I'm the first one to raise my hand–and my voice–when it comes to passing tougher gun control laws. I hate guns and what they're capable of doing, and while my husband has one in the house, it's unreachable thanks to a lock combination that only my he knows. I'm sick and tired of hearing of yet another child accidentally shooting their brother, mother, father or neighbor, and even more so of deranged gunmen going on a rampage like the one in Santa Monica Friday. Even so, I honestly don't think that a toy gun buy back program is going to make any difference at all.
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The program is the brainchild of the principal at Strobridge Elementary School in the San Francisco Bay Area. The children can exchange their toy guns for one free book and enter a raffle for a free bike.
While the idea sounds cute and all, shooting accidents and killing rampages don't happen because of toy guns. Those who think that are delusional. These tragedies occur for many other reasons, including neglect and carelessness–in the case of the accidents–and lax gun control laws combined with not enough adequate mental health care services–in the case of massacres like the one in Santa Monica, Sandy Hook, and Aurora, to name a few.
Kids will play guns even if they don't have them. I've seen my own 3-year-old do so with a stick, a crayola and, of course, his own fingers. Am I supposed to take these away too? How ludicrous!
A better program would be one that would buy back violent video games that should have never been made. I think these have a much greater influence in desensitizing a child than a toy gun ever will.
Image via Vanessa Lynn./flickr
