Lawmaker Wants to Ban Toy Guns

Ohio Democrat Bill Patmon has a bill he thinks the state legislature may want to take up. Following incidents where people have been shot by police while holding toy guns, he thinks the answer is to ban them altogether. Thus, he has authored House Bill 119, which would make illegal BB guns and replicas that a “reasonable person” could easily mistake for the real thing.

Should the bill become law, it would become a first degree misdemeanor in the state of Ohio to sell, own, or manufacture imitation firearms. “It’s either a gun or it’s not,” said Patmon. “This idea of imitation has gone a bit far, especially in this day and age. This is a bill that if it saves one child or one adult, then I think it’s done its job.”

If It Saves Just One…

Isn’t that always the justification for stealing our freedoms? If it just saves one life, they always say. Well, there are a lot of things that would save at least one life. If you banned lollipops, it would save at least one life. If you banned backyard grills, it would save a bunch of lives. Unfortunately, we live in a dangerous world. People find new and exciting ways to die each and every day. Sure, we could coat the world in Nerf and ban every activity, but that doesn’t sound like much fun. Would we rather live with a little bit of risk or would we rather limit ourselves to only those activities that are completely safe? Even if we fall into the latter category, shouldn’t that be a choice left to every individual?

Maybe instead of banning toy guns, we should teach children how to play responsibly:

“Hey son.”

“Yes, Daddy?”

“Don’t point that gun at a police officer.”

“Okay.”

Whew, I know parenting is hard work, but that doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Of course, this isn’t about avoiding the ultra-rare case of a child with a toy gun being shot by police. This is about taking advantage of a high-profile tragedy to change the culture. These liberals know that there’s no better time to change hearts and minds then when they’re young. If kids aren’t allowed to play with toy guns, they may be less likely to support gun rights when they get older. This is especially true when they are subjected to 12 years of anti-gun propaganda in school. Propaganda that says we are living under a misinterpreted 2nd Amendment meant only for a time long past.

It’s a safe bet that most of you reading this grew up playing with toy guns. Many of you may remember “shooting” each other in variations of Cops and Robbers, pretend war, and other simulated acts of violence. More likely than not, you didn’t grow up to murder others. Because as little credit as we like to give children, they usually know the difference between what’s real and what’s pretend. That’s why it’s equally absurd whenever some overzealous politician wants to ban violent video games.

But maybe you feel like your kid would be better off without toy guns. Maybe you don’t like the thought of your child playing out violent fantasies. That’s fine, too. That’s the great thing about American freedom; you have a lot of leeway as it comes to how you raise your child. Unfortunately, if liberals like Bill Patmon have anything to say about it, that leeway is going to disappear.