Toronto Star Editorial: Leave toy guns to parents
Date: Feb 17, 2006 11:50 AM
PUBLICATION: The Toronto Star
DATE: 2006.02.17
EDITION: ONT
SECTION: Editorial
PAGE: A22
WORD COUNT: 218

————————————————————————
——–

Leave toy guns to parents

————————————————————————
——–

Mayors from the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton are being asked to
endorse a ban that would force children to surrender their toy guns or
at least play with them only in private, behind closed doors.

Such a bylaw has been approved in Scugog, north of Oshawa, and that
community’s mayor, Marilyn Pearce, is pressing for wider acceptance at a
meeting today of mayors.

The well-intentioned measure is meant to keep children from being shot
by police in a mistaken belief that a toy gun is real. But using the law
to ban playing with cap guns, water pistols and other make-believe
firearms goes too far.

Youngsters under the age of 18 are already banned from buying
authentic-looking imitation guns.

In addition, toy firearms are capped with bright orange plugs and often
come in florid colours that are not readily mistaken for real weapons.
In light of that, there is no need for a bylaw imposing a $150 fine if a
child is caught in public with a toy gun.

A Durham Region police constable says tickets would not be issued to
8-year-old children under Scugog’s bylaw. Instead, parents would be told
if a youngster was behaving in a dangerous manner with a toy gun.

That is precisely where responsibility should remain – with parents.

It makes sense that children must not roam streets with
realistic-looking toy guns. It should be left to parents to ensure that
doesn’t occur.