The gall! The effrontery! Bronx parents are up in arms over arms for sale in their midst. Toy arms sold from a vending machine in a neighborhood bodega. Two inch pistols and rifles that go for fifty cents a pop to any kid who wants one. From all the panty twistidude, you’d think the store was randomly doling out kiddie porn. Actually, the store and toy distributor would probably be getting a lot less flak – and almost certainly less press – if they were handing out kiddie porn…

Fortunately, nydailynews.com has three crack reporters on this barnburner of a story:

“That’s insane!” said an aggravated Luz Anthony, 24, mother of a 3-year-old daughter and a 15-month-old boy. “We have enough guns on the street.”

Kelly McKinnon, 40, a mother of three, said making the teensy-weensy 2-inch weapons available to kids only reinforced a deadly message.

“Kids see the guns in a gumball machine and they think it’s okay to buy guns,” McKinnon said. “I’ve never heard of something so crazy.”

Check out the the firepower that’s terrorizing the good people of the Bronx. Fair warning, though…you’d be well advised to cinch up your Depends first:

Caught your breath yet? Somebody pass the Xanax.

The number of shooting victims in the Bronx neighborhood increased 34.5% so far in 2011, and felony assaults were up 2.3%, according to the NYPD.

“In this neighborhood, it really matters,” said McKinnon. “We need to do whatever it takes to get those machines out of our neighborhoods. What kind of message does that send to the children?

“It corrupts our young.”

Anthony echoed her neighbor’s concerns over the product clearly intended for kids.

Pictures of the six plastic guns decorate the machine, luring small customers.

“Why would they market guns to children, especially in this neighborhood where we have so much violence?” she asked. “I didn’t think they were allowed to sell that kind of stuff to kids.”

The mothers of the Bronx suffering the Scarlett O’Hara-like vapors over a few two-inch plastic gats would be better advised to gin up some actual outrage over the fact that the city they live in won’t allow them the actual means to defend themselves or their families. No matter how high the crime rate may rise.

But no, it’s much more satisfying to work up a little righteous indignation over a few plastic toys in a gum ball machine. Next, the militant moms will likely be organizing the neighborhood homeless for a spirited round of Occupy the Bodega. Better to put the store out of business than have scary toys in the hands of impressionable kiddies.

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14 COMMENTS

  1. McKinnon said. “I’ve never heard of something so crazy.”

    I have one: Your over the top response, MORON!!

  2. Back in the day, we used to be able to order guns from Boy’s Life magazine… and we (mostly) turned out ok.

    It’s all about good parenting, imo. With it, the possibilities are endless. Without it, the government steps in to fill the void and doesn’t have such a hot track record raising kids or doing much else for that matter.

  5. Whatever happened to teaching children personal responsibility? I remember my dad bought be a toy gun from a similar gumball machine and taught me some basic rules: never point it at anyone else (especially cops) because life is precious and murder is wrong.

  6. I was handling and firing guns before I even understood the concept of violence. I am privileged to of shot .22s at tin cans as early as 6 years old. If you are only ever exposed to the bad an object can,cause it will distort your view. I assure you that if someone has never been in,the same room as a knife before in there entire life, and they only here about them when someone is stabbed they will think of them as “death machines.” The best way to convert an anti gunner is to take them shooting. Once they realize that the way guns are portrayed in movies is bull S&@! they will come around. This will work as long as they are an open minded reasonable person. But thats the problem isn’t it.

  8. So…due to the sales of 2 inch plastic guns from China….The number of shooting victims in the Bronx neighborhood increased 34.5% so far in 2011, and felony assaults were up 2.3%, according to the NYPD.

  9. I was born in The Bronx and raised on its poplar-lined streets and bucolic thoroughfares before I made a clean getaway. So before you diss The Bronx, consider this: just like a living organism, a nation needs its hindmost parts. The Bronx serves that purpose. It is America’s a$$hole. Leave it to its own devices, and go to bed each night reciting this mantra: better them than me, better there than here.

  10. I just don’t understand these folks. Back when I lived in the Bronx, getting a real gun was only a little harder than using a vending machine.

  11. I don’t think the problems in the Bronx stem from toy gun sales to kids, I’m thinking it has more to do with parenting, or lack of it, and the lack of societal standards. They already have lots of gun control, how’s that working out for ya?

  12. I hope New Yawk city would just sink into the ocean already. It would at least make me a firm believer in Poseidon 😉 Plus, my home state could have sane gun laws again if that happened.

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