Norton
October 9, 2003, 10:37 PM
You might remember the story about the 7 or 8 year old kid who tried to hold up a video store in Annapolis, MD with a toy gun. He was deadly serious about the whole thing.
Our illustrious politicians have decided this is the solution to the problem. I have to admit however, that I was impressed that the Capital newspaper showed signs of common sense in the matter.
From the Annapolis, MD Capital:
Our say: Silly toy gun bill is still with us
By THE CAPITAL EDITORIAL BOARD
THERE MUST be subjects - and ones related to crime and law enforcement in Annapolis, too - that are better uses of City Council time and energy than a debate on a bill to ban realistic-looking toy guns.
But that bill, as of this writing, is still awaiting council action, and in the meantime is creating unnecessary worries.
As a story this week reported, a local Civil War and World War II re-enactor and history buff thinks the bill's language applies to his collection of simulated, nonfunctioning historic guns, and would prevent him from keeping the replicas in the city. Meanwhile, an Odenton man wonders whether the bill will keep his British Royal Marines re-enactment unit from staging events or educational programs in Annapolis.
The bill's sponsor, Alderwoman Cynthia Carter, insists such concerns are unfounded, as language relating to gun replicas like those used by re-enactors was specifically kept out of the measure.
She may be right. But even if we assume such objections are silly, her bill is much sillier. As we've said before, its main accomplishment is to give the folks on talk radio an easy target.
The alderwoman began pushing this measure in response to an incident last spring in which a 7-year-old was arrested for pointing a toy gun at video store clerks - thereby providing a perfect illustration of the principle that not every unfortunate event mandates a legislative fix.
As we noted back in July, the last time we wrote about this, federal law already requires toy guns to be clearly distinguishable from the real thing. And no sane person expects city police to raid toy chests. So what is this bill supposed to accomplish? Can't Mrs. Carter just let it drop?
Our illustrious politicians have decided this is the solution to the problem. I have to admit however, that I was impressed that the Capital newspaper showed signs of common sense in the matter.
From the Annapolis, MD Capital:
Our say: Silly toy gun bill is still with us
By THE CAPITAL EDITORIAL BOARD
THERE MUST be subjects - and ones related to crime and law enforcement in Annapolis, too - that are better uses of City Council time and energy than a debate on a bill to ban realistic-looking toy guns.
But that bill, as of this writing, is still awaiting council action, and in the meantime is creating unnecessary worries.
As a story this week reported, a local Civil War and World War II re-enactor and history buff thinks the bill's language applies to his collection of simulated, nonfunctioning historic guns, and would prevent him from keeping the replicas in the city. Meanwhile, an Odenton man wonders whether the bill will keep his British Royal Marines re-enactment unit from staging events or educational programs in Annapolis.
The bill's sponsor, Alderwoman Cynthia Carter, insists such concerns are unfounded, as language relating to gun replicas like those used by re-enactors was specifically kept out of the measure.
She may be right. But even if we assume such objections are silly, her bill is much sillier. As we've said before, its main accomplishment is to give the folks on talk radio an easy target.
The alderwoman began pushing this measure in response to an incident last spring in which a 7-year-old was arrested for pointing a toy gun at video store clerks - thereby providing a perfect illustration of the principle that not every unfortunate event mandates a legislative fix.
As we noted back in July, the last time we wrote about this, federal law already requires toy guns to be clearly distinguishable from the real thing. And no sane person expects city police to raid toy chests. So what is this bill supposed to accomplish? Can't Mrs. Carter just let it drop?