KATE: The gun control posters that stopped us in our tracks.

By KATE HUNTER

I ‘like’ a fair bit of stuff in my Facebook feed.

I think, tee-hee, that’s clever – I’ll LIKE it for you, my friend.

But only occasionally do I share something. Very rarely is it an ad.

I shared this – a poster for Moms Demand Action (For Gun Sense In America) because I thought it was so shocking, so powerful and sadly, so true.

It hasn’t happened in all schools – far from it – but two schools in California have banned Little Red Riding Hood from their library shelves. The reason? The little girl in the story was taking (amongst other comforting treats) a bottle of WINE to her ailing Nan. The thinking of the affronted parents was ‘how can we ask our children to abstain when we are promoting alcohol consumption in picture books?’

Best not explain to kids that it was a STORY, or that it was THE OLDEN DAYS, or that, truth be told, most grandmas would prefer a bottle of chardy to a box of bloody Butter Menthols ANY DAY! I know I would.

Other books banned in some American schools include:

1. The Wizard Of Oz: Promotes cowardly behaviour and positive images of sorcery.

2. A Wrinkle In Time: Possible satanic themes.

3. Charlotte’s Web: Possibly offensive to Muslim students.

4. A Bridge To Terabithia:  Commonly banned because of refrences to death and possible allusions to the occult, satanism and new age religion,

5. Alice In Wonderland: Was the author on drugs? Well, probably, but still – cracking story!

6. Green Eggs and Ham: Banned in China as was believed to support ‘Marxist and homosexual ideals’. Unsure as to whether that’s one category or two.

7. Where The Wild Things Are: Promotes unruly behaviour. No one wants a wild rumpus at bedtime, surely?

8. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory: Possibly racist (i.e. Oompa Loomas as underpaid dark-skinned factory workers).

Very interesting, but I digress. This post is about gun control and WTF are authorities doing banning books when guns can be bought so easily?

It’s all just so much easier to fartarse about the edges and ban storybooks and toys (Kinder Surprises – choking hazard) and sports (Dodgeball – skinned knees) because someone might SUE you. Far trickier to ban the things because someone has the right to ‘bear arms’ and maybe kill your kids.

Do you think people stress too much about stuff that really doesn’t matter, and ignore the stuff that can actually harm us?