My son has yet to find an object he can't turn into a gun or sword or both.

We thought about limiting toy guns when our first two boys were little, but like momof4, found that anything could, and did, become a toy gun. Since then, the boys, and the girls, have gone regularly to the rifle range with dad, participated in 4-H Shooting Sports, medalled in competition, own their own rifles, hunted, and my oldest son at 22 just got his MN carry permit and bought his first handgun. They have closets full of airsoft and paintball rifles and my yard has a selection of tiny plastic pellets (biodegradable, fortunately). But none of them has ever shot anyone with a "real" gun.

I always thought MN would continue to be a gun-friendly state - so many people here hunt, until "they" chose us to experiment on as far as anti-gun legislation. I honestly don't know anyone who doesn't own a rifle or handgun in MN, and most of the people I know have taken fire-arm safety, even the ladies. Still having a helluva time finding ammo though.

I thought I had already seen everything stupid under the sun. NOPE!

That said, we have not only an arsenal of squirt guns, supersoakers, hoses and water balloons, as most everyone who posts here knows, we also are locked and loaded with the real things. I just cannot believe how naive some people are.

Okay, I can believe it, I just don't want to.

Still having a helluva time finding ammo though.

Right? BF just yesterday got the 4 boxes of 380 ammo he ordered from Cabela's in January.

This is the long game. There is no stupidity involved. It will take about as long from now as now has taken from 9/11.

These kids will grow up knowing deep in their bones that guns are evil, and vote accordingly. And there's nothing us rubes can do about it. It's For The Children.

I like the this: K-N-O-W, instead of N-O.

The war on guns is about as effective as the war on drugs.

After Vietnam you couldn't even find a toy soldier in the department stores, let alone guns. You wouldn't have thought they'd ever make a comeback, that's how free-to-be-you-and-me everything was. Group hugs, everyone! (This was before hugging became 'bad' at school, of course.)

Things seem totally FUBAR, but the kids will be okay. Most of us muddle through our generational swamps somehow.

From your mouth to the eagerly quivering ears of whatever hypothetically benevolent and powerful entity might be listening, Pricklypear.

I say somebody should challenge this program because it discriminates against girls!

as was pointed to on insty I think... this school is rated the worst of the worst in terms of testing and acedemics... here's a link to that linky:
http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2013/06/theres-something-little-fanatical-about.html

money quote:
"Perhaps Mr. Hill and the gang at Strobridge Elementary should be focusing on academics and not the firearms bugaboo. After all, a quick search of the California Department of Education web site shows Strobridge to be a 1/1 school. The first 1 means that, in terms of academic performance, their school is in the lowest decile of all schools in California. The second 1 means that if, instead of being compared to all schools in the state they're only compared to schools with similar demographics, they're still in the bottom decile."

I tell my kids that there are a ton of people in the world that view a firearm like a rattlesnake: it is alien to them, and deadly, and so it is somehow evil. They take NO interest in figuring out how the thing works, so it is understood. So that the pros and cons, use and danger are understood.

Not ONLY that, but they don't want me to understand either.

it's the epitome of irrational fear.

also Flynne, et al... Luckygunner may have done well for me in the dark times...

Luckygunner = awesome. Tak!

got the 4 boxes of 380 ammo
Sign me up for Dumbledore's Army

Thanks, SwissArmyD!! Nice site, excellent stock!

If there is no limit on how many you can turn in, I wonder if some enterprising youth will scrounge up all the old broken toy guns he can find to get lots of books (unfortunately, they will probably all be copies) and raffle tickets. Gotta teach kids how to game the system early!

Oops, someone on facebook beat me to the idea.

I gave up disbelieving bureaucratic stupidity years ago.

I am an academic, so I run in the sort of elite circles that also populate our government and the media. Many of these people (not all) are scared of guns. One blogger I read was disturbed to go into a convenience store in AZ and encounter a man open-carrying a pistol. (She also wanted to ban all semi-automatics after the school shooting and was seemingly unaware that they constitute ~80% of all firearms.) Silliness like the story here seems to be a concentrated effort to pass this fear onto the next generation.

Leaving aside the issue of schools for a moment, when it comes to PARENTS who don't want to buy toy guns for their gun-loving sons, why don't they just tell them they can pay for the guns themselves? (Provided they don't look realistic, of course, so some trigger-happy cop doesn't shoot at them.) At least it would slow them down a bit.

(Given what I've heard of kids demanding hundreds of dollars' worth of Barbie or G.I. Joe toys over the years and then GIVING them away out of boredom when they get older, I think parents should make kids pretty much pay for ANY toys/treats when the kids ask for them first. It would teach them to wait quietly for an adult to get into a generous mood.)