Playing with Guns

I attended “Shine Children's Festival” at Blacksburg Christian Fellowship in Blacksburg, Virginia, with my four-year-old daughter dressed up as a butterfly on October 28, 2017. As soon as we left our car we ran into two pre-teenage boys with toy guns aimed at a girl who was falling down pretending that she was shot.

My daughter and I were disturbed. I quickly explained to my daughter that in our family we don't play games where people are killed.

Then we walked through a line-up of activities for children.

We came across a booth where children were handed plastic guns, looking like semi-automatic weapons, for shooting at bottles to receive candy as award. I was shocked. I didn't expect such activities at an event for children organized by a church. Immediately, I pulled my “little butterfly” to a different activity, hoping she hadn't noticed the toy machine guns.

On the way out, my daughter discovered the playground. While crossing the lawn to reach it we ran into an elderly lady overseeing a different booth. She was struggling to get one of the toy machine guns to work. Accidentally, she was aiming a gun at my daughter and me. We were less than a foot away.

My heartbeat rose.

When we reached the playground, to my horror, there was another 'tween running around with a plastic gun aimed at the little children playing there. I asked a member of the congregation who was in charge if the boy could be told not to target little children.

She responded that “this” does not interfere with the event. The boy was allowed to continue his game of killing. I am puzzled why a church, meant to be a symbol for peace, promotes gun violence against our children.

I wrote these lines to the church and to our local newspaper, The Roanoke Times. I received no response.

At first, their silence made me wonder if I had overreacted to the presence of toy guns at the church event due to my experience with gun violence.