Kids and toy guns - What's your philosophy?

There seems to be 2 main camps. I am sure someone will correct me if there are more. By toy guns I am referring to things like the nerf guns or pop guns.

First, you teach your kids that all guns are "real" and "loaded." Thus, it is inappropriate to point even toy guns at other people.

Second, you teach your kids that toy guns are toy guns and are appropriate for play fighting with - even shooting at other people. Real guns are treated as real guns.

My present thoughts are that toys are toys and real is real. Separate the two. Just as it is appropriate to use the nerf sword to do battle with friends, it is also appropriate for one of them to be the "bad guy" and shoot each other with the darts.

Friends of mine are concerned that there will be some overlap and that real guns will be pointed at people.

FWIW, I also take my son (he is 4) to the range and we do treat the weapons with respect there.

Thoughts?

If your friends' kids are not old enough, or smart enough, to know the difference between real guns and toy guns, and adjust their conduct accordingly, they should not be allowed real guns.

Otherwise you get into the issue of whether to ban sticks, or whether to allow them to point their finger like a gun and say "pow."

I generally try to avoid hysterical or doctrinal people.

That sounds reasonable enough to me.

There might be a justified concern with young kids and airsoft guns (as they are aesthetically realistic) but Nerf guns and such are pretty obviously toys.

Though there was this really neat pump-action shotgun toy with ejecting shells that blurred the line a bit (though not much since it was all colors of the rainbow)... I bought one for my nephew.

I actually like the way my friend is approaching this with his 4-year-old, and he and I have discussed this a fair amount recently.

He did get his son a "cowboy" type rifle toy. I haven't seen it, but I'm imagining a little lever-action-like toy. For now, his approach is "no pointing it at people" and "shooting" at cans and targets is allowed when dad is there to coach him. So he's trying to teach the basics of safety and handling.

The thing of it is, my friend does not currently own any firearms himself (might have something to do with the wife, but it's also been his choice, other items are much higher on the "need to pay for" list than guns, like rent and vehicles).

Next time I visit I'll actually be staying a while and he asked me to bring my BB-gun and a .22. I told him I know how to set up simple home-made BB traps and we can try the kid out with "real guns" (BB-gun, hey it can sting a little if you're hit by it) in the back yard. If he does well with the BB-gun, basics, safety, etc, we might find a range and move up to the .22.

After that, I think it will make more sense to the kid what the difference is between real guns and toy guns. As it is, he hasn't had any exposure to real firearms, so how can he know the difference? All guns to him are toys and cartoons at this point.

I sent my friend the link to the Eddie Eagle video, I'm not sure if he's opted to utilize it. But when I visit there will be at least two of us helping to coach the kid with the safety rules and all that for a while.

The kid is really smart, so I'm sure he'll be able to differentiate between real and fake just fine when the difference is demonstrated to him. But for now guns are guns and require dad's permission and instruction to play with. When he's 8 I'm also sure he'll be incessantly bouncing Nerf darts off his sister. For now he's a little young.

This is something I'll have to think about in the not-too-distant future, as my daughter is growing way too fast for my taste (she'll be five next month).
I will say, though, that when I was younger... the most interesting things to us were always that which was forbidden.
For instance, I drank heavily right up until my 21st birthday. Once it was legal... 'tweren't no fun no more.

Moved to General...

The way I see it if the kid is of an age where he can understand and remember things(say 5 years old or higher) it's never too early to start teaching a kid about gun safety/responsibility. That said a nerf gun or something similar is just a toy, let them have fun. This is mostly directed to those communist parents who forbid any kind of guns...come on bro they're kids:uhoh:

Toy guns are great training tools. A toy gun allows you to teach the basic safety rules in a risk free environment. It's an awesome way to teach and let a kid learn about muzzle awareness, how to move with the gun, how to turn around with it, how to handle it when others are in the area.

We didn't really have many non-shooting toy guns. It seems like now-a-days it's all airsoft stuff...which ain't "soft" by any means.

Toy guns were an invaluable tool in teaching gun safety to my kids. My 11 year old has been hunting with me since he was 3...and hunting with his own rifle since he was 7 or 8. His gun handling skills are second to none. Toy guns allowed me to build a solid foundation of respect for gun safety from an early age. He got his first rifle after a period of demonstrating proper gun safety with his toy gun and memorizing the gun safety commandments.

It was great because I could just turn them loose in the backyard and watch from a distance to see how they handled their weapons. Does he paint people with the muzzle while he's turning around? How about when he's reloading? etc.

This isn't to say they don't get to play with toy guns...they certainly use them for play. But they understand what gun safety is and how to practice it. And toy guns allowed them to learn it without the possibility of putting a hole in someone.

If you get the kid a look-a-like real gun----make sure the front is painted bright red
as we have young kids here in Wayne County that pack real guns.

I never did try to tell my kids toy guns were real...kids are smarter than that.

Thats a Sig look alike in the holster (shoots plastic BB's, spring loaded) and a silver 6 shooter behind his back (cap gun)
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc137/Ridgerunner665/0405111759a.jpg

He knows very well the difference between a toy and a gun...here we are shooting balloons with his 22.
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc137/Ridgerunner665/101_0130.jpg

Thats how I did it with my oldest son....he turned out OK.
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc137/Ridgerunner665/0913110937-1-1.jpg

whats the point of a nerf/water gun if you dont get into fights with them? For god sakes half of them are orange plastic or clear, unless your a duracoat nut i doubt theyll get them mixed up lol.

I teach my 5 year old daughter the proper rules of gun safety while using toy guns or her "finger gun". We also talk about the difference between real and pretend and that pertains to consequences of shooting someone for real (I would be dead; another concept she is learning) or pretend (I'm left alive to tickle her mercilessly) :D She gets it.

I grew up "shooting" toy guns at my friends and were kids at the time that first-person-shooter games were first coming out. We all came out fine.

The kids with the deadbeat parents who made a huge deal about perception of violence in video games/TV and the "danger" of nerf guns did not socialize much. The effects of that kind of parenting were painfully evident in the teenage period and actually are still there today. It's such a sad thing when there's a kid in the locker room in middle school who thinks all the girls are sneaking cats into school, since all the guys seem to be talking about "felines".

If the day ever comes that I have children of my own, particularly a son, I won't let him grow up and be the clueless one who doesn't have the lightbulb going off. It's not that I was forcefully subjected to things, I was just allowed to be a kid and it let me figure out things.

Kids are way smarter than most people give them credit for. They are always looking for their boundries so once you show them what those boundries are, they're happy, and go on with life. It is appropriate to point toy guns at friends in a game of Marines and Jihadis, it is not appropriate to point them at someone who is not involved with your game. We've all seen the kid who comes up to a stranger, points a toy gun at them and yells "bang, bang, bang. A "parent" would stop the child and make it very clear that that is not acceptable, and if it happens again, the toy is gone, boundries! Unfortunately there are far to many egg incubators and sperm donors running around mascarading as parents today.
Teach your kids right from wrong,when and where playing is ok, and let them have a fun childhood. When they are old enough, teach them about real guns and how to safely handle them and they will be fine. ;)

I pretty much agree with the OP, though I do prefer that toy guns have something to set them apart such as being clear, or wild colors, and the orange caps on the barrel, but that's just so that other folks know it is a toy too.

Toy guns and real guns are not the same thing, to teach your kids they are is doing them a disservice and is not good parenting.

I love paintball, where the guns are specifically made for shooting people. Paintball is a game, to tell your kids paintball is real is a lie. Teaching your kids not to shoot out the neighbor's windows with your paintball gun is good parenting, as is taking their paintball gun if they shoot their buddies 'for fun' in the dorm when no one's wearing goggles. Teaching them to Move, Shoot and Communicate when playing Capture the Flag is good parenting. Teaching them to use trigger and muzzle discipline so they don't shoot their teammates in the back is good parenting. Teaching them to have good sportsmanship and to congratulate their enemies on a good shot is good parenting. Teaching them, while paintball is played for fun, that one team wins and one team loses is good parenting. Making them do yard work for money to buy the paintballs is good parenting. Teaching them it helps to have good stamina so you can still run at the end of the day is good parenting.

Wrecking your car in a video game is not the same as wrecking dad's Taurus on the highway; telling the kids it is, is a lie.

When a child is able to fully grasp the concept of something or someone being dead, that child is almost certainly also able to distinguish real firearms from toys, and is ready to be taught accordingly. Not before.

Until then, let them play army, cops and robbers, or cowboys and Indians with toy guns, but limit this to guns that have no ability to launch any sort of projectile or at least keep all toy projectiles away from the game.

Very early on my mother was adamant about me not having any toy guns, and I would sometimes chew my crackers into the shape of a small pistol. Eventually a carpenter my parents hired saw me and took pity. He took a piece of wood, carved it into a small rifle, painted my name one it, and put a very nice finish over it. I wish I still had it :(

I tried to use a toy gun as a training tool just recently, but my son saw right through that. He’s 4.

If the gun doesn’t shoot anything then have at it; have all the imaginary gunfights you want. If it does shoot something other than water then some care and control should be exercised.

I do not let my kids play with toy guns. To me, there is just something sickening about seeing a child point a gun at another child. It's profligate behavior, at least for me. I wouldn't tell anyone else how to raise their kids.

I have two boys, a 5 year old and an 8 year old. I take both of them to the range quite regularly. My oldest has his own bolt-action .22 and I've let him shoot my 1911. My youngest shoots my oldest's rifle (although he is usually more concerned collecting spent shell casings and playing in the dirt).

To me, if you are going to give a child a gun, you give them a real gun and you teach them how to use it correctly and to never, ever point it at anything they don't intend to destroy. Life is just so darn precious that I don't like the idea of it being discarded casually, even in games or jest.

They can play baseball. They can climb a tree. They can ride bikes. They don't need a toy gun. But like I said, I would never tell anyone how to raise their kids.

Real and Make Believe.

Simple.

You can't deny a kid the joy of cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, etc. Toys are toys :)

I have 3 kids, 2 are teens now, one is 21. They were all allowed to play with Nerf guns, airsoft guns, cap guns, etc. from the time they could pick one up.
Not suprisingly, the middle one, my daughter, was the most ruthless of the 3.


Heck, we still get into the occasional Nerf battle when someone digs them out of the closet.

They have also been taught the difference between their toys and real firearms. They are all proficient shooters, and have shown that they can distinguish the difference between toys and games and real world shooting.

My wife, the educator and affirmed anti, understood and supported this and, even went to play Laser Tag a few times with us.


This thread makes me want to go buy some newer nerf guns and have another go at it.

Guns aren't unique in this conversation. Toy plastic hammers squeak when my 2 year old grandson hits his grandpaw in the head & we both laugh. I don't believe I'm risking a ball-peen pounding from him at some time in the future. I've raised 3 boys to functional adulthood with toy; guns, swords, bow/arrows, chainsaws. et al. I also was always & consistently there with GUN SAFETY as they began to graduate to air rifles>rimfires>shotguns>centerfires. If no toy guns are handy, little boys are going to pretend that sticks they find in the yard are pistols & rifles. And, as long as there's TV & movies, that's GONNA' happen. So, unless you're planning to disallow ANY contact with modern culture, toy guns are (IMHO) fine. If you're radical passive isolationist, then being a contributing member to this forum is rather...ironic.

When my son was born, my sister let me in on a secret. Even if you refuse to buy toy guns for them, they will pick up a stick and try to shoot someone with it. ;)

We asked my 10 year old if he felt he'd be able to respect the wildlife around our house enough to not shoot at it if he got a BB gun for Christmas (Daisy Red Ryder!). He told us the temptation would be too strong and he's not quite ready for that just yet.

On the other hand, he LOVES the spring-loaded PPK we have even though it's accuracy is 'Point of Banker Box Lid' at 10'. :)

If you wouldn't let your kids play with toy guns, would you let them play with toy fighter planes the way we did as kids in the '60s?

Is it wrong to point a toy Luger at somebody, but a toy .50 AN/M2 or 20mm MG/FF is ok?

I can respect the opinion that toy guns are bad, but I totally disagree with it. I know it's opinion after all. Children have been playing with toy weapons for thousands of years. They've been playing Cowboys & Indians for several centuries now. And they've played cops-n-robbers for over a century or so. That's what kids do, they play in reflection of real life. And they do know the difference if you're doing your job.

Whether they have access to toy guns or not, they WILL play in that manner at one point or another, whether it is with a toy or their index finger, whether it is in your presence, or they have to hide it from you. I don't subscribe to the zero tolerance rule our public schools are diseased with, so I let my kids safely play as they like.

Kids are smart. They know the difference between toys and the real stuff, so I don't keep my kids from playing with toys. When the real guns come out, they don't carry the play habits over to the real guns because they know the difference. I'd rather that they play with toys that will feed their interest in the use of real tools, than to prohibit the innocent expression of that interest.

My little boy has play hammers, drills, and a saw, but he knows that Daddy's real hammers, drills, and saws are very different. He also has toy trucks, tractors, and cars. I don't have any fear that, when it comes time to use a real truck, he'll drive over my legs like he does with the toys.

I think every generation of my lineage grew up with toy gun play, and none of us carried these habits into the real world. To each his own, and it's only an opinion.
also...
My wife took the approach to treat toy guns, like water pistols, as if they were real firearms. Seriously, almost to the point of following the 4 rules with them. She told our boy to never point it at anyone, never shoot anyone, and that he could only shoot at the ground. Guess what? He didn't want to play with them then. That wasn't fun, so why bother.

I was reading a book by John Eldredge. You might or might not be interested in "Wild at Heart" or "The Way of the Wild Heart" or any of his books (they're all basically about the same subject). His life-study is the maturation of masculine development, and he goes in depth on the whole 'weapons play' part of a boy's growth. I couldn't possibly explain much of his thesis here and obviously it really only pertains to boys.

Anyway, I didn't want him missing out on some of the things I've been reading about, and I didn't want him having no interest in guns, so I explained the whole cowboys/indians-cops/robbers games that we played as kids and she let up. He can shoot me or the dogs all he wants. He can only shoot his sister or mom if he asks them first and they let him. He's definitely not at any point of interest in real guns and he definitely knows the difference. They are just too loud for him right now.

Just my 2¢. It's all up to the parents and what they think is best. Good luck.

Hard to play cowboys and indians without pointing cap guns at each other.

Besides, we played "war" by throwing dirt clods at each other.... definitely enough to make the safety freaks go apoplectic! :D

I have a no toy guns rule for my son who is almost 5. I want no confusion in his mind what real guns are and what they are intended for. I tell him a gun is a gun (real or toy) and that he is not to point it at anyone or pretend to shoot anyone.

That being said, in a year or so when I think he is ready, I'll buy him a single shot .22 and start the fundamentals of being safe and responsible. The older he gets, the more he will capable of understanding the seriousness of shooting a real firearm. I am sure at 8 or 10 years old, I will less of problem with him and toy guns and playing war or whatever.

Real guns aren't toys, toy guns shouldn't look like real guns.

I have a no toy guns rule for my son who is almost 5 This is your first son isn't it? I will less of problem with him and toy guns and playing war or whatever. I think that's the quiz here, some of us don't have a problem with our kids enjoying "toy guns or playing war or whatever" because they're going to ANYWAY. I'm not preaching how you should raise your kids. They're YOURS! And I will always consider the possibility that I've done it wrong & you're doing it RIGHT! I simply have seen/heard no evidence that toy guns promote dangerous or violent children. I have, however, known children who RUSHED at their first chance to things that were "forbidden" to them at home, usually outside their parents direct supervision. That rule was the very thing that propelled their intense interest.:)

As a former kid, I can say toy guns that don't at least resemble real guns are not that fun... I would not have been caught dead with a pink and purple spotted toy gun. :D My favorite was a black plastic gun with a rubber band powered clicky hammer that was a dead ringer for a Combat Masterpiece. ;-)

Maybe at least part this pro-toy gun position has something to do with being a...Kentuckian! ;)

Probably so!!! :D

I grew up in my grandfather's basement wood shop, cutting out toy guns from scrap pieces of wood with a bandsaw. ;-)

Heck, first .22 rifle was at 8. First shotgun at 10. Hunting solo by 12. And I was still playing toy guns w/my friends as well! The world was a whole different place. The only downside to all that gunplay it that I...hang-out with YOU GUYS & still enjoy firearms! How awful!

If your friends' kids are not old enough, or smart enough, to know the difference between real guns and toy guns, and adjust their conduct accordingly, they should not be allowed real guns.

Otherwise you get into the issue of whether to ban sticks, or whether to allow them to point their finger like a gun and say "pow."

I generally try to avoid hysterical or doctrinal people.
Or pizza, this seems to be a rising concern.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=631280

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/JohnBT3/DSCN0206.jpg

Yep, if they can't tell a toy from the real thing, well, they're not ready for the real thing. Heck, that might be a good reality check for all children. Didn't everybody in the '50s have toy guns and real guns in the house?

Where's that pic of my cousin in the den in front of her dad's bear skin. Taken around 1959 irrc, she's younger than me by a handful of years and our mothers were identical twins.

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/JohnBT3/DSCN0208.jpg

Whatever any of you think about the literalness of the Bible and the story about the apple in the Garden of Eden. That story is a very good moral application on what happens when an object is forbidden.

I worked with a female coworker who knew I hunted and shot and she mentioned about how her son wanted a toy gun and wanted to see real guns and she was going to say no. I told her did she want her son to stick around the neighbor kid's house when said kid got out his dad's gun ? Or did she want her child to be able to leave because her son's curiousity was already satisfied? We talked about the apple and we talked about guns and she got it.

From the time I was little I played with both real and toy guns. Yes played, but I knew about real and and knew toys, and I knew about loaded and unloaded and I knew I had to ask first to handle the real. Always had to ask first, they weren't forbidden to me, just had to ask. That was part of the family agreement. That has been the same with my children.

But you do have to assess the personality of the individual child.

But (in my opinion) denying children toy guns, making real guns into objects of intense curiousity is only laying the groundwork for a potential issue. Especially, I repeat especially, in conjunction with today's video games and TV shows, especially cartoons.

Growing up, (at least in our country, the US), firearm usage was usually portrayed with some accompanying type of morality. Bad guys used guns wrong, good guys used guns right and there was some consequence of firearm usage. All too often, that morality is missing in today's venue.

I will repost what I posted on this same topic a year ago.

My six year old has a 30 gallon bucket filled with Nerf guns, Star War guns and even a few old style cap guns. He loves them and I encourage it. He has been taught the difference between toy guns and real ones. He is a boy, and loves playing "clone wars" (Think Star Wars version of cops/robber). Even though he knows the difference between real and toy, he came running through the living room last weekend with his double barrel Nerf gun. He saw me eyeing him and he stopped. Smiled at me and said, "Barrel pointed in a safe direction and finger is off the Trigger", then took off to his room. I was so proud of him and told him so!

I played with toy guns when I was a kid, and my friends and I "killed" each other many times over. :D But I knew that the toys were for play and the real guns were not. Similarly, I watched The Adventures of Superman on the B&W TV and would tie a bath towel around my neck like his cape and jump off furniture. But I knew better than to jump off the roof.

The upshot is that unless your kid is somehow disturbed and can't distinguish between fantasy and reality, there is no harm in letting him play with toy guns. (I don't mean to leave out girls, but, realistically, toy guns are pretty much a "boy thing.") IMO it is undoubtedly more beneficial for them to work off their energy and aggressions in this manner, than diagnosing them with ADD because they can't sit still for five minutes and filling them full of drugs. :rolleyes:

Amen to that...well said.

I grew up in the ranching country of West Texas. Out there, guns were (are) basic tools of the trade, and we were taught to shoot at an early age. I really can't remember playing with any toy guns past the age of 6. Interestingly, there were remarkably few firearms accidents, and I can remember no accidental shootings.

Since I had daughters, I really didn't have to face the toy gun issue head on. I taught both of them to shoot at about the age of 6. In principle, I really don't like toy guns.

My daughter treats toy guns like real guns. Zero pointing at people unless you want to kill them.
We shoot nerf guns in the house at targets on the wall, and she shoots her 30 year old bb gun (my first bb gun) at cans and targets in the back yard wearing eye protection.

She knows how to field strip, load, and operate every gun that is in my cabinet, and we go over it weekly. She knows the terminology used in gun speak i.e. safety, muzzle, trigger, hammer, breach, butt stock, forearm, and bolt, etc. We watch the videos on MidwayUSA in regards to gun safety also.

She is seven, and I started to teach her gun safety at three years old. They are part of our lives. Sometimes she asks to hold the .44 Magnum or .22 Heritage if we are watching a cowboy show. I did the same thing when I was a kid. I would sit and clean my fathers revolvers while watching westerns with him when I was seven. Good times that I will never forget. And when I was ten I always had is 1911A1 on my hip down at the pond when fishing in case of snakes, or if the fish weren't biting a little turtle stew would make the day a lot more fun.

But when her friends are over ALL guns are locked up except the one that I keep with me. I just don't like the the idea that kids shoot at each other with nerf guns or air soft. It kinda freaks me out some because I don't know if the other kids and their parents are as educated. But I did play war everyday and night during summer break. So toy guns are fine with me. Just don't forget to educate your kids!

I really like The Lone Haranguer post though.

Hard to play cowboys and indians without pointing cap guns at each other.

Besides, we played "war" by throwing dirt clods at each other.... definitely enough to make the safety freaks go apoplectic! :D
I was thinking the same thing. When we were kids, we played "war" and used dirt clods as grenades. Let kids be kids.

I had a relative whose son (about ten at the time) was pointing, what I believe to be a real (most likely, 22 rimfire) pistol at my back from some distance (about thirty feet away) and I could hear the click, click, clicking of the action.

I made an attempt to get the gun from the child which resulted in the child's parents chewing me out.

I find people like that are best to not be around, i.e., their little boy is just such an angel!
:cuss::fire::evil::banghead::barf::mad::uhoh::rolleyes::eek::(:o:scrutiny::cuss:

Anecdote .... one of my 6 year-old's friends at his birthday party exclaimed "wow! I'm not allowed to have toy guns" and proceeded to go around the room doing head-shots until I confiscated it. May have been the "no toy gun rule" or may have been the anti-gun parenting that brought them to the rule. Regardless, he will be far more dangerous than the kids who are educated and comfortable.

Toys are toys...paintball and airsoft are sports built AROUND shooting each other with non-lethal objects. Even the Army shoots at each other with MILES systems, right?

Granted, it's different for a 6-year-old compared with a 16-year-old, but I do plan on getting my nephew a nerf gun. More to annoy my sister than to get him involved in guns, though.

My step son has a lot of toy guns. He knows not to shoot others who aren't actively engard in playing with him, i.e. I'm having a nerf war in the living room and he shoots me vs. I'm watching the news on TV and he shoots me.

He is allowed to keep his toys in his room, but the real guns are locked up and he can only touch them under supervision.

From personal experience, my dad taught me to shoot at 12 years old and bought me a 20-ga and a .270 that year. I ended up not enjoying hunting or shooting much and had no interest in the guns that our family owned. It took about 16 additional years for me to start enjoying.

On the other hand, I LOVED shooting our old Sheridan pump air rifle and used it the same way I would use a "real," gun, because it was. My friends and I loved playing with toy guns. That air gun was never used on another human and we may or may not have learned not to use our toy guns on non-participants after shooting our younger siblings; my memory is not completely clear on how we came about that bit of knowledge.

My wife's mom is anti-gun ("Nothing good comes from guns") and hates the idea of little boys pretending to shoot each other with guns. My wife has and I see eye-to-eye on firearm ownership. She knows that guns are just tools and toys are just toys. We just had our first baby (son) this October.

Our boy will have toy guns and start to learn gun safety at an early age, with the exception that he can play and shoot willing participants with his toys. When he is ready, he will learn about "real" firearms and the morality behind their ownership. I firmly believe from my own experience that education trumps prohibition.

I always had nerf guns and water guns. I also had a real gun, a .410 single shot, when I was 5 years old. I never had any trouble distinguishing between the two, because I was taught well.

I don't have that problem though. My only child is an 8 year old girl, and she has no use for toy guns. However, she loves shooting her .22 and wants a bigger gun so she can shoot a deer next season.

I played with toy guns until my Dad decided I was old enough for real guns and taught me the difference. I was smart enough to learn the difference. Parents, for the most part, are not smart enough to do that today so they become liberals......chris3

I am in a situation where I am dealing with step-children and a child with a disability. The last thing I need is for any other involved parents to start making waves because of my 'gun lifestyle', even thought they are largely enthusiastic about it. People looking for custody dispute ammo have no shame.

My policy is, if a toy gun is designed that in no way can it be mistaken for a real gun, the kids are allowed to use them any way they want. Supersoakers, Nerf guns, etc, they are allowed to chase and shoot each other with them. If a toy gun looks like a REAL gun, first of all, for the formative years, it isn't allowed to be in the house at all, because guns aren't toys. As they get older, and as I can't control what toys they might be given in other houses, the rule is, "If it looks like a real gun, you will treat it like a real gun and observe all safety rules."

I grew up with an arsenal of cap guns and played cowboys and indians, and WW2 with all the neighborhood kids. The hills in our pasture are knee deep with dead enemy.

Got my first .22 at the old age of 8, brought home squirrels for dinner that same fall.

Have I ever wished to comment murder, in a word NO!

I grew up knowing the difference between toys and tools, not a difficult concept to understand.

In my other post I did not mention anything about my childhood around guns....

I grew up with my Grandparents (Dad was a truck driver, Mom never was around)....Grandad had several guns and was a true hunter, meaning he hunted for food not sport.

Back then I would NEVER have guessed that anybody wouldn't have guns...or wouldn't like them. Guns were never, ever made out to be DANGEROUS...not to me. A gun isn't dangerous, only the idiot handling it...the same can be said of power tools.

I got my first 22 at age 10...but I already had been shooting Grandads for 2 years prior to that...when I got my own (a single shot Winchester, given to me by my uncle) I was allowed to take it out and go shoot squirrels, rabbits, grouse, groundhogs, etc. anytime I wanted to...and by myself.

By the time I was 10 Grandad had taught me how to properly handle, clean, sight in, load, aim, fire, and hit what I was aiming at. One time I was dragging a deer back home (dragging it by the side of the road)....I was 2 miles from home, the local cops saw me and instead of putting my whole family in jail for letting a 12 year old loose with a 30-30....they put my deer in the trunk and gave me a ride home. I gave him the back straps in return for the ride, even though it was not expected of me.

I walked all over the area carrying a rifle back then....and NOBODY gave it a 2nd thought.

Hunting and shooting was a family affair during my childhood....and I have done my best to keep it that way with my own family.

Let them have their toys, you only get one chance to be a kid...and they're by far the best years of your life.
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Start em young...and teach them to respect, not fear.
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My oldest sons first deer...
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And the man that raised me and made me what I am...my Grandad (pic taken in 1972, most folks had tractors by then...but not him)
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc137/Ridgerunner665/Copyofk.jpg

One more thing...something I've noticed with my sons.

They'll learn quicker by example than by preaching...when all is said and done, they'll handle their guns just like you handle yours.

I tested this theory a little while back, I left my young sons 22 out (unloaded) where he would find it upon getting home from his Grandmothers house. When he came in the door the first thing he said was "Whats my gun doing out?" I acted like I didn't hear him and kept watching TV...he walked over, picked it up, broke it down, checked to see if it was loaded, closed it up, put it in the gun safe, closed the door, and turned the crank to make sure it was locked.

Then came the part that was most amusing (you had to be there)...he came in there and climbed right up on me to where not hearing him was not an option...and said "quit leaving my gun out....they belong in the safe!"

He's 4 (almost 5)....they can be taught if ya take the time.

It's a very fine line. In the old days a a toy gun went bang or shot a light load. For many of us, me included. When you got your first air / spring rifle the game changed. You could kill a bird. When dad gave you your first .22 bolt action rifle things got real. Be it a .22 short, LR or mag. You had a the real deal. This happened around 8 years old or so ,,, give or take a year,

I use to kind of blow off the the first wife about toy and real guns and butted head with the second wife. While neither shot a a lot both did know the basics of shooting. And it concerned them. No such thing as a toy gun. You want to shoot a gun? Dad Pawpa and nana will teach you to shoot. This aint a game.

Maybe I and close family go over board. But all of my grandkids work the reloading bench with me and i love every sec. we load. From the oldist boy thats a bone collector at 16 and loves to hunt to the youngest girl at 3 years old that just wants to work the press's with pawpa and know nana has this really cool small revolver. Can't wait to get the newest grandson on the bench. He will be born on or around April 6th 2012. :)

We think it's very important to teach and show the differance. A water pistol, cap gun or Nerf gun wont hurt folks. But draw a clear line between toys and the real deal. The real deal kills a cute bunny rabbit. Drops a sparrow out of a tree.

When taught. Children know the diff. between a toy and a real gun. Education and exposure in the loving arms of a elder is VERY IMPORTANT! I still have my first .22 bolt gun my dad gave me at 6 years old. I will pass it on. And do my level best to expose and pass on to all my grandchildren and there parents.

A child can sense in his parent's mood , the difference between a real fire-arm and a toy.
hell even my dog can , I can play around with my paintball gun and the dog wont be bothered , but the moment the rifles come out the mood changes and the dog knows that it's serious and so do kids. unless you happen to have no respect for a fire-arm in which case your kids probably won't either.

We never had toy guns in our house, but my brother and I went "BANGing" around the house at each other with all manner of improvised weapons. My folks didn't mind, they just weren't gonna spring for anything more expensive than a drugstore squirt gun. I wasn't introduced to live weapons until Boy Scout summer camp in my early teens.

My son is a Nerf gun fanatic, and we have expanded his arsenal every Christmas. He is interested in coming to the range with me, and we have had a lot of discussion about firearm safety, and he seems to absorb it. I also began several years ago to discuss the true effect of bullets on people rather than the "hollywood" version. He's thirteen now, and can discuss this topic quite intelligently. Soon I will begin taking him to the range with me.

Having said all that, I have told him not to point his Nerf guns at me. I KNOW it's a toy, but it makes me feel weird, anyway. Nor do I join him in Nerf battles. Something about it (irrationally) unsettles me.

I have a big problem with toy guns that look like real thing. I wouldn't want my kids to play with these as I afraid it would de-sensitise them to the dangers & responsibilities associated with real guns.

I have no issues with obviously toy guns. Kids should be kids.

I think that most of the kids that are dangerous with real guns did not learn it from toys. I think it probably reflects a lack of parental training in many other areas of their lives.
Think of all of those 5 year old kids running loose in the stores, the ones that still throw a fit when their parents try to stop them, those kids that will only eat what they want regardless of what their parents say. Do you think those kids will be safe with a firearm? Heck, I wouldn't even give them a nerf gun. It isn't the toy guns or cartoons that cause the problems, its stupid parents that can't or won't teach their kids how to behave.
On the other hand, there are still some parents that teach kids respect and responsibility. Those kids are probably safe around guns. And yes, kids can distinguish between toy and real guns. I know when I was a kid I had lots of toy guns. My friends and I would have cap gun wars all of the time. But when I went to shoot the .22 with dad, I knew that the games were over. It was serious business then.

I agree with the OP and most people here. Lets kids be kids, but you must also be a good parent. Lock up the real guns, teach your kids the difference when the time is right.

I don't buy the liberal crap that playing with guns will make you a killer. Quite possibly the opposite. I've seen what a gun can do to a deer, aiming at a person that isn't about to harm me or my family is just not an option.

I remember having to ride grey hound as a kid once. I heard this lady complaining about her kids watching the cartoon, "The Roadrunner" with Wily Coyote. She said it was too violent and she was afraid that her kids would grow up and become violent and smash other kids in the head with an anvil. It was at that immediate moment that I decided I couldn't stand people who aren't smart enough to teach their kids right from wrong and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions, usually liberals.

My dad taught me not to point a gun (toy or real) at anything that youdont want to kill. I was hunting wth dad at 5 with a. 410, and never really had toy guns. The only toy guns i played with were my friends nerf guns and i always felt weird pointing them at him and still feel weird when i see kids do it. Dads way of teaching me was one of a kind. I grew up on a farm so i was always tought things at an early age. It also helped that my dad is 50 years older than me too. Older people seem to teach better than younger people in my experince. I will teach my kids young. They will understand guns are not to play with and they are not allowed to handle them without me.

When I was very small (less than 5) I ran around with my friends blasting away at each other playing army with nerf guns and such. But when I started getting older(5 or 6 maybe) my father began talking to me about real guns and how dangerous they can be and why you can't point them at people etc...I then began learning true marksmanship and gun safety on,of course, a single-shot bolt action .22lr. After mastering plinking cans with the .22 ( under supervision of course), and having decided I was safe enough with one, I was given Daisy BB gun to plink with to my hearts desire.

One day, I was out in the yard harrassing squirels when my Dad walked outside to check on me. Until this point I had not violated any of my fathers safety rules and this was the big day, I was gonna get to shoot the .22 pistol! When I seen him I still do not know what possessed me to point my BB gun at him( Maybe he was a bad guy? I think I was playing Army at that moment). He promtly snapped the gun in half over his knee and tossed it in the trash. I guess that was when it truly hit that safety was the more important than anything wgen dealing with guns. Needless to say, I didn't get to shoot the pistol that day. But over the next year I regained his trust and over the past 10 years I am considered disciplined enough to have my own guns. Thats how it worked for me, I slowly got out of playing shoot em' up with my buddies altogether and by 10 the only thing I wanted to shoot at was a deer.

The Boy had unrealistic toy guns but we didn't have any real guns (that was many years in the future). I didn't let him come up and shoot at people who weren't engaged in his game because it's RUDE. I drew the line at realistic looking guns because we didn't have access to any real ones for me to show him the difference. Now if I had a little one, I would have him or her right there when I'm cleaning and handling the gun, and teach them safety. Our guns are locked up; he's 16 and responsible and his friends are good kids and in this rural area almost all of them hunt (we don't) but there's always that "what if".

My kids, even my daughter, plays w/ toy guns. I have ZERO issue w/ it. The only concern I have are over trigger happy LEOs being stupid, but we seldom see LE here anyway and they know to stop playing when they come around.

All my kids also shoot, never had an issue

Yip i played with toy swords when i was a kid battled my buddies and all but i dont go around sticking ppl with my pocket knife

Sorry to revive this...but I just had to share this one....we got our son a 22 of his own for Christmas (the other one technically belongs to his big brother)

This is not a pose...it was the first thing he did right after he check to see if it was loaded.
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My friends and I were very handy when we were kids, and we spent weeks making silly things during the summer. We would occasionally whittle "swords" out of thick branches of magnolia with kitchen knives, much to the disdain of our mothers.

We eventually started using random scrap and duct tape to fashion guns, sometimes with foam tubes for suppressors. I made a surprisingly nice Dragunov out of PVC pipe once, with a side-mount scope and everything. Such is life in the South.

Kids have to be kids, and telling them not to just doesn't work. Teaching them about something instead of forbidding them is just one more way to bond with 'em and keep them safe. You can't stay out of a sticky situation if you have no idea what you're getting into, child or adult.

I was lucky enough to be born into a family of gun smiths and hunters. Some of my earliest memories are of toy broomhandle mausers and Star Wars blasters. We had hand made rubber band guns, slingshots and all other manner of projectile launching tools. Every available moment was spent outdoors running the pastures and woods. I was the two legged retriever when I was too young to hunt. I was taught how to shoot on an old Stevens single shot .22 and killed my first turkey at 4. By 8 I was dove and quail hunting with a .410 Stevens 311 double. All of this was under the carefull stern instruction of my grandfather. My whole life was spent in houses with loaded weapons in simple gun cabinets without locks. This was the same in all of our houses with many cousins, brothers and sisters. Every one of us knew what a real gun was at an early age and never had a single problem. I think the lack of curiosity through knowledge and the sheer fear of fatherly/grandfatherly wrath kept us in line. Never a more true warning than "Curiosity killed the cat". Teach, show and encourage them as soon as you see fit.

So My buddy brought his Arsenal Saiga by a couple weekends ago, and my stepson fell in love with it, trying to look like a BA.
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He got an Amazon gift card, so he is getting an AK of his own
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My daughter yesterday:

Pink lever action bb rifle

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Co2 bb 1911 (going to Duracoat it purple per her request lol)

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Since this thread began, I took the jigsaw to a piece of plywood, glued a clothespin to the tang area and voila, instant rubber band gun. It actually took a little sanding on the lower jaw of the clothespin to get her running right, but now she shoots like a house on fire.

My little boy loved the idea of shooting a cup from a few feet away. Target practice. :cool:

For God's sake, let kids be kids. Our toy guns ran the gamut of pretend "Monkey" equipment that didn't even have triggers (just point and say pow) to more the realistic Johnny Eagle weapons that actually fired plastic bullets to the rat-a-tat Tommy guns to the Cobra and Zebra pea-bean firing pistols (pre-cursor to Air-Soft?) to all kinds of cap-firing guns to my all-time best Christmas present, the Agent Zero-one Sonic Blaster, which just naturally became our bazooka. Some of these were more dangerous than others, but we turned out OK. Even with rubber-band guns. Eventually, we graduated to BB and pellet guns, with Wrist Rockets thrown in-between. Funny, but we always seemed to know the ones to be more careful with. Were kids then smarter than kids now? Were parents far better at parenting then than those today? Likely no for both questions, but people are far better today at telling you what's good for your kids and legislating away what they think is bad.

Today, those Nerf guns would be a total blast.

No problem. Apply same rules as a loaded gun. If playing "Army" shoot over their heads. Show me a kid who demonstrates respect and manners for his toy guns and others around him and there is a boy/girl I'd like to take shooting.

I played with toy guns my entire childhood, then I started shooting real guns. I never had any trouble telling a real gun from a toy nor did I point guns at people because I did with toy guns. Playing with toy guns is something that boys love to do when they are young and it's fun.

but I already had been shooting Grandads for 2 years prior to that

You a Hitman for insurance purposes? :evil:

No problem. Apply same rules as a loaded gun. If playing "Army" shoot over their heads. Show me a kid who demonstrates respect and manners for his toy guns and others around him and there is a boy/girl I'd like to take shooting.
See, that's just a quick way to get kids bored with toy guns in a hurry. Now this is just my opinion, but kids who are properly educated about gun safety know the difference between a toy and the real thing. We have the new-ish (I guess, new to me anyhow) Lightstrike guns. New fangled version of laser tag. Shoots nothing but IR beams, not exactly lethal. Nor are NERF guns. the whole shoot over their heads approach is boring and takes the fun out of what are TOYS. I will not ask my kids to treat their playthings with the same level of care, safety and respect as with a real gun. They know the difference.

I played with toy guys.

Guess what happened.

Carrying as a grown up became second nature.

My 11 year old has plenty of "real" and "toys" guns...it amazes me to watch his "trigger discipline" when he plays with his toy guns...

:neener: