The optimal route for me to drive home from work takes me through a not-so-great neighborhood, but even with all the on-street parking (on both sides, naturally, jerks) and random pedestrians walking in the street for me to dodge, it’s still better than any other route. Most days, anyway.
Today on the drive home, I saw some kids playing on the sidewalk. I paid close attention as I approached – ready to hit the brakes if one of them randomly lunged into the street. Wouldn’t be the first time…
Instead, I caught the eye of a little boy holding a black toy gun with orange accents. Except for the orange color, it might as well have passed for a real gun – it was the right size and shape.
He raised the gun and pointed it at me so that I could see down the barrel – and kept it trained on me as I drove past.
The look on his face was pure malice. If it had been a real gun he might very well have shot me for no other reason than I was driving down the street.
I have a toy gun too – one that I got as a present. It’s a sci-fi blaster – a prop from Guardians of the Galaxy. It has some cool special effects and lights up and it only barely resembles any kind of gun. And it rests in my Armory of Fictional and Mythical Artifacts & Weapons – along with a sonic screwdriver, magic wand, and Golden Sword of Battle, etc.
The blaster will sometimes find its way to my hand and I’ll point it at the wall and pull the trigger to hear the noise and watch it light up. Just as a nerf sword might be swung through the air or a ring might be charged up with a memorized oath. (“In brightest day…”)
And I could no more hurt someone with the blaster than the boy could have hurt me with his toy gun – but, that malice was unnerving.
In the wake of… well, I was going to say the gun violence this week, but narrowing it to a single week seems disrespectful. In the wake of the ongoing gun violence, the blaster seems a little less fun.
What is our fascination with guns? I’ve never held a real one – nor (fortunately) have I had one pointed at me. But even that toy blaster evokes… something.
I’m not going to vary my route because some randomly angry kid pointed a fake gun at me. And I’m not on a mission to ban toy guns.
But, I’ve given this a little thought, and I think it’s time to part with the blaster. I’m tired of guns and the anger and people dying because it’s easy to pull a trigger. Fake or real, it’s too often an expression of anger and I could use a little less of that.
Maybe we all could.