The "Gunbrella"

Hi there! How's it going, eh? Got a gunbrella yet? It seems to be all the rage. Pour yourself a mug of coffee and accompany it with a virtual treat of your choice while I tell you all about the latest 'cool' idem on Toronto streets (not to mention many other cities). 

Just before our departure this week, I saw a TV clip on the gunbrella. It is an umbrella that has a wooden rifle stock complete with trigger and a realistic muzzle with gun sight. Seen from a distance, it looks like the real thing - and Metro Toronto Police don't have anything good to say about it, let me tell you. 

I year ago there was a four-hour university lockdown in the Eastern US after someone saw a guy with a gun walking around the campus. It turned out to be a guy with a... you guessed it...gunbrella. There are variations - one with a flintlock pistol stock and another with a Samuri Sword stock. 

Imagine carrying your gunbrella around and walking into a bank. Alarm bells would start working faster than 30-second Exlax! I can see less than highly intelligent criminally-inclined types using them to actually try a bank robbery, can't you? Wouldn't put it past them!

In Thailand, I once took a cigarette lighter shaped like a little pistol away from a student. I told him that if Thai Police saw him with it, they would assume it was real - shoot first and ask questions later!

Where do they get these crazy ideas, eh? Someone comes up with them without thinking much about the downside. What's your take on this?

See ya, eh!

Bob