Here in Chicagoland, where we have multiple shootings every day by mostly young people disguised in masks or hoodies or whatever, teenaged idiocity has come up with yet another new “game” that could get them injured or killed. The “game” entails ambushing other teens. The idea is to have squirt guns that look very much like real semi-automatic pistols, dress disguised very much like real shooters, and surprise their victims by shooting them with the squirt guns.
Now, one doesn’t need the imagination of a Gene Roddenberry to envision how this could go horribly wrong and, on the news last night, they had coverage of some near disasters. A man with a concealed weapon license was sitting two booths away from 4 teenagers. Suddenly, two masked teens burst into the restaurant and started to pull out their guns. The man reacted by reaching inside his jacket for his Glock. Just as he was pulling out his real gun, the two teens fired water at their targets. The man was able to stop the process of pulling out his gun and shooting them. Had they been a second or two slower in firing, it might have been a different story. Other examples included calling 911 and having police come expecting to confront armed and dangerous criminals. In an effort to squelch this game before somebody gets killed, law enforcement is going to arrest anyone doing this and charge them with disorderly conduct or some other misdemeanor.
So, in response to the question, “How stupid can people be?”, my response is, "I think it’s open ended. There is no limit.
I played Assassin in college in the 80s, but even back then we used tiny bright orange dart pistols-- pretty difficult to mistake for a real gun.
When I read the OP, I thought, where do you even get realistic-looking squirt guns in this day and age? I thought all toy guns these days were designed to be neon-colored and not look remotely realistic. But I just checked Amazon, and disturbingly, there are a couple very realistic-looking selections.
I thought this was going to be about the idiots doing some sort of “tough guy” challenge where they stick their feet in ice water for as long as they can tolerate the pain.
Severe frostbite and toe amputations seems to be the most common outcome of this particular idiocy.
Maybe it would be more beneficial to amputate their brainless heads. … Well, okay, maybe not. LOL
Ah, I just remembered! When I was in junior high, there was a thing the boys would do in September and October when yellow jackets were plentiful. They called it, “squeeze the pain”, and they did it to impress the girls. If a girl was being bothered by a yellow jacket, a boy would scoop it out of the air and squeeze it to death even though, in the process, he was being stung. He would then dispose of the corpse and look at you triumphantly. I was impressed all right. I was impressed they were idiots. LOL
It’s not new people have been playing Assassin for decades.
I seriously doubt it involves “squirt guns that look very much like real semi-automatic pistols” any toy gun made in the last 30* years has been obviously brightly colored and deliberately made to look nothing like a real gun, cos 'murica.
The primary point here is not that this game is stupid, its America and it’s attitude to guns that is stupid. In any other western country this would be harmless fun for kids to enjoy. The only thing that makes it dangerous here is the insistence that all of society should drenched in lethal semi-automatic weapons. So rather than think “look there are some kids messing around with water pistols” they may think “look there is someone with a gun I should shoot them with this military grade killing machine I’m allowed carrying round because I have insecurities”.
‘*’ - I don’t actually know when they stopped making toy guns that looked like real guns. The 90s?
They had pictures of the two semi-automatic pistols on the news, and they looked exactly like real ones upon first glance, and first glance is all the time you have in a situation like that. Perhaps they were cosmetically doctored up to look realistic. I don’t know.
Perhaps, but this is Chicago where this type of thing happens for real virtually every single day, and sometimes 2 or 3 times in a day. Hell, they’re driving down the interstates shooting into cars and killing innocent people.
That’s what I had thought at first, but tell me these don’t look scarily realistic- they’re not even in neon colors that would need to be spray-painted.
Yeah, I stand corrected that is very dumb. So what is the dope on that? Are these a mock up the kids made? Or is this something you can buy online. One of those cases where the article fails to address the elephant in the room.
Squirt guns may have a realistic shape, but AIUI they have some parts painted neon colors, like the tip of the barrel, so if pointed at someone, say a police officer, they will know it’s a fake before shooting at someone. A safety feature of sorts. Of course, any enterprising young dipshit can paint that over to make the gun look more real, as it appears is the case here.
I agree, it’s nuts. And if you look at the images you can hover over and enlarge on that Amazon page, there are a number of badly photoshopped pics of little kids, and sometimes their parents, having a great time shooting each other with the hyper realistic-looking squirt guns at the beach or in a park. Fun for the whole family! Here’s an excerpt from the copy:
Easy to carry and play, the cool look squirt guns will bring endless fun for children and adults. Perfect for summer water fighting, can be used in Swimming pool, garden, beach, pool party, parent-child interaction, Kindergarten games etc. Share the happiness of summer together.
Just remember parents, be extra careful if you happen to own real guns!
“Owww…you just gut-shot daddy with daddy’s Glock, sweetie…”
“I’m sorry daddy! It looks just like the squirt gun you bought me! I was wondering why I had to go get your key to unlock it.”
“It’s…ok, kiddo. Next time…check to make sure there’s an orange ring on the tip of the barrel. I forgive…”
As a kid in the 80s I had one of the Entertech Tec-9 motorized water guns… looked real until you got really close… mom took it away from me after the news reported that some kids had been shot and killed by cops that mistakenly thought the gun was real… as someone in their mid forties now, I have to wonder WTF where they thinking when they designed and marketed these to kids?!
They wound up pulling the realistic ones and rereleased in garish neon colors. So my dopey friends and I carefully disassembled and masked the parts before spray painting them black.
where they thinking when they designed and marketed these to kids?!