Toy Gun ‘Ban’ Re-Launched In California
An anti-toy guns project that was initially launched in California in 1987 has begun anew. Santa Monica activist Jerry Rubin decided to re-launch the toy gun removal program after the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
Rubin mailed a “personalized merit award” to all the children who sent him a letter and explained why they did not enjoy playing with toy guns, according to Fox News. The California man ended the toy gun exchange after he ran out of teddy bears to give to the children who turned in their pretend guns. Rubin allegedly gave out 5,000 stuffed bears during the original run of the anti-toy gun campaign.
Jerry Rubin has reportedly spent many years working on environmental and anti-violence causes in the Southern California region, the Fresno Bee reports. In 1988, Rubin, as the director of the Los Angeles Alliance for Survival, took part in the fourth annual International Days of Protest Against War Toys, the Associated Press notes.
During the event a magician “turned” G.I. Joe and Rambo action figures into teddy bears and tossed them into the air for those in the small crowd to grab. Charles Peters, the magician, also made toy guns “vanish” into thin air and white doves appear in their place.
During the International Days of Protest Against War Toys event, Jerry Rubin had this to say:
“I think people can participate in making their own magic this holiday season and all year round. They can stop buying war toys and make them disappear from store shelves.”
Children have used toy guns during role playing games for more than a hundred years, yet the tragic mass shooting are largely a modern style of crime. When little boys and girls squirt water guns at one another or play with like there are police officers and soldiers, the pretend play typically involves protecting the good guys from the bad guys. Do you think a toy gun ban movement would help prevent another Sandy Hook or West Webster firefighters tragedy?
