Bash-O-Matic

In the effort to eliminate guns in the United States, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch has become a prominent crusader. Lynch is leading a campaign to smash toy guns throughout the state using a machine built by students at the New England Institute of Technology. It's called the Bash-O-Matic and it's used to pulverize the toys during Toy Gun Bash events.

The program offers $5 and $10 replacement toys to children and parents who are willing to forfeit their toy guns to a specially-designed "Bash-O-Matic" device.

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To date, the "Bash-O-Matic" has destroyed upwards of 1,000 toy guns, everything from water guns to gun replicas, according to Michael Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.

So far, bashes have been held in Providence and Newport and more are planned.

While "sweeping the city's streets of toy guns," Attorney General Lynch disseminates his gun-control platform to educate the general public. He's stated that "children and adults alike find it hard to distinguish a toy gun from a real gun." Funny, I've never been confused about what's a toy and what's real. When I was a boy, I had a pair of Roy Rogers six-shooters and, when I was a teenager, I had a rifle and a shotgun. Never once did I have a problem distinguishing which was which.

Nevertheless, there should be no confusion about Patrick Lynch's message. All guns are bad and they should be removed from society and destroyed. In the meantime, we can all rest comfortably knowing that some streets have been swept clean of toy guns.