Don’t ever let anyone tell you no one is out to take your toy guns. When I was a kid, my mother didn’t let me play with toy guns, and look where it got me?
I question the need for any toy gun. This sends a message to our kids that guns are OK, you can play with them and maybe later use the real thing. The entire “gun culture†needs questioning. We have enough educational, fun, constructive toys available for kids so that guns with their negative message are not needed in the toy box.â€
How all the kids that grew up in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s managed to survive, when toy guns still looked pretty real, must be a great mystery. The world was safer when we didn’t have so much pearl clutching over things like this. Back when just about every kid was free range, you didn’t have all the school shootings, and didn’t have zero tolerance, zero brains policies. And somehow everyone managed to survive.
Growing up in Norristown, PA back in the 50s and 60s we would play war in the town park and around the high school football stadium. I begged my grandparents for a very realistic toy Thompson submachinegun which I carried all around town trying to ambush my brother and his buddies who were armed to the teeth with toy revolvers and lever action rifles. (WW2 meets the wild west). Somehow we survived and became responsible adults. I don’t ever remember scaring a grownup.
We very much de-emphasized – but did not prohibit – toy guns for our children.
We didn’t want the children to develop bad habits, e.g. poor muzzle and trigger discipline, etc. and a mis-understanding of the ranges involved with their real ones.
I think the over-emphasis on treating toy guns like they are real guns can be just as problematic. It is silly to tell a child they have to have good muzzle discipline with a toy cowboy revolver with a big orange cap that doesn’t actually shoot projectiles.
Or NERF guns for that matter, that are clearly NOT real guns but do shoot projectiles. Robb Allen over at Sharp as a Marble had it right that he wouldn’t tell his kids they can’t have NERF wars any more because they should never point their NERF guns a things they aren’t ready to destroy/kill.
I’m going to put the disclaimer here now, I swear I read a blog post by Robb addressing this (and adamantly nodding to the point I got a headache) but on a quick search can’t find any such post. So Robb may or may not have said that, but I agree with it anyway!
Bless her heart! Lol
This sends a message to our kids that guns are OK, you can play with them and maybe later use the real thing.
That is a good message.
Guns are OK, just as are cars and firetrucks and spaceships.
And that’s exactly the message they want to eliminate.
They want guns thought of as free ranging sprayers of death and destruction that blow up cars and brick walls at will.
Exactly! I got a little testy when I read that and responded directly to the article with the following:
“Guns with their negative message”? Did you ever stop and think that guns freed us from the British? That guns helped to feed and protect our countrymen for 250 years as we moved westward? That they helped our fathers beat the Nazis and Japanese and prevent further genocide in more than 20 countries? That guns continue to feed millions of children in poor rural areas every year across our country? Guns, like swords, plowshare, and pens, are just tools, and anyone who associates a negative message with on is just that; a tool!
I was a child of the 70’s and 80’s and grew up playing army, cops & robbers, and cowboys and Indians. I went on to become a ranger and airborne qualified infantry officer and finally a federal agent (we’re not all bad). I have carried a firearm in defense of my country for my entire adult life and it started w/ playing army as a kid.
They are feminizing the culture and attempting to eliminate boy’s aggressive behavior. Boys want to be the hero and shoot the bad guy. Through child’s play, kids learn that good triumphs over evil. Watch boys as they use sticks or their fingers when they are denied a toy gun.
And muzzle discipline is silly for toy guns.
Both in my youth and as a parent now, I’m of the opinion that the 4 Rules apply to toy guns (At least ones that project something, be it water or plastic of foam), though “destry” may be replaced with “soak” or “tag with a dart.”
Banning toy guns will do little good as long as there are sticks in the world…
I really hate these bastards who feel they have to couch their argument on the basis of what someone else, “needs.” Pardon me, but f*ck you. Who do you think you are, to tell me what my kids or I NEED?!!?
As soon as I read that argument, whether it refers to toy guns, or “assault rifles,” or canons, or beaver pelts, it fills me with rage.
When toy guns are banned, kids will chew pop-tarts.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/medicating/drugs/stats.html
Drugs, drugs, drugs. Psych drugs pumped into the children at an alarming rate.
“According to the United Nations, the U.S. produces and consumes about 85 percent of the world’s methylphenidate. [Ritalin]”
As a kid we all played WAR, I even had a battery operated tripod mounted maw duce toy killing machine. My high school in a big city had a shooting team until the early 70’s grew up to be a FF / Paramedic . I carry everywhere so I go I consider the childhood war games as good training.