Boy Scouts In the US have been all but prohibited from engaging in water gun fights and water balloon tomfoolery by scouting officials citing a lack of kindness in the activity.
Water pistols and other toys such as rubber band guns and potato guns have been banned for anything other than target practice, and “eye protection must be worn,” according to page 99 of the 2015 Boy Scout handbook.
The handbook also provides ludicrous guidelines, stating “For water balloons, use small, biodegradable balloons, and fill them no larger than a ping pong ball.”
Scouting Magazine’s Bryan Wendell flagged the new rules in a blog post, citing the ‘kindness’ rule scouts must follow.
“Why the rule?” Wendell added. “A Scouter once told me this explanation I liked quite a bit: “A Scout is kind. What part of pointing a firearm [simulated or otherwise] at someone is kind?”
“Our mission is to prepare young people for life and part of that duty is to ensure our youth become civically-minded adults,” said Michigan Crossroads Council of Boy Scouts spokesperson Kerrie Mitchell.
“Pointing a simulated firearm at another individual is not aligned with our Scout Oath nor Scout Law.” Mitchell added.
“We can understand some may feel this ban is extreme but preparing young people for life starts in a child’s most impressionable years.” said Mitchell, adding “We are committed to our mission here statewide, locally, and nationally.”
“What a load of politically correct crap.” one commenter notes.
“What’s the point of super-soakers if you don’t shoot them at others to get wet and cool off on a hot day?”
“And water balloons no bigger than a ping-pong ball? Have you ever been hit by a water balloon that isn’t big enough to explode? It hurts more than one that is properly filled. This is such a load of BSA garbage!!!!” the commenter notes.
Former scouts weighed in, declaring the rules, which will apply to hundreds of thousands of scouts, as “out of touch”.
“Sometimes I just have to laugh out loud at how idiotic some things in our society have become. We can’t squirt each other with water guns because it is a ‘simulated’ gun. I can’t believe BSA is so worried about the PC police that it has a policy like this,” added another commenter.
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Steve Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
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