Drizzt
Member
Program teaches dangers of firearms
David Casey
04/01/2005
CENTRAL FALLS -- It’s been in the pipeline for awhile but the city’s first-ever Toy Gun Bash, an anti-gun violence event sponsored by Attorney General Patrick Lynch, will go off without a bang on Saturday, April 2.
Channel One Director Angelo Garcia, who spent months coordinating the event with the Attorney General’s office, local police and various anti-violence organizations, said the program is an opportunity to teach children and parents about the dangers of real firearms, while showing them fun and practical alternatives to "violent" and "competitive" play -- nipping the problem of gun violence at the bud and the root, as it were. The fact that real guns are frequently mistaken for toys by children is another concern, according to Lynch.
The spoonful of sugar in this cautionary exercise is the Bash-O-Matic, a wacky toy-gun-crushing device designed for Patrick Lynch by the folks at Big Nazo Puppets.
Kids are encouraged to bring their toy guns to the entrance of Calcutt School, 112 Washington St., around 1 p.m., where they will be ceremoniously crushed and replaced with a non-violent toy.
"What better way to get kids to realize the repercussions of real-life violence and get them thinking of ways to re-think how they see the world and how they play then by offering them a free basketball," said Garcia. "It’s different for kids today. I think they see (guns) as a means to an end, a viable option. When I was growing up in Central Falls we didn’t go around saying ‘if you mess with me, I’ll blow your head off.’ Today it’s almost socially acceptable to use violence to resolve your problems."
The actual gun-bashing will take place in front of Calcutt School’s main entrance (the school has a zero-tolerance policy for any type of gun, real or fake), followed by a fun, educational and delicious reception in the school’s auditorium.
The day’s festivities will include informational booths from various local agencies, free pizza courtesy of The Central Falls Juvenile Hearing Board, free soda courtesy of Coke and Pepsi, raffle prizes, cookies courtesy of Aramark, a live broadcast by Hot106 FM and a three-point basketball shootout in which Patrick Lynch, who used to play professional basketball in Europe, will challenge all comers (including Mayor Charles Moreau).
A local missing children’s organization will be on hand to video tape, fingerprint and document children, free of charge, so parents can provide police with a comprehensive record of their vital information should they go missing.
The Rhode Island Doubledutch League will be teaching kids the lost art of jumping rope, one of many non-violent, non-competitive activities Garcia said he would like to see catch on.
"My staff and I have been working on initiatives to encourage non-competitive play, games where everybody is a winner and no one in singled out. We want kids to learn that play can be cooperative as well as competitive, and that not doing well at something isn’t the end of the world."
The Square Mile City’s inaugural Toy Gun Bash will be the fourth such event in the State of Rhode Island. The Bash was piloted at Providence’s Mount Hope Learning Center in spring 2003. Since then the attorney general’s office has hosted two bashes in Providence and one in Newport.
To date, the "Bash-O-Matic" has destroyed more than 1,000 toy guns, from water pistols to replicas, according to Michael Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14265040&BRD=1713&PAG=461&dept_id=24491&rfi=6
You know, I was thinking at first that it was an April Fool's Day story. That it couldn't be real... :banghead:
David Casey
04/01/2005
CENTRAL FALLS -- It’s been in the pipeline for awhile but the city’s first-ever Toy Gun Bash, an anti-gun violence event sponsored by Attorney General Patrick Lynch, will go off without a bang on Saturday, April 2.
Channel One Director Angelo Garcia, who spent months coordinating the event with the Attorney General’s office, local police and various anti-violence organizations, said the program is an opportunity to teach children and parents about the dangers of real firearms, while showing them fun and practical alternatives to "violent" and "competitive" play -- nipping the problem of gun violence at the bud and the root, as it were. The fact that real guns are frequently mistaken for toys by children is another concern, according to Lynch.
The spoonful of sugar in this cautionary exercise is the Bash-O-Matic, a wacky toy-gun-crushing device designed for Patrick Lynch by the folks at Big Nazo Puppets.
Kids are encouraged to bring their toy guns to the entrance of Calcutt School, 112 Washington St., around 1 p.m., where they will be ceremoniously crushed and replaced with a non-violent toy.
"What better way to get kids to realize the repercussions of real-life violence and get them thinking of ways to re-think how they see the world and how they play then by offering them a free basketball," said Garcia. "It’s different for kids today. I think they see (guns) as a means to an end, a viable option. When I was growing up in Central Falls we didn’t go around saying ‘if you mess with me, I’ll blow your head off.’ Today it’s almost socially acceptable to use violence to resolve your problems."
The actual gun-bashing will take place in front of Calcutt School’s main entrance (the school has a zero-tolerance policy for any type of gun, real or fake), followed by a fun, educational and delicious reception in the school’s auditorium.
The day’s festivities will include informational booths from various local agencies, free pizza courtesy of The Central Falls Juvenile Hearing Board, free soda courtesy of Coke and Pepsi, raffle prizes, cookies courtesy of Aramark, a live broadcast by Hot106 FM and a three-point basketball shootout in which Patrick Lynch, who used to play professional basketball in Europe, will challenge all comers (including Mayor Charles Moreau).
A local missing children’s organization will be on hand to video tape, fingerprint and document children, free of charge, so parents can provide police with a comprehensive record of their vital information should they go missing.
The Rhode Island Doubledutch League will be teaching kids the lost art of jumping rope, one of many non-violent, non-competitive activities Garcia said he would like to see catch on.
"My staff and I have been working on initiatives to encourage non-competitive play, games where everybody is a winner and no one in singled out. We want kids to learn that play can be cooperative as well as competitive, and that not doing well at something isn’t the end of the world."
The Square Mile City’s inaugural Toy Gun Bash will be the fourth such event in the State of Rhode Island. The Bash was piloted at Providence’s Mount Hope Learning Center in spring 2003. Since then the attorney general’s office has hosted two bashes in Providence and one in Newport.
To date, the "Bash-O-Matic" has destroyed more than 1,000 toy guns, from water pistols to replicas, according to Michael Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14265040&BRD=1713&PAG=461&dept_id=24491&rfi=6
You know, I was thinking at first that it was an April Fool's Day story. That it couldn't be real... :banghead:
! I bet they all scream ,"Yaaay!! Hooray!!", as the toy guns are smashed 
