I wonder. When I was a kid, we all had bikes and baseball and BB guns. There were no real mass murders to speak of, but that was then, long before the neoliberal society bore all its froots. Awhile back, I heard some teacher was doing the COVID online learning thing and spied a BB gun up in a rack that one of her students had on his wall. She called the SWAT team on him. The sight of the BB gun curdled her milk, and Toxic Masculinity has to be stamped out. Our sons are growing up in a world where they are actively encouraged to cut off their junk and ‘become’ girls. Or queers.

Today your sons and grandsons don’t do BB guns, they do riot guns, plasma guns, rocket launchers, grenades, limpet mines, flame throwers, attack helicopters, fighter planes...

I wonder if these are a sane or safe replacement for BB guns? Is a Saturday afternoon with Dad better spent in front of the TV playing video games or out at the club, or down by the riverbank with a .22?