protect themselves and more and more dependent on government. The only thing that is taught these days is that government will protect you. A gun? You don’t need a gun. The police will protect you… the government will save you. Guess what? A police officer can’t do a thing when someone is invading your home and coming at you with a weapon. It is up to you and you alone.

The news story quotes a few parents who are all in favor of the program. Here are my questions: “If you think this is such a great program, why didn’t you just take the gun away from your child? If you are so averse to toy-guns, why did you buy one in the first place?” Again, it’s government stepping in where parents should be.

How about teaching gun safety to children? That seems like a good step to teaching everyone the proper use of a gun, rather than having a program that simply teaches you to be defenseless while only the bad guys have the guns.

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