Hand grenades: a two way street

August 13th, 2015 by Charles Cameron

[ by Charles Cameron — toys as weapons, weapons as toys, appearances, can be deceptive, ethnicities too ]

Before there were the realities we now know as “virtual reality” and “real life” there were the two known as “real” and “pretend” or “make-believe”.

Confusing pretend for real can be harrowing enough, as we saw this morning:

Hand Grenade Toy Prompts Evacuations At Ontario International Airport « CBS Los Angeles http://t.co/qpZi3QRyac

— Crystal Cruz (@CrystalCruzCBS) August 12, 2015

but the reverse has even more dire potential:

— Vicki Robinson (@VickiMRobinson) May 9, 2012

For the record, toy grenades are a a regular feature of the news these days, see for instance:

Pull the grenade pin, press bar and throw!

Estimated Delivery Date: Aug. 14 – 19 when you choose Expedited at checkout

Watch out, Staten Island:

BREAKING NEWS: Police looking on Staten Island for men possibly with assault rifles. MORE: http://t.co/nyFoiJbEjg pic.twitter.com/Abf8DTsjrl

— Breaking News Feed (@PzFeed) July 17, 2015

But then again..

when is an assault rifle not an assault rifle?

‘Assault rifles' in Staten Island were paintball guns: NYPD – NY Daily News http://t.co/Ysyy5pXhxL

— Krishna Mungur (@mungurk) July 20, 2015

and come to that,

when is a paintball more than a paintball — when is it a weapon?

Teens arrested in Staten Island paintball attacks: One of the attacks, on an Orthodox Jewish man, was investig… http://t.co/LfEw9g5gdj

— David Bar-Lev (@DavidBar_Lev) July 20, 2015

and when is the reason not just a paintball, but a scarf?

Don't fool yourselves. It wasn't the paintball guns that shut down Staten Island. It was the head scarves #islamophobia

— Wisco (@Wisco) July 18, 2015

— and if that’s not enough, is skin color a difference that makes a difference?

So open-carry clowns are allowed w/ long guns in Target but #JohnCrawford was shot dead in Walmart holding a toy gun? pic.twitter.com/BK30NybXDU

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