"Then tell your kid to get his gun out of my face"
I went to www.Amazon.com and found the exact gun he was using. Yes, it's a Star Wars toy. I don't care.
Imagine you are with your 3 year old in the produce area of the commissary (on a military installation). You are trying to convince your toddler that you don't need 2 bags of bananas, one will do. From behind the free standing banana stand jumps a very obese child dressed in a large parka and other extreme winter gear. His face is made of stone and his cruel expression penetrates your soul. In is hand is a gun more then a foot long. He looks to be 8, maybe 9 years old. He shoots your toddler repeatedly causing him to clutch onto your arm and burry his innocent head into your sweater. Then the gun toting child shoots you.
This happened to me this evening. After being shot, I said simply to the child (who was still bearing a very, very mean expression): "that's not very nice". I looked about for his guardian and not seeing her right way countinued into the canned goods. He came around the corner and shot us again. This was not a small child. He was not laughing or smiling in play. He was hunting us!
Finally, after a few aisles I say, "do not point your gun at me or my child. That is not nice. We are not bad guys and so you do not need to shoot us". He started crying (wtf) and went up to his mother who turned out to be right there allowing the entire event to take place! She asked me what I said to her son. I told her that I did not think it was appropriate of her to allow her child to aim his gun at random people in a public place. Especially not my 3 year old. She said that I wasn't his mother. I started to get rather ticked off and mentioned that his mother obviously needed assistance in teaching proper behavior on public outings. She got really pissed and started name calling. I told her it was disgusting in these times to allow a middle-aged child to tote such a large, realistic, "toy" gun through a public place and fire it not only once at us- but to stalk us through the entire store for more then 10 minutes. This really set her off. A crowd started to gather. She said that the gun was allowing him to have an imagination and that I was *insert curse word* for not realizing that. I quickly pointed out that using ones imagination to kill people is not exactly what Barney was referring to in his songs. Losing that "battle" she retorted with "your husband is in the Army, does he not tote a gun". This set me off on a rant about being issued a gun to protect your life and the life of innocent people is a completly different circumstance. Clearly he was not taught to respect guns. I said "what a great thing to teach your child, Daddy carries a gun, so you can carry one too. Aim it at whomever you please and use your imagination". Then I walked off.
What was that lady thinking? Did news of the school shootings not reach Alaska? Does she not know what type of world children of today grow up in? I realize it was a toy but to allow it to be brought into a store on a small military Post where half of the families have loved ones at war is absurd! Lets remind each family walking by about the violence in the world.
X-Posted to my parenting community hipster_mommas.