Harmless Toys, Harmful Laws By James Lesczynski We have all heard the expression, "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer." In fighting big government gone mad, the Manhattan Libertarian Party has often employed a variation on this theme: "Propose a silly law, get a silly response." Such was the case with our controversial Guns For Tots toy drive, which we recently launched in Harlem to protest the New York City Council's proposed ban on all toy guns. Humor being subjective, many observers thought this bit of political street theater was funny - but many others most assuredly did not. That's okay. Even if we Libertarians suffered a bit of ridicule for our Guns For Tots stunt, we can't help thinking that the bigger fools that day were the members of the City Council who vehemently insist that water pistols are a deadly menace that must be outlawed. Because our whimsical protest turned into a media circus, we exposed their foolishness. Of course, there is a serious side to the story. Contrary to popular opinion, the serious side is not the mythical string of tragically mistaken police shootings, which has been fabricated by some in the print and broadcast media and corroborated by our elected officials. No, the serious side is the string of intrusive, unnecessary, nanny-state legislation enacted by this City Council. New York City has always been the home of big government, but in the past year or so it has become big government on steroids. It's as if the council members must no longer even go through the pretense of being reasonable. Smoking in any public place - from bowling alleys to dingy taverns - will soon be prohibited. The common courtesy of turning off your cell phone at the theater is now a law. Legislation has been introduced prohibiting unsportsmanlike conduct at sporting events in the five boroughs. And, to make the safest big city in America even safer, the City Council wants to prohibit the sale or possession of toy guns. It is important to keep in mind that children are not being shot while innocently playing with toy guns, no matter what you've heard. Every recent incident involved a teenager or adult disguising a toy as a real firearm in order to commit a crime. The last example of a real tragedy that has been documented occurred in 1994, when a deaf child playing with a toy gun in a dark stairwell did not hear an officer's order to drop the weapon. Since that time, an innocent man was infamously slain when police mistook his wallet for a pistol. Our cynical politicians might as well introduce legislation prohibiting wallets. To quote Councilmember David Weprin, one of the primary sponsor of the toy gun legislation, "If it saves even one life, it will be worth it." The problem is, such frivolous legislation won't save even a single life, but it will have consequences, as all laws do. If such laws are enforced - and if they are not enforced, why enact them in the first place - the result will be the diversion of scarce law-enforcement resources and peaceful people being introduced to the criminal justice system for no good reason. In the case of children who already own squirt guns and will continue to own them, they risk a police record for playing with the wrong toy. Lt. Eric Adams of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care says these toy guns are most often sold to minority children in poor neighborhoods. If Lt. Adams and Mr. Weprin are trying to increase the arrest rate for minorities in New York City, enacting legislation such as this is the right way to go about it. In the meantime, real criminals will continue to get their hands on real guns and will have no difficulty replicating fake weapons, if only by pressing an index finger inside a coat pocket. If our political leaders were serious about reducing gun violence, especially in neighborhoods like Harlem, they would forget about outlawing toy guns and instead restore the constitutionally protected right of the people to own real firearms. If they want to decry racism, they should eradicate gun control, which is arguably the most racist public policy remaining in 21st century America. From the Jim Crow laws of the South to New Yorkıs own Sullivan Law, the history of gun control is indisputably the history of governmentıs determination to keep black people defenseless. Instead, what the City Council offers us is more feel-good legislation and less freedom. When we expose the folly of such laws, our elected officials and their accomplices in the media scream "racism," which is always an effective tactic regardless of the absurdity of the charge. Unfortunately for them, the Manhattan Libertarian Party is not about to cower in the face of bluster. The louder they scream, the more we know weıre on the right track. Mr. Lesczynski is spokesman for the Manhattan Libertarian Party and a former candidate for City Council.
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