By Randa Darwish
“The first grader can become a first grenader” and “Happy shooting, Kids!”, this is how some US Republican congressmen showed their support to a fake project called “Kinder Guardians” on arming toddlers in the United States.
In a new political satire TV series, “Who Is America?”, the British Comedian tricks public figures, including politicians, into supporting him while discussing controversial ideas among Americans.
In the first episode of the series, Cohen tricked former and current congressmen into supporting his fake “Kinder Guardians” program, on training toddlers how to use weapons to confront mass shootings in schools that plagued the United States for the last few years.
Posing as Erran Morad, an Israeli anti-terror expert and self-proclaimed “Terrorist Terminator”, Cohen pretends that he has developed a program that will help in training children to use guns. Cohen easily convinces his guests to support this program and be part of an ad promoting the program in the US.
Several lawmakers agreed to be part of the ad, including former Republican congressman Joe Walsh who delivered these extraordinary lines: “The intensive three-week Kinder-Guardian course introduces specially selected children from 12 to 4 years old to pistols, rifles, semi-automatics, and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars. In less than a month, a first-grader can become a first-grenader”.
Walsh raised controversy as he went to Twitter to give an explanation for his appearance in the show even before the episode aired. He claimed he was duped into attending an event celebrating Israel’s 70th anniversary for his “significant Contributions to the State of Israel”. Walsh also used a hashtag: “#BoycottShowtime” in his tweet.
Walsh also tweeted saying: "Do I believe kindergarteners should be armed? Hell no. But, it's on me. Sacha fooled me good. Flew me out to DC for some made up friend of Israel award. I gotta live with it."
On his turn, Representative for South Carolina Joe Wilson argued how a 3-year-old child won’t be able to defend himself from a rifle assault with his “Hello Kitty Pencil Case”. “Our founding fathers did not put an age limit on the Second Amendment.”
Larry Pratt, the lobbyist and executive director emeritus of Gun Owners of America, had also his share of backing the “Kinder Guardians” program with his remarks: “Toddlers are pure, uncorrupted by fake news or homosexuality… They don’t worry if it’s politically correct to shoot a mentally deranged gunman. They’ll just do it. The science behind this program is proven.”
The first episode of the series had sparked strong mixed reactions among Americans. Between opponents to the children arming idea and other opponents to the show itself.
During the last couple of years, US registered the highest number of mass school shootings with a high number of victims mostly from children. It sparked a political debate over the US laws on gun and zero tolerance policies.
