What is a Weapon?
Julie B. Forbes
jbfwriteon@home.com
Rightgrrl Contributor
February 21, 2000
I distinctly remember purchasing the bag of thirty, "bright colored building blocks." So perfectly shaped to inspire hours of free, creative and imaginative play, in the hands of the "right" child I would later learn. Ally, my 4 year old, would open the bag, spill the blocks and be lost in the possibilities of where she had chosen to go. Castles, caves, houses, and circus' all made by the sweet natured hands of a four year old. The high-pitched scream of my 1-year-old son yanked me into the living room as if being pulled by a large stage hook. On his forehead stood a puffed up, blue lump. I'm sure it hurt but I believe he was also horrified that his good playmate , a neighbor's child, could have actually been the one to do it. A seemingly innocent wooden block had been turned into a pummeling device at the hands of a ill mannered, jealous, spiteful playmate that we quite honestly at times just tolerate. How could I have missed this? I pride myself in being sure all toys are safe. I diligently think through the insane ways children use some items. Blocks, how could they be a problem? Then it dawns on me; the blocks aren't the problem, the playmate was. Blocks have been used by children generation after generation and Fischer Price has yet to begin a massive recall. Large special interest groups have yet to rally on Washington demanding block makers worldwide stop the manufacturing of these death tools.
All innate items can become weapons of destruction in the hands of someone who feels left out, abandoned, angry etc. Blocks are child's play, but guns are not. Just as blocks are used as unintended in the hands of one child, but not in the hands of another,so too are guns. If a playmate can make a weapon of destruction out of a block, go ahead and take away the guns of adults, the left out, abandoned and angry will find another means of hurting. It is not the type of weapon itself that determines the potential for harm; it is the motivation of an individual holding it at a particular moment in time i.e. a really unhappy playmate and a block.
Unfortunately I had to confiscate the blocks and unfairly, as it so often, the innocent have to pay for the poor judgment of the ill mannered in our society. No one got to play with the blocks. No more castles and caves and lost in ones imagination. No more feeling protected in the middle of the night when Daddy is out of town and Mommy, Jacob age 4 sleeping in his new race-car bed, Josie age 1 sleeps in her crib with her little bottom up in the air, and Jeanie not yet born fear for their lives as the back door bashes in and all they have is JoJo , their 11 year old golden lab, to protect them.
A basic constitutional right to bear arms, threatened, due to ramped hysteria misdirected at you and me. Will we let it happen? Watch and listen to those making comments regarding gun control my fellow Americans. They seem to be concerned for your well being, protecting you it seems. You need not their protection if they leave you the ability to protect yourself.
This article copyright © 2000 by Julie B. Forbes and may not be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of its author. All rights reserved.