The Baltimore City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to a citywide ban on toy guns that look like working handguns and rifles. Council members introduced the legislation after a 14-year-old East Baltimore boy holding a BB gun was shot by a city police detective in April.
City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young said replica guns are contributing to violence on Baltimore's streets. He said people are using the fake weapons in robberies, and children who carry them are put in harm's way. There have been more than 800 shootings this year in Baltimore, which is on pace to pass 300 homicides for a second consecutive year.
To my own surprise, I agree with the Baltimore City Council.
Put yourself in the place of a Baltimore cop, when you see this pointed at you: (actual cost: $9.99)
or maybe you're looking at this?
What do you do?
I wouldn't want to be that cop, faced with two choices (shoot, or don't shoot), which are neither appealing:
(1) Treat it as a threat, and shoot an innocent child;
(2) Treat it as a toy, and get shot for your bad judgement.
In today's American Society, either is a viable alternative. And you're going to be wrong, regardless of your in-the-moment decision.
1 comment:
Times Change. When I was a young lad, we were taught not to point our BB guns at the cops, or anyone else.
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