You Have Got to Be Kidding

Political correctness has crossed the line from ridiculous to "You have got to be kidding."

I'm pretty sure by now most of you have read about the Boy Scouts ban on squirt gun battles.  I really don't know why I was surprised.  This anti gun thing has totally run amok, from kids being sent home from school for wearing a t-shirt depicting any sort of weapon, to elementary age children being reprimanded for pointing a finger at a classmate and saying "pow, pow, pow," to the now famous nibbling of a Pop Tart into what was perceived as a "gun shape."  And now Boy Scouts are not allowed to have squirt gun fights.

And yes, I am going to go down that "When I was a kid" road.

Dad bought a series of squirt guns for my sister and me.  As the youngest of nine children, I'm pretty sure he remembered the fun of water connecting with a sister.  We were kept busy for hours, chasing one another, each trying to stay dry while soaking the other.  Or hiding around a corner or behind a tree, waiting for the opportunity of a sneak attack.  Or getting off a really good shot at a neighbor kid.  Who then proceeded to soak us.  And when the cheap plastic squirt guns would wear out or break, he would bring home more.  The only ban on squirt guns came from Mother who didn't allow us to use them in the house.  Oddly enough, neither of us grew up with homicidal tendencies.  Imagine that.

My kids played with squirt guns.  Pretty much the same way as my sister and me.  Kept them occupied and out of my hair for hours.  And guess what.  There isn't a mass murderer in the bunch.

I sometimes think that there is a plan to sissify our boys.  My boys learned to shoot at a young age.  For that matter, so did my girls.  They all took gun safety courses.  Both my boys hunt and both have provided their families with venison.  In my Dad's time, learning to hunt was a necessary skill.  It kept food on the table.  There were times when the only meat my family had was the result of hunting.  But now it seems that our children are supposed to run and hide when firearms are mentioned, seen pictured on a shirt or even pretended in little boy play.  There may very well come a time when shooting skills are the only means of obtaining meat.  These kids are going to grow up clueless.

Little boys are no longer allowed to be little boys.  Little boys are loud and obnoxious and like to do battle.  It is their training ground for their responsibilities as adults to take care of and defend the family.  But now if a boy acts like a boy, he is usually drugged.  He learns that any sort of weapon is bad.  He is taught to fear rather than respect firearms.

So let's say that the little boy grows up.  He has a wife, a couple of children.  And some mean and crazy person breaks into his home.  Won't happen?  Read the papers.  Watch the news.  Happens somewhere every single day.  So what's he going to do.  He has no weapon for defense.  It has been drummed into him that guns are bad.  Mean and crazy isn't about to wait while he calls 911, or wait until the police arrive.  Mean and crazy is going to, at best, hurt him and his family.  Mean and crazy doesn't care if his victims are women and children.  At worst, this husband and father won't live to regret his choices concerning the wisdom of owning a gun.

So lets just keep on banning anything that smacks of defense.  Lets keep on making our younger generation vulnerable to the mean and crazies of this world.  Lets just keep on telling them that they should be tolerant and that gun free zones really work and nobody should have guns and nothing bad will ever happen to them.  Because we all know that if guns are banned, surely the criminals  won't have them either.  Worked for England, didn't it?

And for God's sake, lets not allow little boys to be what they are - little boys.  Who grow up to be men.  Who believe in the responsibility of caring for home and family and country.  Who willingly defend them against all evil.

That just would never do, would it?