Liberals deny that they are using government schools to indoctrinate children to their liberal agenda. But denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

Five-year-old Martin Patino threw his toy machine gun into a trashcan marked "armas no," Spanish for "no guns," and he promptly picked up a coloring book to replace it.

Martin was one of about 30 Alisal Community School kindergartners from four classes Wednesday who traded in their fake guns for gentle toys such as stuffed animals and Play-Doh.

You see the message that this conveys to young children. Toy guns are evil; toy animals and play-doh are good.

Kindergarten teacher Myriam Kennelly came up with the idea of the "peace toy trade" as a way of letting kids and parents know that guns of any kind are not permitted at the school.

Even the name, "peace toy trade", makes me want to puke. We aren't talking about guns in school, we're talking about toys. Toy guns, which they insist on mis-labeling "fake guns", are just toys.

In a vain attempt to appear non-biased, they bring in the misguided gun store owner who sides with their opinion.

Brian Jones, owner of Salinas gun store Trigger Hill Trading Post, applauded the toy-gun exchange.

"Personally, I think it's a great idea," Jones said at his store on South Main Street.

"There are too many kids that think guns are toys."

I guess that no gun store owners taking the opposite position were available for comment.

Now, I would agree that guns are not toys. But the kids aren't playing with guns, now are they. They are playing with toys. And just like guns are not toys, toys are not guns. Ok that may be a bit confusing, so allow me to illustrate.

Lawn mowers are not toys. If a person didn't know what he was doing, he could be seriously injured with a lawn mower. Should toy lawn mowers be banned? Are those plastic toy lawn mowers that children push around inherently dangerous? Do they send the children the wrong message, that playing with lawn mowers is okay?

Guns are a necessary tool in our society. If it weren't for guns, our country would likely still be under British rule. Or perhaps we'd all be speaking German. We didn't win our independence with coloring books. It wasn't play-doh that our dough boys carried into battle in WWI and WWII, it was a rifle. The policemen that patrol our streets, aren't armed with stuffed animals. They keep the peace with a real gun, with real bullets. If guns are evil, then what does that say about our men and women in uniform? What does that say about policemen?

Letting children play with toy guns is no different than letting them play with toy cars, toy power tools or toy lawn equipment. Besides, if toy guns teach kids to play with real guns, what do toy bears teach them to play with?