Eye for an eye... BB for a BB
So, this just in from the land of milk and bullets.
This weekend a mother of a 14-year old was arrested for (drumroll, please)... helping her child hunt down the people he wanted to shoot!! Hear, hear for the local police department for stepping up to the plate and stopping her nonsense! Good for them for taking a stand against aiding-and-abetting mothers. Yikes and double yikes, is this what this world (OK, my town) has come to?
As the story goes, a 14 yr old boy and his 3 or 4 pals were riding around with his mother telling her where to go and when to stop. She stopped at one point when he saw someone he wanted to shoot (PS, she knew about the guns in the car, more on that later), he gets out and shoots the person in the face. The mother gets out to check on the victim, gives him a clean bill of health (actually she said "You're OK") and then goes a bit further. She offers the gun to the victim and tells him it would be fine with her if he shot her son. A real big-hearted move since we aren't the eye-for-an-eye society we were in the days of Moses. Our local paper politely reported that the victim "declined" and ran off for help. My guess is that a few four-letter words were flying around when he issued his so-called "declination".
A word about the guns: they were BB guns. It's all just some good, clean NRA-endorsed fun, you think? Ou contraire. The police found a total of 5 guns in the car, one of which was designed to resemble an Uzi. Apparently all BB guns are manufactured with an orange circle on the end of the gun so police and the public will recognize them as the toys that they are. These kids' guns were blacked out so there was nothing to distinguish them from gang-issued non-toys that are so prevalent in this town.
Seriously, what is going on? I have boys. I am appalled at how early the barrage of commercially-endorsed violence begins in the form of Superman (who my 3 yr old is convinced is a bad man because he shoots people), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a plethora of gun-type toys. On the same token, I must admit that while being far from a card-carrying NRA member, I am not terribly worried about my son becoming violent due to his love for some gun-like toy. I don't buy toy-like guns (he is only 3) but when he's at someone's house and they are playing some shooting-type of game, I don't put an immediate halt to it. (Case in point: he was recently fascinated by a lime-green water pistol. I honestly don't think he's made the connection between that and a deadly weapon). But he doesn't face the 24/7 exposure to violence that his TV-watching peers face. He also doesn't have a mother who, at 3 or 14, will have nothing better to do than cruise around with him and his friends looking for the bad dudes whilst toting a few weapons in the minivan. What I would give to be able to honestly end this post with, "therefore, he's safe as can be." But I can't.
This weekend a mother of a 14-year old was arrested for (drumroll, please)... helping her child hunt down the people he wanted to shoot!! Hear, hear for the local police department for stepping up to the plate and stopping her nonsense! Good for them for taking a stand against aiding-and-abetting mothers. Yikes and double yikes, is this what this world (OK, my town) has come to?
As the story goes, a 14 yr old boy and his 3 or 4 pals were riding around with his mother telling her where to go and when to stop. She stopped at one point when he saw someone he wanted to shoot (PS, she knew about the guns in the car, more on that later), he gets out and shoots the person in the face. The mother gets out to check on the victim, gives him a clean bill of health (actually she said "You're OK") and then goes a bit further. She offers the gun to the victim and tells him it would be fine with her if he shot her son. A real big-hearted move since we aren't the eye-for-an-eye society we were in the days of Moses. Our local paper politely reported that the victim "declined" and ran off for help. My guess is that a few four-letter words were flying around when he issued his so-called "declination".
A word about the guns: they were BB guns. It's all just some good, clean NRA-endorsed fun, you think? Ou contraire. The police found a total of 5 guns in the car, one of which was designed to resemble an Uzi. Apparently all BB guns are manufactured with an orange circle on the end of the gun so police and the public will recognize them as the toys that they are. These kids' guns were blacked out so there was nothing to distinguish them from gang-issued non-toys that are so prevalent in this town.
Seriously, what is going on? I have boys. I am appalled at how early the barrage of commercially-endorsed violence begins in the form of Superman (who my 3 yr old is convinced is a bad man because he shoots people), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a plethora of gun-type toys. On the same token, I must admit that while being far from a card-carrying NRA member, I am not terribly worried about my son becoming violent due to his love for some gun-like toy. I don't buy toy-like guns (he is only 3) but when he's at someone's house and they are playing some shooting-type of game, I don't put an immediate halt to it. (Case in point: he was recently fascinated by a lime-green water pistol. I honestly don't think he's made the connection between that and a deadly weapon). But he doesn't face the 24/7 exposure to violence that his TV-watching peers face. He also doesn't have a mother who, at 3 or 14, will have nothing better to do than cruise around with him and his friends looking for the bad dudes whilst toting a few weapons in the minivan. What I would give to be able to honestly end this post with, "therefore, he's safe as can be." But I can't.
posted by Left Coast Sister at 7:02 PM
2 Comments:
EEEEEEKKKK!!!! Between this and Jay Are's post, it makes ya wonder....
that's my kinda mom.
altho on the grand scale I guess we've seen lots worse, that's a bit egregious (gratuitous? gregarious? gargantuan?) whatever.
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