Children Swap Toy Guns for T-Shirts in Watts

Every night, Corina Cortez hears gunshots ring through her South Los Angeles neighborhood. So she wasn’t too happy when, for his sixth birthday in September, her son Erick received an orange toy gun that shot plastic bullets.

“He was always shooting that thing around the house, and I didn’t like it,” Cortez said. “I don’t like it when children think about guns and violence.”

Hoping her boy would learn a lesson about the dangers of playing with real and toy guns, on Saturday Cortez took Erick to the third Anti-Violence Day Project at the Watts Tower Art Center. The event is sponsored by the International Health & Epidemiology Research Center, a nonprofit group that promotes public health issues and disease prevention.

About 40 children handed over toy guns and in return received a certificate and “Say No to Toy Guns/Weapons” T-shirt.

“They need to learn that they gave away a gun to save a life,” said Farideh Kioumehr-Dadsetan, founder of the program.

After giving up their toy guns, the children drew pictures with crayons, condemning gun violence with messages such as “Guns Kill!” and “No Guns, No Violence.”

The toy guns will be sent to artists and high school art students to be transformed into murals that declare a message of nonviolence.

“We as parents have to be responsible and not let our children grow up playing with guns, or they’ll think it’s OK to play with real guns later on,” said Lisa Walker of Los Angeles, who brought her 7-year-old son, Sean. “I don’t allow my son to play with toy guns, but I thought coming here would teach him a good lesson about the dangers they can cause.”

Many toy guns look real and pose a danger to young children, who might then mistake actual weapons for the play variety.

In August, Isaac Alvarez of Pacoima was shot in the head and died after a 4-year-old neighbor found a loaded rifle under a bed. Police said the boy thought the gun was a toy.

“If kids learn not to touch toy guns, they will learn not to touch real guns,” Kioumehr-Dadsetan said.

Cortez said she is glad thather son gave up his gun and that he has a better chance of not being a violent adult.