EDITOR: I have been pondering the recent situation with
teenagers and fake guns. I recall when my boys were 12 and 14.
EDITOR:
I have been pondering the recent situation with teenagers and fake guns. I recall when my boys were 12 and 14.
Daniel, my eldest, stood 6 feet tall. Still in junior high school, he appeared to anyone from far away by his physique (about 160 pounds) as a man. When David, the younger one, was 15, he was about 6’ 3”.
They still wanted to have fun at Halloween. I warned them for several years, “You are just junior highers/high schoolers, but in the dark and from far away you could be a threat, depending on what costume you wear and how you behave. You may think you’re just handling fake weapons, but others may feel threatened to open the door and see two ‘men’.”
In this day and age of terrorism and with people on edge, we must warn our young men to be aware of how others might perceive them and then within those parameters, to be safe and go have fun.
Wanda Puder, Morgan Hill
EDITOR:
Kudos to the Morgan Hill Police Department for not shooting first when those escapees from the shallow end of the gene pool terrorized park-goers with toy weaponry.
If this had happened in GonzalesLand just to the north of us, those teens would be pushing up daisies.
C. Kisler, Morgan Hill
EDITOR:
The children who acted irresponsibly by being seen in public with realistic-looking toy guns should be punished. When the police arrived, they should have dropped the replicas to prevent the officers from being confused.
A ban on the replica guns, however, is not needed as they can already be punished under existing laws. Furthermore, this type of play would have been acceptable had they been in a backyard or other private place.
The officers should receive an award for not shooting them, but had the kids been shot at if after being warned they did not drop the replicas, I would likely forgive the officers.
Robert Silvers, Cambridge, Mass.
