Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat (shocking, I know), is calling for parents to not buy toy guns for their kids until his bill regarding these toys passes. He even goes so far as to claim that parents who ignore his call are being irresponsible. I’m actually kind of surprised that he doesn’t call for those of us rolling our eyes to lose custody.

But we all know he’s probably thinking it.

Joining Hartford Police and staff at St. Francis Hospital, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal last week described his pending legislation as a simple fix aimed at keeping the public and law enforcement safe. But until it makes it to law, he wants parents to take action on their own to keep toy guns out of their houses.

“What’s important here is parents demonstrating responsibility by stopping any purchases of these guns right away until either the gun manufacturers change their practices to make it safer voluntarily, or for my law to be adopted,” said Blumenthal as reported by the New Haven Register. “Until imitation guns are made safer, parents should stop buying them.”

The lawmaker’s Imitation Firearms Safety Act was filed earlier this month as  S.2150 and, though the bill’s language is not available, Blumenthal’s office stresses that it would place new restrictions on toys to include a brightly marked barrel that cannot be removed.

Of course, federal law already requires those stupid-looking orange inserts on toy guns and restricts the sale of air guns such as airsoft guns, BB guns, etc to minors, but hey, Blumenthal doesn’t care about all that. He’s got to look good for the base.

The fact is, all this makes me do is feel even more of a pressing need to buy my 5-year-old daughter a toy gun.

You see, what the gentleman from Connecticut doesn’t get is that for some of us, toy guns were the instruments we first used to learn about gun safety. The rules for my toy guns were to treat them as if they were real guns, treat them as if they were loaded, never point them at anything I didn’t want to destroy, and to not put my booger shovel on the trigger until it was time to pull it.

Those were the basics I was taught, and they were enforced by my father. I followed suit with my son, who is now 16 and has a healthy respect for the rules of gun safety.

Yet Blumenthal wants parents to not buy guns until his bill becomes law…when there are already laws on the books that do the same thing.

Here’s a thought, though. If we’re worried about kids getting shot by police or others while pointing toy guns at people, maybe we should teach kids not to point toy guns at people. Just a thought.

If you’re worried about criminals using these, well, tough. They know how to use paint and can cover up anything you do to make these guns look unrealistic.

But please, do continue this particular brand of grandstanding. I personally find it hilarious.