Enough With The Gun Hysteria!

It seems like there`s nothing else to talk about these days other than the gun control issue. Actually, not “these days”. “These weeks” would be more appropriate. People have been shooting other people since forever in the US. But now, every time something like this happens, every single piece of news ends with some gun control remark.

And that`s barely the beginning of it. Now, every shooting is “horrific”, “appalling”, “abominable”, “gruesome”, “horrid” and so on. I`m not saying shootings aren`t all these things. They are. But ever since Obama has been going here and there listing a full series of synonyms for “disgusting” to describe guns, the media has been more than willing to help him complete the list. Ok, we get it. Guns are “horrific”. Let`s leave it to that.

And if only they stopped at actual shootings… But no. ANYTHING that has to do with guns is just perfect for yet another “Mr. Obama, please fix our troubled, troubled country” type of speech. For example…

“At least five people — three in North Carolina, one in Indiana and one in Ohio — were injured after weapons went off at gun shows Saturday, officials said, at a time when there’s been renewed discussion about private gun sales at such shows.” (cnn.com)

So there were five people injured at three different gun shows. And that`s not a good thing? There were only five injured. Go to a playground for 30 minutes and you`ll see more kids severely injured than you`ll ever see at a gun show, I can assure you. But when Obama`s campaigning anti-guns, everything`s a greek tragedy. Soon enough, we`ll hear about guns ruining perfectly happy marriages and pets committing suicide with their owner`s rifle.

This may sound like I`m talking crazy, but the gun hysteria has gone completely out of control. And here`s a good showcase:

We`re talking about a bubble-gun here. One of those plastic gun-shaped toys that make soap bubbles. Like this:

According to Russia Today, a 5-year-old girl was suspended from the kindergarten she attended after telling another girl that she was going to shoot her… using “a pink toy gun that blows soapy bubbles”. That`s what got her suspended. We, here, in the US, like to take serious matters seriously. So seriously, that it`s ridiculous!

“Mount Carmel Area School District officials questioned the student without her parents present, deemed the girl a “terrorist threat” and suspended her for 10 days, according to attorney Robin Ficker, who was hired by the family to fight the suspension.”

Please, someone tell me this is a joke! A girl with a bubble-gun is now a terrorist threat? Where, in Neverland? Unfortunately, this was not published in The Onion. No, it`s Russia Today and they don`t go joking around on the expense of naive readers such as myself.

Now, to be fair, I should let you know (in case you don`t already know) a possible reason behind this toy gun madness.

This happened last week. A boy brought a .22-caliber pistol – along with the ammunition and loaded gun clip – to school, in his backpack. Nothing happened, there was no shooting or any sign the 7 year-old had any intention of using the gun whatsoever, especially since the gun was unloaded and the ammunition + gun clip were in a different bag than the gun. But no matter what the kid`s intentions were, bringing a gun to school is never a good idea. So, yeah, I perfectly understand why the whole school was freaked out. The Newton incident is still fresh in everyone`s memory and it`s impossible not to start shaking like a leaf when you hear there`s a 7 year-old walking around the school with a gun.

But from this to deeming a 5 year-old girl “armed” with a bubble-gun a “terrorist threat” is a long, long way. The paranoia is spreading and expanding at a worrying pace and I`m afraid it`s already time to ask ourselves: So, what`s next?

They`re already tracking our kids with those chipped badges… I don`t even want to know what they`ll think of next. Are they going to build tiny kids prisons in school buildings? Will they start “extracting” information from primary school children about “terrorist suspects”? Will they have armed guards in every classroom? All these ideas may sound exaggerated, but that`s what we thought about chipping kids like cattle, too, and look at us now. So, where are we heading with this mass-paranoia… and where will it stop?

By Alec Deacon