At 13:33 09-03-01 -0800, Joshua wrote:
>"John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>I'm watching _Primetime_ on ABC right now. They conducted an experiment
>>by placing hidden cameras and disabled handguns in a room where teenagers
>>will discover them. The reaction of the kids is appallling.
>
>Dateline (?) did the same thing last year with 5-year-olds. Same results.
>Whether or not the kids had been shown an NRA gun safety video just
>minutes before, the kids would almost invariably pick up the guns and play
>Cops&Robbers.
>
>The one that sticks in my mind is the child that rooted around in the
>classroom until they found bullets (which I can only assume were dummies)
>in the teacher's desk and started to load the revolver.
>
>Perhaps a standard part of kindergarden should be placing each child alone
>in a room with a gun, letting them discover it, then severely traumatize
>by playing a recording of a gunshot, and running in and screaming at them.
>Until they have a solid negative experience they won't overcome the
>repetitive training of mass media - guns are for picking up, pointing, and
>shooting.
>
>I resented my parents never letting me play with toy guns, but it seems to
>have been somewhat successful.
Well, I apologize if it seems I am repeating myself, but . . .
I and my contemporaries were raised without any such "negative
conditioning" as you describe. (Perhaps the closest thing would be the
example of a now-retired police officer I know, who, when his children were
little, after talking to them about guns and what they were for and that
they were not for kids, one day conducted an experiment by leaving his
unloaded service weapon lying out on the table instead of putting it away
where he usually stored it, then he observed unobtrusively from the other
room while the kids were in the same room as the gun. He was ready to go
in and yell at them if they had touched it, but they didn't.)
Most of us had toy guns by the dozen. Some of them were quite realistic,
like the toy .38 revolver I had that had metal cartridges with a spring
inside: you would push a plastic bullet into the open end until a latch
caught, then stick a cap on the back, so when the trigger of the toy gun
was pulled, the hammer would fall, setting off the cap and dislodging the
bullet which would be propelled out the barrel by the spring. Again, we
didn't even take those to school, much less take real guns. Though at
recess, some kids would find appropriately-shaped sticks and go around
pointing them at other kids and going "bang, bang."
As far as the media influence goes: every week during the opening credits
of "Gunsmoke," we got to see Marshall Dillon gun down the bad guy. I won't
even mention shows with titles like "The Rifleman," "Have Gun, Will
Travel," and "Yancey Derringer" . . .
-- Ronn! :)
