"They have guns?"

My wife and I participated in our neighborhood garage sell this weekend. In fact, as I'm typing this, I'm sitting in my garage listening to a couple talk about how $1 for a brand new oven mit is extremely too much.

Anyway, yesterday a mom and dad with their two young boys stopped by, and of course, the boys noticed the box of BMC Civil War figures I was selling. They were all about it, and the mom seemed like she was going to buy them... but then she picked them up, and was shocked to see that each little plastic soldier had, *gasp*, a gun. She dropped em', made a comment about how they don't have guns in thier house, gathered her precious young, and made for the next garage down the street.

Now, I'm completely cool with parent's choosing how to raise their kids, and if you're against guns, that's fine. They're loud, usually smell like sulfur, require all sorts of rags, oils, and rods to keep clean, and if mishandled, can cause a sizable hole in your wall. Funny thing is, I've owned lots of 54mm plastic soldiers, and believe it or not, none of their guns have actually gone off... even after I've dropped them.

I was just about to explain this to the lady, about the relative safety of miniature plastic rifles molded onto tiny soldiers, but I didn't want to make her made and lose a possible $1 oven mit customer.