The Case For Guns

As you can guess, the whole gun video game thing simply didn’t go away once Diana banned them from our dank basement. Whenever the three males of the house were together, the topic eventually moved to how we could get more digital firearms into our lives.

We debated whether it was ok to simply sneak them without Diana knowing. But I said this wasn’t such a great idea because lying is almost as bad as shooting people. Kind of.

Luca eventually abandoned his blood lust and spent his screen time on his new baseball game or watching videos or other people playing non gun games. The Cubs season was also starting so that will occupy his mind until October.

But Elijah couldn’t let it go. His favorite game is technically a shooter, but it does dip a toe into the gray area. It’s a space/fantasy game that does involve futuristic guns, but it also has magic and swords and throwing stars and big hammers. It’s certainly violent, but doesn’t simulate what would happen if you used an AR-15 to its full potential.

Eli asked me for advice. How could he convince mom to let him play his beloved game? I told him when I was trying to convince someone to buy an idea, I put together a presentation. This intrigued the boy. What is a presentation?

I explained I put down arguments for why the people should do what I want. With one argument on each page, plus some visuals to keep things interesting. What I didn’t tell him is I usually ask one of the people who works for me to do it. And then they ask people who work for them to do it.

A week ago, Diana and I were enjoying some after dinner peace and quiet when we were summoned to the living room by Eli. He had his presentation locked and loaded. He was rehearsed and ready to do battle.

I have to admit, for a ten year old, it was a solid presentation. He had pretty compelling points, like “You can turn off the blood” and showed us the difference between the cartoony characters in his game versus a real soldier. He ended his presentation with a sad dog who said, “So mom, please let me play (game redacted) again please?”

It melted Diana’s Second Amendment hating heart and she relented. On the conditions that he turn off the blood and he never bought another gun game ever again.

We then his favorite game was still on the banned list. Because his presentation sucked.