Is this responsible or too extreme?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140903_In_Point_Breeze__a_protest_over_play_guns_gets_quick_results.html

WHEN SEAN Williams noticed three school-age boys playing with what looked an awful lot like large-caliber semiautomatic handguns Saturday in Point Breeze, he pulled out his cellphone and started filming.

"Where did you get that jawn from?" Williams asked the youngsters.

The boys turned and pointed at Point Save Super Market, a corner store on Point Breeze Avenue at Latona Street. "What are you going to do?" one of them asked nervously.

Williams responded: "You're cool, young'un. It ain't about you."

....................

"If you take the orange top off or you put tape around it to make it look real, you're cool," Moore pointed out. "They idolize things like that."

When I stopped by the market yesterday, the store's owner, who identified himself only as Alejandro, told me he was no longer selling the guns.

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	Responsible, children's safety comes first
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	Too extreme, toys are toys
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[NYC_SKP]

1. A community taking safety into it's own hands, I find it acceptable behavior.

Sure, one might say that the solution is to watch your kids, put it on the parents, or watch your cops, they should look more closely before shooting a kid with a toy gun.

But, in the end, I like that these folks found a direct-action local legal way to address this problem.

I wouldn't ban realistic toy guns nationally, but I don't mind that a neighborhood took local action.

I'd like to see similar action taken against sales of cigarettes, shit food, and alcoholic beverages (which happen to be the mainstay of local retailers in the poorest neighborhoods).

Good for them!

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. I like the community working with the store owner

However: http://www.phila.gov/philacode/html/_data/title10/chapter_10_800_safety/10_810_weapons_and_dangerous_d.html

It's a bit extreme that BB guns and water pistols are illegal in Philly.

[clffrdjk]

2. A bit extreme for my tastes.

To be honest the thing that worried me most about that article was the writing.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. It seems extreme to me also but...

...from a parental perspective, I'm not sure that I wouldn't do the same thing.

[clffrdjk]

7. If I had a child I would not let them play with airsoft guns.

But the only reason for that is fear of the police.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

8. I presume that Philly outlawed these toys to...

...eliminate confusion by LEOs.

Hypothetically, my kid has an airsoft gun.
The city responds to events where a cop shoots a teen out of confusion due to a realistic looking toy gun.
The city's solution is to outlaw the sale of those toys and make criminals of those that have them in order to keep those kids safe.

[clffrdjk]

9. Well yea, if the police admit that they did something wrong

They might actually have to make some changes. And we can't have that.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. I'd be more worried about cops gunning down children in a lethal rush to judgment.

As we have already seen.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. Agreed n/t

[Eleanors38]

10. I come down on the side of a community taking action.

If police have a propensity to shoot at people with toy guns, and there is a violent crime problem, kids might be better off by not using toy weapons. I do hope that responsible citizens can avail themselves of the real thing if they find it necessary for SD.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

11. In Philly...

http://www.phila.gov/philacode/html/_data/title10/chapter_10_800_safety/10_810_weapons_and_dangerous_d.html

No person shall sell, offer for sale at retail, or use, or possess with intent to use, any air gun, spring gun, or any implement not a firearm which forcefully impels a pellet of any kind.

...firearms may be sold but airsoft may not.

[Eleanors38]

12. It is a bit silly, and may hug the line of constitutionality,

but the ordinances seem legal. Funny, the police may not be the only ones guilty if stereotype and profiling.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

13. Silly maybe

The law against water pistols covers sales and use/carry in public places.
I'm okay with that.