‘Senior assassin’: why authorities are concerned over this toy gun game
Authorities warn about ‘Senior assassin’
Police, educators and state officials across the United States have warned the public about a teenage trend called "senior assassin", saying that it could result in someone getting injured, or worse. But, what is the game all about?
Pretend gun fights out of school grounds
Not as violent as it sounds, ‘Senior Assassin’ is basically a water gun fight where highschoolers seek an unsuspecting friend out off school grounds to water them down. Although some teens are also using paintball and airsoft guns, according to Fox News.
Photo: James Fitzgerald/Unsplash
A TikTok trend
The planning and technique is sometimes recorded for TikTok or other social media platforms, which helps its popularity. But police, educators and state officials have warned of the dangers the game might lead to.
Photo: TikTok/@carterpcs
Toy guns that look like the real thing
The biggest problem is that some of the toy guns look real. Kara Alaimo, a university teacher wrote an opinion piece for CNN describing how one morning a teenager walked up her driveway with what looked like a real gun.
Toy guns should not imitate real ones
“If the young person on my property had been holding a bright orange water gun instead of a grey one, it would have been a clear signal to me that my family was not in danger”, Alaimo wrote.
Photo: Kolby Milton/Unsplash
Legislation aimed at toy makers
In the article, the proffesor suggests that lawmakers need to pass legislation to stop allowing toymakers to make play guns that look like real ones.
Photo: Lavi Perchik/Unsplash
People may react badly
Alaimo recalls that after seeing the teenager with the gun, she took a picture and sent it to her neighbors, who told her all about the teenage trend. However, a lot of people may not react as calmly and as rationally as Alaimo.
Accidents of this nature have happened in the US
As authorities have warned, someone who thinks they’re in danger from an actual gun, might meet a kid playing this game with deadly violence, specially as it’s happened before in the US.
Kaylin Gillis case
Just last year, 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis was fatally shot in upstate New York by a homeowner after she and three other friends accidentally turned into his driveway, mistaking it for a friend’s house.
The highest gun ownership in the world
Moreover, the US is the country with the highest civilian gun ownership. More than 40% of American adults have a gun in their household, and 72% of gun owners say a major reason is for protection, according to the Pew Research Center.
Accidents involving kids and guns are common in the US
Accidents involving kids and guns are actually common in the US. So much so, that in 2020 and 2021, firearms were the leading cause of death of children ages 1-17 in the country.
A tragedy waiting to happen
According to USA Today, ‘senior assassin’ has resulted in many calls to 911, car crashes, school evacuations and confrontations with actual gun owners. Unsurprisingly so, it seems a game like that in a country with a deep rooted gun culture, is a tragedy waiting to happen.
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