Stupid is as stupid does:
Tasty Trade Off: Guns for Ice Cream Exchange Program
August 17, 2007 10:39 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) One community group is doing its best to teach local children the real-life dangers of gun violence.
A group called the North End Outreach Network or "NEON," is trying to prevent gun violence and shooting deaths in the future, by getting fake guns off the streets today.
On Friday night, NEON threw an ice cream party for kids at the park next to the Gerena School in Springfield. The cost of admission? A fake gun.
Through this "Ice Cream Toy Gun Exchange," NEON Director Milta Franco is trying to teach parents that allowing their children to play with fake guns is like saying violence is o-k. And Franco is the first to remind that guns are very serious. She was shot in the back during a drive-by shooting in Springfield last year.
For Franco, watching children play with fake guns is hard.
"When they were pulling the trigger, I could hear the noise mechanisms on them and it wasn't a good sound. The other ones were water guns, but they're still shooting, so...it's teaching them how to aim," Franco said.
And while giving away free ice cream for fake toy guns may sound like a good idea, do the children really understand why this is happening?
After exchanging her toy gun, Kachina Rodriguez said, "I know that kids could get hurt from shooting each other and they didn't know it (the gun) was real.
Her friend Jomar Rodriguez agreed, saying, "I brought plastic guns, (because) I thought it was unsafe, because it could kill other people."
Franco says too often, these types of anti-violence programs are geared towards adults. She hopes by getting to the children early, and teaching them what to do if they come across a gun, real or fake (and that is, DON'T TOUCH IT!)...in the future, lives could be saved.
Tasty Trade Off: Guns for Ice Cream Exchange Program
August 17, 2007 10:39 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) One community group is doing its best to teach local children the real-life dangers of gun violence.
A group called the North End Outreach Network or "NEON," is trying to prevent gun violence and shooting deaths in the future, by getting fake guns off the streets today.
On Friday night, NEON threw an ice cream party for kids at the park next to the Gerena School in Springfield. The cost of admission? A fake gun.
Through this "Ice Cream Toy Gun Exchange," NEON Director Milta Franco is trying to teach parents that allowing their children to play with fake guns is like saying violence is o-k. And Franco is the first to remind that guns are very serious. She was shot in the back during a drive-by shooting in Springfield last year.
For Franco, watching children play with fake guns is hard.
"When they were pulling the trigger, I could hear the noise mechanisms on them and it wasn't a good sound. The other ones were water guns, but they're still shooting, so...it's teaching them how to aim," Franco said.
And while giving away free ice cream for fake toy guns may sound like a good idea, do the children really understand why this is happening?
After exchanging her toy gun, Kachina Rodriguez said, "I know that kids could get hurt from shooting each other and they didn't know it (the gun) was real.
Her friend Jomar Rodriguez agreed, saying, "I brought plastic guns, (because) I thought it was unsafe, because it could kill other people."
Franco says too often, these types of anti-violence programs are geared towards adults. She hopes by getting to the children early, and teaching them what to do if they come across a gun, real or fake (and that is, DON'T TOUCH IT!)...in the future, lives could be saved.