{"id":2437,"date":"2018-10-31T00:28:15","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T00:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2437"},"modified":"2018-10-31T00:28:15","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T00:28:15","slug":"toy-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/31\/toy-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"toy gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s still better than any other route. \u00a0Most days, anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today on the drive home, I saw some kids playing on the sidewalk. \u00a0I paid close attention as I approached – ready to hit the brakes if one of them randomly lunged into the street. \u00a0Wouldn\u2019t be the first time…<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, I caught the eye of a little boy holding a black toy gun with orange accents. \u00a0Except for the orange color, it might as well have passed for a real gun – it was the right size and shape. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

The look on his face was pure malice. \u00a0If it had been a real gun he might very well have shot me for no other reason than I was driving down the street.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a toy gun too – one that I got as a present. \u00a0It\u2019s a sci-fi blaster – a prop from Guardians of the Galaxy. \u00a0It has some cool special effects and lights up and it only barely resembles any kind of gun. \u00a0\u00a0And it rests in my Armory of Fictional and Mythical Artifacts & Weapons – along with a sonic screwdriver, magic wand, and Golden Sword of Battle, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

The blaster will sometimes find its way to my hand and I\u2019ll point it at the wall and pull the trigger to hear the noise and watch it light up. \u00a0Just as a nerf sword might be swung through the air or a ring might be charged up with a memorized oath. (\u201cIn brightest day\u2026\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

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. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the wake of\u2026 well, I was going to say the gun violence this week, but narrowing it to a single week seems disrespectful. \u00a0In the wake of the ongoing gun violence, the blaster seems a little less fun. <\/span><\/p>\n

What is our fascination with guns? \u00a0I\u2019ve never held a real one – nor (fortunately) have I had one pointed at me. \u00a0But even that toy blaster evokes\u2026 something. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to vary my route because some randomly angry kid pointed a fake gun at me. \u00a0And I\u2019m not on a mission to ban toy guns. <\/span><\/p>\n

But, I\u2019ve given this a little thought, and I think it\u2019s time to part with the blaster. \u00a0I\u2019m tired of guns and the anger and people dying because it\u2019s easy to pull a trigger. Fake or real, it\u2019s too often an expression of anger and I could use a little less of that. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe we all could.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s still better than any other route. \u00a0Most days, anyway. Today on the drive home, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2438,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437\/revisions\/2438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}