Today I pulled into my apartment complex after running some errands, and I came to a stop sign. I wanted to turn right. About that time,
a boy, who obviously saw me coming, walked right out into the road, so that I couldn't turn. Despite him being completely disrespectful and unsafe, I was patient. This was definitely not the first time kids had done this sort of thing. Then it happened. While walking across the road, knowingly in my way,
he raised up the toy gun that he was holding, which
was realistic in shape and color, with no orange tip, pointed it at me multiple times, and murmured something that sounded like I should stop or
he was going to shoot me. I'm terrible at guessing age, but I would imagine he was 12 or less.
snipp.../QUOTE]
As I don't share your assessment of the situation as "serious" I am not dismayed that my play acting with a child would not in your opinion mitigate that seriousness.
Also your suggestion that play acting with a child may lead the child to actually shoot someone is beyond absurd. I'm embarrassed for you that you actually expressed what is so often anti-gun rhetoric.
ok, twoskins...couple of things to put your embarrassment at ease...
1) an unknown 'youngster', early teens but true age indeterminate, walked in the middle of the street, stopped a vehicle by pointing a no orange tipped, realistically shaped 'gun', at the vehicle's drivers, while multiple times murmuring under their breath, '
stop' or '
i will shoot you'.
Now perhaps twoskins, in your select area of this country's paradise, this sounds like normal child's play, but in a factual assessment of the situation, in other parts of the country, where there is severe social economic environments for youngsters...this child's play sounds like 'gangster' role play or practice if you will to see reactions and responses of those exposed to the 'toy gun' prior to joining a club (read gang) or to venture on their own to make a name for themselves.
2) a quick stroll in this mornings news blurps: let's read about the absurd in the real world and consequences of same:
quote: A New Jersey man whose 4-year-old son shot a playmate dead with an unsecured gun
served nine months in prison last year—but he hasn't finished paying for the negligence that led to the 6-year-old boy's death. On Monday, a judge ordered Anthony Senatore and his wife, Melissa,
to pay $572,588.26 compensatory damages to the parents of Brandon Holt, NJ.com reports. Senatore's son shot Brandon in the head
during a game of "pretend shooting" outside the Senatores' Toms River home in April 2013. unquote
http://www.newser.com/story/225562/parents-of-boy-4-who-shot-friend-must-pay-572k.html
quote: Keepers called Eisenhauer a "
sociopath," per Hite, and referred to herself as "
a sociopath in training." Natalie Keepers, 19, and David Eisenhauer, 18, sat listening to how Nicole Lovell (added for clarity: 13 yo female) was allegedly
lured from her home on Jan. 27,
murdered by Eisenhauer, and
dumped beside a rural North Carolina road. unquote.
http://www.newser.com/story/225557/virginia-murder-suspect-was-a-sociopath-in-training.html
quote: Authorities tell Fox 5 Atlanta that 6-year-old Lanira Tackett was
dragged into a bathroom stall Thursday at Oakland Elementary School in Henry County, Georgia, by an 11-year-old girl
who choked the younger student and
stuffed her head in the toilet two or three times. ...say the school
had already flagged the fifth grader for bullying but nothing was done, "
People choose to ignore it, but they need to know that bullying is real and it is something that affects children," unquote
finally, quote: Authorities say Trinity Carr, 16, repeatedly punched Amy in the head and chest in a bathroom at Howard High School of Technology...killed 16-year-old Delaware high school student Amy Inita Joyner-Francis...Trinity
planned the attack 20 hours in advance with Zion Snow and Chakeira Wright, who were in the bathroom...unquote
http://www.newser.com/story/224882/only-one-girl-hit-teen-who-died-in-school-bathroom.html
So, if you are 'role playing' with your own children or g-children...knock your socks off...other children you do not know or have any idea of their familial environment you do not know if you are inadvertently contributing to a "sociopath in training"...
keep your eyes closed so the sand doesn't get in them and ignore what is going on in other parts of the society you live in.
ipse