Guns... wtf

I’m not talking about biceps. I’m talking about rifles and pistols. It’s illegal to pack heat in Egypt without a license. But, you can skill scare someone without a license. None of the toy guns look like the picture above; they all look absolutely real. There is no orange tip or any indication that these guns are fake.

It's a normal site to see kids play with guns in the middle of the street. Today, I walked passed a thirteen-year-old boy loading a cartridge into his gun. I have no clue if it was a bb gun or airsoft gun or whatnot, but it looked real enough to keep my attention half focused on this kid until he was fully out of view.

Here's where the wtf comes in: As I was biking back to my hotel in Siwa, I felt a sharp pinch on the back of my head. I turned around to see an eight-year-old boy pointing a gun at me. He had just shot me with an airsoft gun. I was startled and yelled at him to stop immediately. He didn’t shoot me again, but he didn’t smile or laugh or anything. This was not a game to this little kid. He had never seen me before in his life, but he was willing to shoot me because I must’ve represented something that he really disliked. And, now that I’m thinking more about this, he has probably shot many foreigners because he was dead accurate: right in the back of the head.

After my anger settled down a little bit, I was left in a curious state. Why does this kid shoot foreigners? Why do his parents let him carry a gun and shoot foreigners? Why doesn’t this kid laugh?

If he laughed, I would have been pissed off, but I would understood what just happened: some Big Daddy roller blading humor. But, this was nothing like Adam Sandler. This little boy was serious. I know most of Egyptian society would condemn this kid’s actions, but what is it exactly that triggered that gun.