I walked out my front door a few days ago, and saw the 11 year old boy across the street holding a large rifle. (It looked EXACTLY like the one in the picture) He was pointing it at the house next door to him.
He looked up and saw me looking at him and SLITHERED into his back yard. I was baffled, so I called one of my friends who has sons who are friends with this boy.
"Is that Tommy Smith (not his real name) you're talking about?" she asked, "he was just playing with an airsoft rifle! It's no bit deal."
"An airsoft rifle?" I asked, "Are those dangerous?" "Oh no," she replied, "my boys play with them in the neighborhood all the time...as long as they have their protective equipment on they're fine."
"Oh, okay", I said. "What about if someone DOESN'T have protective equipment on? Can they get hurt then?"
She sounded annoyed. "Jill, THEY'RE BOYS...it's all about guns and knives. There's nothing you can do about it. It's a good thing you have girls."
WTF? Boys are all about guns and knives? There's nothing I can do about it? It's all cool as long as we wear our protective equipment? I don't have protective equipment! Neither do my daughters, who play on the same street where this kid was standing pointing his airsoft rifle at the house next door. My cat doesn't walk around wearing safety goggles and a bullet proof vest! We don't live in the country with 2 acres of land between each lot. We live in a neighborhood of 50' x 150' lots!
Saying boys are all about guns and there's nothing you can do about it sounds pretty f-in asinine to me. I guess when her sons are 16 and they want to smoke some pot and have a few beers she can say, "teenagers are all about getting stoned and drunk, there's nothing you can do about it!!" Duh.
Go ahead lady, buy your sons airsoft guns, and then take them out to a field somewhere and let them shoot the crap out of each other...but if I see your son point his little toy at my house, or my kids, or even my frickin' cat, I'm going to grab the gun and point it at you...and you'd better be wearing your protective equipment when I do.
After all, I'm a pissed off middle aged housewife, I'm all about keeping my children safe, and there's nothing you can do about that.
He looked up and saw me looking at him and SLITHERED into his back yard. I was baffled, so I called one of my friends who has sons who are friends with this boy.
"Is that Tommy Smith (not his real name) you're talking about?" she asked, "he was just playing with an airsoft rifle! It's no bit deal."
"An airsoft rifle?" I asked, "Are those dangerous?" "Oh no," she replied, "my boys play with them in the neighborhood all the time...as long as they have their protective equipment on they're fine."
"Oh, okay", I said. "What about if someone DOESN'T have protective equipment on? Can they get hurt then?"
She sounded annoyed. "Jill, THEY'RE BOYS...it's all about guns and knives. There's nothing you can do about it. It's a good thing you have girls."
WTF? Boys are all about guns and knives? There's nothing I can do about it? It's all cool as long as we wear our protective equipment? I don't have protective equipment! Neither do my daughters, who play on the same street where this kid was standing pointing his airsoft rifle at the house next door. My cat doesn't walk around wearing safety goggles and a bullet proof vest! We don't live in the country with 2 acres of land between each lot. We live in a neighborhood of 50' x 150' lots!
Saying boys are all about guns and there's nothing you can do about it sounds pretty f-in asinine to me. I guess when her sons are 16 and they want to smoke some pot and have a few beers she can say, "teenagers are all about getting stoned and drunk, there's nothing you can do about it!!" Duh.
Go ahead lady, buy your sons airsoft guns, and then take them out to a field somewhere and let them shoot the crap out of each other...but if I see your son point his little toy at my house, or my kids, or even my frickin' cat, I'm going to grab the gun and point it at you...and you'd better be wearing your protective equipment when I do.
After all, I'm a pissed off middle aged housewife, I'm all about keeping my children safe, and there's nothing you can do about that.
17 comments:
That is ABSOLUTELY A BIG EFFING DEAL! We are having similar issues with our neighbor (an adult) who thinks it's is acceptable to shoot and kill birds, squirrels, etc with his pellet gun. Did I mention more than one has fallen into our yard? I have no problem with legitimate hunting for food or even sport shooting at a range- but guns - even "safe" ones like airsoft, pellet guns, etc - should not be used to shoot at things in a neighborhood.
So when the cops shoot the boys with the protective equipment and the air guns what happens? Because, that looks like a REAL FREAKING GUN TO ME!
It is a HUGE deal!! I don't even like water guns in my house...I allow them but I stress to my children that guns are not toys. We don't allow that type of play.
I'm not anti hunting. I'm not anti sport shooting in a safe and controlled environment. I am against children with guns...even toy guns- especially toys that look JUST LIKE REAL GUNS!
We have those guns and they're little styrofoam pellets about the size of a bb. They must have different ones because I don't know why you'd need protective equipment. The ones we have don't even shoot very hard. But I guess you could put your eye out if you shot it straight in there.
And seriously, having girls first, then having boys...they are different animals. Hard to explain. Boys will bite their toast into the shape of a gun and go "pow pow pow". They can also make that car motor sound the minute they're born.
I guess I'm a bad mother because after all these years I've realized that there are things that you just can't control and if you try it usually backfires. Pun intended.
The airsoft that you need protective equipment for are not styrofoam. You can look into this online if you want. They're usually plastic or light metal round pellets. However, if at close range with the type of gun your neighbor boy seems to have, even the plastic ones can cause welts. They can also damage property. You might want to call your city's safety board, a lot of areas have restrictions about them being used in neighborhoods.
WOW! Saying this is not a big deal is crazy. I have a boy (and he's ONLY 2!) and already he likes to play with toy guns and "shoot" birds. His toy gun is bright orange and in no way looks like a real gun. We are VERY careful about not pointing at people or animals (or than birds or squirrels). My husband is a cop and a hunter so there are guns in our home but not where our child can get to them!! He will grow up learning to respect firearms and know they aren't toys..... there is a time and a place.
To me this is like any other situation where some parents will make an excuse of anything..... their child will never be in the wrong.
I guess we must have different ones. They haven't done much with them for a couple of years. Their interest in shooting stuff has waned, it was more a middle school thing for them. And they don't really like real hunting much either. Neither does DOTR, so we have a couple guns but nobody is much interested in them anymore.
My brothers loved to have bb gun wars. It was cute until one got shot about 1mm from his eye. Then it wasn't so cute. Oh and one shot the other one in the leg and the ER dr. had to dig it out. Fun. How about we NOT give kids guns that shoot stuff because...it's not a great idea? Oh and they shot the neighbor's dog. That's when I stepped in and "hid" the guns in the trash. They never did know what happened to them.
I get that boys will be boys, but why give them something that can hurt other people then not supervise them?
The neighbor kid behind us has one of those. He would shoot at the birds in our yard. He hit our back door, 2-paned glass, it shattered - while my daughter was standing in front of it. Yeah, they're aren't dangerous - meh! (Police ha
I suggest you take a picture of little Dillinger. Drop it off at the local police station and ask if there are restrictions on this type of gun. Anything that looks that real can cause a problem. Duh !!!
Those rifles can hurt like heck. And whatever happened to that rule "never point a gun at anyone?" I also don't get the rage about paintball. Idiocy, but no one asked me. I would worry about my boys running around the neighborhood carrying what looks like a seriously real rifle. What about some crazy neighbor who thinks the boys are carrying real guns?? It's all a little frightening to me.
Yes!!!!! I just thought of your Thanksgiving stunt:) I can't wait to tell Kyle!
I know someone who used to sell Airsoft guns and he would love to come and knock some sense into your neighbors. They can absolutely be dangerous. And as my father-in-law the hunter and gun-owner says, "Guns are not toys. Nothing that shoots should be considered a toy."
This post hit way too close to home... last week I took my 1 and 3 year olds to the park. There was a mom/caregiver/grandmother (I don't know who she was) supervising five little boys. They were playing with plastic guns, jumping on the equipment, and pretending to shoot one another. My kids were climbing the ladder when one of the boys pointed his little plastic gun in my one-year-old's face. I freaked. I didn't yell, but I quickly told him that he needed to point the gun elsewhere and not do that ever again. The caregiver came over and grabbed the kids and told them to stay away from me. Was she serious? I was the threat. You know what, I was. If that boy did it again, that gun would have been in the trash can. I hate toy guns. Hate them.
I'll start by saying that I don't have kids at all, so people who don't think that people who don't have kids can't have opinions about it can go ahead and shoot me now...lol (pun completely intended!). The idea that just because a kid likes to play with something it becomes an OK today is bullcrap. What about kids who like to play with matches?
Anyway, one day I came home and I saw several kids, with one grown man guiding them, shooting at pigeons. And I'm tell you because I saw it with my own two eyes, the pigeons were getting hurt and dying! I'm a fat woman, but when I saw this I RAN out of my car towards those kids and I told them the F off! Then I told them that I was going inside my house to get a phone and I was coming right back out. If I saw one of them when I came out I was calling 911 (I didn't have a cell phone at the time, or a camera or I would have taken photos and then called the cops anyways). First off, I hate people who shoot birds. But can you imagine shooting at the same birds on a regular streets where people are walking down the sidewalks and driving into their driveways? The idea that "boys will be boys" is the crap that some adults use as an excuse for bad, unruly or just plain dangerous behavior. By the way, two minutes later when I walked out again with my house phone there wasn't a single one of them shooting at birds.
You gotta stop the boy from using the plastic gun, before they take the real gun and shoot somebody
I hate guns pointed at me. I freak out. I've had nightmares where someone is chasing me with a gun. So that kinda tells you where I stand!
what's wrong with you people?! i've gotten shot with some of the highest powered airsoft guns without any safty gear in the eyes, mouth, balls, and nose, and sure, it hurt, but it didn't seriously injure me!!! it sure didn't feel to great, but I was FINE! I own my an airsoft minigun! maybe I should go after you ladies with it! also, in america they are legally required to have a RED FUCKING TIP ON THEM!!! anyone who knows the FIRST THING about guns knows they aren't real! that exactly what one of my freind's who's a police officer says! and he's NOT EVEN DONE WITH POLICE SCHOOL!!!!!!
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