Does the 2nd Amendment Apply to Toy Guns?
Watch out! Your child’s toy gun may be outlawed. State lawmakers in Michigan are “reviewing legislation that targets the use of certain toy guns. A planned proposal before the Senate would make it a crime to possess a toy gun that has its required markings removed or by having a real gun that is made up to look like a toy.”
State Senate Republican Rick Jones said that the misuse of toy guns has become a major problem, especially within the gang community. “People are taking imitation firearms that look real, cutting off the orange end and then threatening people,” he said.
It seems to me that the threat to do harm is the crime not the use of a toy gun. If I used my fist to threaten someone, the crime would be the threat regardless of what I used to make the threat. Will a clenched fist be the next thing to be outlawed? How about pointing a finger?
Seven-year-old Patrick Riley used his finger to form a pretend gun and went bang toward a wall. He was promptly suspended from Parkview Elementary in Oklahoma City.
When people misuse weapons, the problem isn’t with the weapons but with the people. It’s no different from the way people abuse power, money, drugs, and sex. What we need in the nation is a change in the character of the people not more laws regulating their behavior when there are specific rights outlined for us in the Constitution. It’s not too far beyond the logic of these Michigan legislators would say that the 2nd Amendment doesn’t apply to toy weapons.
Criminals are going to be criminals no matter what the law is. They will always find ways to subvert the law. That’s why they’re criminals! So who gets punished? Regular folks who abide by the law. Their freedoms are taken away because of a criminal class. This type of thinking by government officials spill over into other areas. When people bought homes they could not afford, who had to bail them out? People who bought homes they could afford and paid their mortgages on time.
Supporters of the proposed legislation use as an argument for the new legislation that “a police officer was forced to shoot a gang member who was aiming a toy gun without its required markings.” If some criminal is using a fake gun to threaten a police officer, then what can I say. Maybe he got what he deserved.