Keep and Bear Arms

Toys WERE Us:
Death of a Household Name
by Angel Shamaya
Director, KeepAndBearArms.com

Letter to the Chairman of the Board and all Directors sent by certified mail with signature request:

Dear Mr. Chairman and Board of Director Members of Toys-R-Us,

This letter is about the massive reduction of your bottom line. I suggest you read and consider every word. By the time you get this message, no less than 20,000 gun owners have already read every word, seen every picture, and told ten of their friends to read it as pass it on. (Isn't the internet wonderful?!)

This letter is about your having left yourselves wide open to scrutiny, criticism, scorn, and rejection by a large and growing number of people who have been Toys-R-Us customers for many, many years--but will no longer be shopping in your stores, effective immediately.

I have been shopping at Toys-R-Us as my EXCLUSIVE source for toys for what seems like a lifetime. Need something for a young friend, nephew, cousin, neighbor's kid? Toys-R-Us. Need a few board games for the upcoming party? Toys-R-Us. Et cetera. In the past, that was our way. Get your toys from Toys-R-Us.

But I cannot and will not give you another dime of my money, and neither will millions of other lawful, peaceable Americans.

It's sad. Really sad. Toys, after all, were us.

You took a stand against gun freedoms, and in so doing, you have just spelled your demise. Not only that, you've left your Achilles heel so wide open, only a miniature IQ could miss it. We intend to make sure your weakness is revealed to millions of gun owners.

Allow me to give you a heads up on just how foolish your move against the NRA was and is. I'll also tell you: we're not dumping you like last week's garbage because you sought to use your political and financial power against the NRA's proposed restaurant in crime-ridden New York City. Not hardly. We're going to rip your bottom line to shreds because WE LOVE FREEDOM. While the NRA is too busy (calling for the enforcement of 20,000+ unconstitutional gun laws) to stop and respond to your assault, somebody needs to warn you to prepare to explain to your investors why your precious dividends just bottomed out and will most assuredly continue to drop. This message is a mirror for your ignorance and a heads up about your coming decimation.

I took my LAST walk through the Toys-R-Us aisles today--with my digital camera. Technology is so amazing, isn't it? A picture does in fact paint a thousand words, just like that fellow said.

I was met with an entryway FILLED with guns. Water-blasting H20 rifles, projectile-throwing pellet launchers, noise-making blam-blammers--guns to train your customers' children TO POINT AND SHOOT. Guns that pay your wages and dividends. Guns you market to kids. That in itself was amusing, but I wasn't even interested in getting my camera out for such nonsense. We could point to your Rosie-like hypocrisy with that one, of course, but the real AMMO was further back in the store, where I scored some really insightful pictures of your Program-Children-to-Be-Violent "Games".

Interesting business you're in. I knew the current trend to program children with violence was quite a lucrative endeavor, but you're quite the leader in this business! You sell HUNDREDS of these "games" to children who, according to one of your employees "start as young as 4 years old." (Your employees were very helpful in directing me to the most violent games you market to children; your managers have trained them to be very polite and helpful. It's a shame you'll be laying some of them off before closing some of your stores altogether.)

Attached are the images broadcast far and wide through the internet and as handouts. We've also granted reprint permission for this entire letter and all images to every gun owner in America. Thought you might like to know that as you peruse the evidence.

Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (141K, for clarity's sake) From a child development standpoint, this doesn't seem like the kind of thing responsible parents would program into their child's impressionable mind. But you market it so well, I suspect they just get reeled in. The burly wrestler-type pointing a gun at me sure does rub up against your stand for a peaceful society, guys. Time to kill? Whom, may I ask, do you think children learn it is "time to kill"? The veil over the "it's just a game" farce is very, very thin, and it is time to pierce it intelligently.
Sword of Berserk - Guts' Rage (116K) Did you know that the Columbine perpetrators played the violence-rich "games" from which you fund your mortgages and vacations? The evil eye on the cover of this interactive game of destruction is very clever. I'm sure it appeals to the best in our young minds, wouldn't you say? "Guts' Rage"? Is this your youth-supportive method of helping young, impressionable children get in touch with their frustrations of adolescence? You must be very proud. I wonder if the unarmed woman who was gang-raped by 4 men TODAY in Colorado is feeling a "Guts' Rage" about now--considering the fact that the perpetrators are all still at large and that she was such easy prey.
Mayhem (83K) "Mayhem"? This must be your manner of assisting our future leaders in creating balance and harmony in their lives as they go about the process of maturing. You might consider suggesting to the compliance-free manufacturers of this skills-developing "game" that they change the name to "Destructive, Violent Mayhem" as I'm sure such a move would sell even more of these socially-beneficial child-development tools. I wonder if the women and men who were just accosted in New York City felt MAYHEM as they were unable to defend themselves against violent attacks because they had no means to defend themselves in the criminal safety zone that was at one time a fine city. Does it bother you that there were no criminally-misused guns to blame in that incident? Wouldn't it have been just dreadful if those poor marauders had met an armed citizen and been shot? Of course, if they had, they'd have gone to prison for defending their own lives and honor with the most efficient, effective, affordable self-defense tool available. And you support these victims being easy prey. Congratulations.
Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver (83K) Fascinating. I looked up the word "reave" to make sure I knew its meaning. To "reave" is to: deprive; seize and carry off forcibly; rob, plunder or pillage; break or tear apart. (Dictionary.com is quite useful for we who frequent the computer.) The "Legacy of CAIN" was, biblically speaking, murder. You sell, to children of all ages, a "game" the legacy of which is MURDER and the mere title of which refers to the plundering and forcible taking of souls. Interesting. Especially so considering the fact that women who get raped and families who lose someone to murder feel just that: SOUL REAVED. Nevermind the fact that the disarmament laws were signed by bodyguarded politicians who are wholly immune to the laws their police forces enforce. That is immaterial, right?

A quick look at the Nintendo "game"-player you market to young children revealed the $99 price tag, and I wondered how many of these items you've sold to our future leaders. That would be fascinating to know, and we will find that piece of information, most certainly. (You must know you have American gun owners in your midst.)

I captured many more pictures which we will cover in future reports to our growing membership--to keep the topic of your demise alive and well.

One of our more active and studious members published a letter (widely read across America over the weekend) detailing the number of emergency-room visits each year, broken down by the method of injury. It is most interesting to note how many of these emergency room visits to which you cater. Allow me to share his finding with you:

Most Common Reasons for Emergency Room Visits

1. Baseball/softball 404,000
2. Dog bites 334,000
3. Playground 267, 000
4. ATV*s, mopeds 125, 000
5. Volleyball 98, 000
6. In-line skating 76, 000
7. Horseback riding 71, 000
8. Baby walkers 28, 000
9. Skateboards 25, 000
(Note: There is no mention of firearm related activities)

[Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission]

Not only do you sell items from all but three of the above categories, firearms aren't even on the list.

I'm almost done.

It appears, from the perspective of an average citizen going about living in America, that you have: 1) not considered just how open to attack Toys-R-Us is, and 2) you have bought into a political agenda that doesn't even make sense. Allow me to elaborate on the second point, and you can finish reading this note so many gun owners have already read.

1) It doesn't make sense to support the disarming of the GOOD GUYS when the BAD GUYS can readily get guns even the GOOD GUYS cannot buy--in every major city in America, no exceptions. In other words, it doesn't make sense to make the BAD GUYS have an easier time at REAVING.

2) It doesn't make sense that you're now taking a public stand against your very own, long-time-loyal customers and thus sending them off to get their "toys" elsewhere.

3) It doesn't make sense that a Violence Profiteer is squeaking and squawking about stopping violence--when you TRAIN violence into the minds of the people most susceptible to mental programming--America's youth. (Showing your hypocrisy on this one reveals exceptionally poor judgment.)

4) It doesn't make sense that you have sided with anti-gun politicians who have bodyguards. (Are you so hypocritical that you cannot see irrefutable hypocrisy?)

5) It doesn't make sense that you support women being disarmed and thus unable to defend their own children from juvenile criminal gangs whose minds you feed with messages such as "Mayhem", "Soul Reaver", and "Guts' Rage". You're working against our fair citizens from two debilitating angles, doubling the damage done. To put that more simply, it doesn't make sense that you make women rapeable, beatable, killable....reave-able.

6) It doesn't make sense that you rebuke and defy the single largest gun safety organization on the planet to promote gun safety.

7) It doesn't make sense to blame guns for their criminal misuse just like it doesn't make sense to blame cars for the tens of thousands of people killed in car accidents each year. (MANY more people die in cars each year than die by gunshot.)

Your decision-making process has run amuck. It just doesn't make sense.

There is a way out of the tremendous financial shortcomings Toys-R-Us will now begin to experience. Just do what makes sense. Briefly, for your consideration, are a few suggestions, and then you can get on to your busy day:

1) It makes sense to champion the lawful, peaceable citizens who are victimized by the criminal misuse of guns. You can do this first by supporting the individual right to self-defense by the most affordable, effective, and efficient method available: the handgun. Good people DESERVE access to self-defense against knife and gun-wielding thugs.

2) It makes sense to challenge the political hogwash being fed to you through a dreadfully biased media by simply doing your own quick research. I say QUICK because you can find out in less than 5 minutes just how deceptive the media and anti-self-defense politicians ARE. I urge you to do so unless you simply enjoy being SUCKERED.

3) It makes sense to focus your ire on CRIMINALS rather than on lawful, peaceable citizens who simply choose to be UNvictimizable, self-empowered, self-determinant human beings.

4) It makes sense to stop your anti-self-defense train immediately. You can do this by retracting your visibly-illegal tactics against the NRA's planned introduction into the New York City marketplace. You can do this by telling the "leaders" in your city and state and nation that their restrictive gun laws aren't working--as evidenced by higher rates of violent crimes amidst highly-restrictive gun laws in, as simple examples: NYC, DC, LA, and Chicago. (Someone on your Board surely must have the sense to put two and two together!)

5) It makes sense to look at the larger picture of "gun control" and to uncover the obvious (to all who are rigid in their inquiry): gun control is about people control.

Should you choose to revert to being sensible about the realities of the gun situation--about which you clearly know little--feel free to give me a jingle. I'd be happy to assist you in your process of discovery.

Until then, Toys-Were-Us.

Most Sincerely,

Angel Shamaya
Executive Director
KeepAndBearArms.com

Email Toys-Were-Us

Angel Shamaya is the Executive Director of KeepAndBearArms.com, an internet grassroots organization dedicated to stopping the assault on American Liberty being perpetrated by political tyrants, self-proclaimed television gurus, misguided mothers, history-ignorant sheeple, and the general lack of understanding of the fundamental right to Keep And Bear Arms. Reprint permission granted provided attribution is given including the following link: http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com. Copyright 2000. All ownership rights reserved, but spread this one far and wide through all channels; you don't even need to ask. To become a member of KeepAndBearArms.com, click here. We require assistance to press on.

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Written By:	Angel Shamaya
	Toys WERE Us: Death of a Household Name by Angel Shamaya Director, KeepAndBearArms.com Letter to the Chairman of the Board and all Directors sent by certified mail with signature request: Dear Mr. Chairman and Board of Director Members of Toys-R-Us, This letter is about the massive reduction of your bottom line. I suggest you read and consider every word. By the time you get this message, no less than 20,000 gun owners have already read every word, seen every picture, and told ten of their friends to read it as pass it on. (Isn't the internet wonderful?!) This letter is about your having left yourselves wide open to scrutiny, criticism, scorn, and rejection by a large and growing number of people who have been Toys-R-Us customers for many, many years--but will no longer be shopping in your stores, effective immediately. I have been shopping at Toys-R-Us as my EXCLUSIVE source for toys for what seems like a lifetime. Need something for a young friend, nephew, cousin, neighbor's kid? Toys-R-Us. Need a few board games for the upcoming party? Toys-R-Us. Et cetera. In the past, that was our way. Get your toys from Toys-R-Us. But I cannot and will not give you another dime of my money, and neither will millions of other lawful, peaceable Americans. It's sad. Really sad. Toys, after all, were us. You took a stand against gun freedoms, and in so doing, you have just spelled your demise. Not only that, you've left your Achilles heel so wide open, only a miniature IQ could miss it. We intend to make sure your weakness is revealed to millions of gun owners. Allow me to give you a heads up on just how foolish your move against the NRA was and is. I'll also tell you: we're not dumping you like last week's garbage because you sought to use your political and financial power against the NRA's proposed restaurant in crime-ridden New York City. Not hardly. We're going to rip your bottom line to shreds because WE LOVE FREEDOM. While the NRA is too busy (calling for the enforcement of 20,000+ unconstitutional gun laws) to stop and respond to your assault, somebody needs to warn you to prepare to explain to your investors why your precious dividends just bottomed out and will most assuredly continue to drop. This message is a mirror for your ignorance and a heads up about your coming decimation. I took my LAST walk through the Toys-R-Us aisles today--with my digital camera. Technology is so amazing, isn't it? A picture does in fact paint a thousand words, just like that fellow said. I was met with an entryway FILLED with guns. Water-blasting H20 rifles, projectile-throwing pellet launchers, noise-making blam-blammers--guns to train your customers' children TO POINT AND SHOOT. Guns that pay your wages and dividends. Guns you market to kids. That in itself was amusing, but I wasn't even interested in getting my camera out for such nonsense. We could point to your Rosie-like hypocrisy with that one, of course, but the real AMMO was further back in the store, where I scored some really insightful pictures of your Program-Children-to-Be-Violent "Games". Interesting business you're in. I knew the current trend to program children with violence was quite a lucrative endeavor, but you're quite the leader in this business! You sell HUNDREDS of these "games" to children who, according to one of your employees "start as young as 4 years old." (Your employees were very helpful in directing me to the most violent games you market to children; your managers have trained them to be very polite and helpful. It's a shame you'll be laying some of them off before closing some of your stores altogether.) Attached are the images broadcast far and wide through the internet and as handouts. We've also granted reprint permission for this entire letter and all images to every gun owner in America. Thought you might like to know that as you peruse the evidence. Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (141K, for clarity's sake) From a child development standpoint, this doesn't seem like the kind of thing responsible parents would program into their child's impressionable mind. But you market it so well, I suspect they just get reeled in. The burly wrestler-type pointing a gun at me sure does rub up against your stand for a peaceful society, guys. Time to kill? Whom, may I ask, do you think children learn it is "time to kill"? The veil over the "it's just a game" farce is very, very thin, and it is time to pierce it intelligently. Sword of Berserk - Guts' Rage (116K) Did you know that the Columbine perpetrators played the violence-rich "games" from which you fund your mortgages and vacations? The evil eye on the cover of this interactive game of destruction is very clever. I'm sure it appeals to the best in our young minds, wouldn't you say? "Guts' Rage"? Is this your youth-supportive method of helping young, impressionable children get in touch with their frustrations of adolescence? You must be very proud. I wonder if the unarmed woman who was gang-raped by 4 men TODAY in Colorado is feeling a "Guts' Rage" about now--considering the fact that the perpetrators are all still at large and that she was such easy prey. Mayhem (83K) "Mayhem"? This must be your manner of assisting our future leaders in creating balance and harmony in their lives as they go about the process of maturing. You might consider suggesting to the compliance-free manufacturers of this skills-developing "game" that they change the name to "Destructive, Violent Mayhem" as I'm sure such a move would sell even more of these socially-beneficial child-development tools. I wonder if the women and men who were just accosted in New York City felt MAYHEM as they were unable to defend themselves against violent attacks because they had no means to defend themselves in the criminal safety zone that was at one time a fine city. Does it bother you that there were no criminally-misused guns to blame in that incident? Wouldn't it have been just dreadful if those poor marauders had met an armed citizen and been shot? Of course, if they had, they'd have gone to prison for defending their own lives and honor with the most efficient, effective, affordable self-defense tool available. And you support these victims being easy prey. Congratulations. Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver (83K) Fascinating. I looked up the word "reave" to make sure I knew its meaning. To "reave" is to: deprive; seize and carry off forcibly; rob, plunder or pillage; break or tear apart. (Dictionary.com is quite useful for we who frequent the computer.) The "Legacy of CAIN" was, biblically speaking, murder. You sell, to children of all ages, a "game" the legacy of which is MURDER and the mere title of which refers to the plundering and forcible taking of souls. Interesting. Especially so considering the fact that women who get raped and families who lose someone to murder feel just that: SOUL REAVED. Nevermind the fact that the disarmament laws were signed by bodyguarded politicians who are wholly immune to the laws their police forces enforce. That is immaterial, right? A quick look at the Nintendo "game"-player you market to young children revealed the $99 price tag, and I wondered how many of these items you've sold to our future leaders. That would be fascinating to know, and we will find that piece of information, most certainly. (You must know you have American gun owners in your midst.) I captured many more pictures which we will cover in future reports to our growing membership--to keep the topic of your demise alive and well. One of our more active and studious members published a letter (widely read across America over the weekend) detailing the number of emergency-room visits each year, broken down by the method of injury. It is most interesting to note how many of these emergency room visits to which you cater. Allow me to share his finding with you: Most Common Reasons for Emergency Room Visits 1. Baseball/softball 404,000 2. Dog bites 334,000 3. Playground 267, 000 4. ATVs, mopeds 125, 000 5. Volleyball 98, 000 6. In-line skating 76, 000 7. Horseback riding 71, 000 8. Baby walkers 28, 000 9. Skateboards 25, 000 (Note: There is no mention of firearm related activities) [Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission] Not only do you sell items from all but three of the above categories, firearms aren't even on the list. I'm almost done. It appears, from the perspective of an average citizen going about living in America, that you have: 1) not considered just how open to attack Toys-R-Us is, and 2) you have bought into a political agenda that doesn't even make sense. Allow me to elaborate on the second point, and you can finish reading this note so many gun owners have already read. 1) It doesn't make sense* to support the disarming of the GOOD GUYS when the BAD GUYS can readily get guns even the GOOD GUYS cannot buy--in every major city in America, no exceptions. In other words, it doesn't make sense to make the BAD GUYS have an easier time at REAVING. 2) It doesn't make sense that you're now taking a public stand against your very own, long-time-loyal customers and thus sending them off to get their "toys" elsewhere. 3) It doesn't make sense that a Violence Profiteer is squeaking and squawking about stopping violence--when you TRAIN violence into the minds of the people most susceptible to mental programming--America's youth. (Showing your hypocrisy on this one reveals exceptionally poor judgment.) 4) It doesn't make sense that you have sided with anti-gun politicians who have bodyguards. (Are you so hypocritical that you cannot see irrefutable hypocrisy?) 5) It doesn't make sense that you support women being disarmed and thus unable to defend their own children from juvenile criminal gangs whose minds you feed with messages such as "Mayhem", "Soul Reaver", and "Guts' Rage". You're working against our fair citizens from two debilitating angles, doubling the damage done. To put that more simply, it doesn't make sense that you make women rapeable, beatable, killable....reave-able. 6) It doesn't make sense that you rebuke and defy the single largest gun safety organization on the planet to promote gun safety. 7) It doesn't make sense to blame guns for their criminal misuse just like it doesn't make sense to blame cars for the tens of thousands of people killed in car accidents each year. (MANY more people die in cars each year than die by gunshot.) Your decision-making process has run amuck. It just doesn't make sense. There is a way out of the tremendous financial shortcomings Toys-R-Us will now begin to experience. Just do what makes sense. Briefly, for your consideration, are a few suggestions, and then you can get on to your busy day: 1) It makes sense to champion the lawful, peaceable citizens who are victimized by the criminal misuse of guns. You can do this first by supporting the individual right to self-defense by the most affordable, effective, and efficient method available: the handgun. Good people DESERVE access to self-defense against knife and gun-wielding thugs. 2) It makes sense to challenge the political hogwash being fed to you through a dreadfully biased media by simply doing your own quick research. I say QUICK because you can find out in less than 5 minutes just how deceptive the media and anti-self-defense politicians ARE. I urge you to do so unless you simply enjoy being SUCKERED. 3) It makes sense to focus your ire on CRIMINALS rather than on lawful, peaceable citizens who simply choose to be UNvictimizable, self-empowered, self-determinant human beings. 4) It makes sense to stop your anti-self-defense train immediately. You can do this by retracting your visibly-illegal tactics against the NRA's planned introduction into the New York City marketplace. You can do this by telling the "leaders" in your city and state and nation that their restrictive gun laws aren't working--as evidenced by higher rates of violent crimes amidst highly-restrictive gun laws in, as simple examples: NYC, DC, LA, and Chicago. (Someone on your Board surely must have the sense to put two and two together!) 5) It makes sense to look at the larger picture of "gun control" and to uncover the obvious (to all who are rigid in their inquiry): gun control is about people control. Should you choose to revert to being sensible about the realities of the gun situation--about which you clearly know little--feel free to give me a jingle. I'd be happy to assist you in your process of discovery. Until then, Toys-Were-Us. Most Sincerely, Angel Shamaya Executive Director KeepAndBearArms.com Email Toys-Were-Us Angel Shamaya is the Executive Director of KeepAndBearArms.com, an internet grassroots organization dedicated to stopping the assault on American Liberty being perpetrated by political tyrants, self-proclaimed television gurus, misguided mothers, history-ignorant sheeple, and the general lack of understanding of the fundamental right to Keep And Bear Arms. Reprint permission granted provided attribution is given including the following link: http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com. Copyright 2000. All ownership rights reserved, but spread this one far and wide through all channels; you don't even need to ask. To become a member of KeepAndBearArms.com, click here. We require assistance to press on.