Do you let your kids play with toy guns?

[COMPNOR]

Just like real guns aren't the problem, toy guns aren't either.

I played with all kinds of real and fake looking toy guns. And not only that, I knew where in the house all of the firearms and ammo were, and they weren't locked up.

But I was taught never to go near them unless dad was around and he allowed me to.

Seems to me if there is an issue, its the parent. I'm willing to bet that the majority of incidents that involve a kid-related accident with a real firearm who thought it was a toy, had parents who didn't bother teaching their kids anything.

 

[-eaux-]

we grew up playing with toy guns, both purchased from the store and (more often) fashioned from sticks.
the hingepin in this thing is that we were expected/required to treat them as if they were real and loaded. NO pointing at people, finger OFF the trigger until ready to fire, MUZZLE CONTROL!
that being said, if you were an imaginary bad guy, consider yourself sniped!!!

 

[Tinpig]

My kids played with toys. Stuffed animals, dolls, wooden trucks, model airplanes, plastic guns, and rubber knives. Somehow they were able to tell the difference between toys and the real thing.

 

[AR27]

Apparently you have not heard of having a childhood. Kids arent worrying about trigger pull and all that junk. Let them have fun when they still can. About 12 you get em a .22 and teach them to use it properly.

 

[Ashcons]

That was a close one!

Well I guess I am lucky that toy guns (and "violent video games") never led me to shoot anyone with any of the real guns I own

Maybe it was less luck and more my Dad teaching me about firearm safety early on.

 

[CHEVELLE427]

I GREW UP WITH THEM AND MY KIDS DID TOO AS MY GRAND Kids WILL ALSO.

if you keep it a bit taboo that will make them want to know more about guns then they need to at a young age. (worked for me)( BOYS MIGHT BE DIFFERENT)

i showed my girls MY gun at age 5 or 6 showed them there it was not a magic item ,
it was just a steel item, let them touch it look at it and told them there was nothing magically about it and when they got older i would get them one and show them how to shoot it,

after that they had no in tress in any of my guns till i started them into shooting.

i feel if you tell a child don't touch that, that makes them want to touch it more just to see why there not suppose to.

problem today is the government thinks we are to dumb to function without them telling us how to operate.

i grew up with firecrackers and now all we can have in FL is sparklers because were too dumb to have firecrackers (MIGHT FORGET TO THROW IT), someone might get hurt, they might be right ,
WE THE PEOPLE DID ELECT THEM INTO OFFICE

HEARD a year back some 5yr olds were playing cops and robbers using there fingers as guns,

BOTH GOT SUSPENDED
P-C stuff is out of hand

 

[Prion]

Absolutely, I play with toy guns with them!

 

[gidaeon]

I seem to remember turning my grilled cheese sandwichs into guns, though I certainly didn't grow up with any real firearms All it takes is a stick in the yard for a boy to be a sword, gun ect.,

I don't let my kids point toy guns at each other. I DO let them use rubber band guns on stuffed animal targets . They pretend "range time" including watching where they point it - 5 and 3yo.

 

[76shuvlinoff]

I'm 50 and of course I had toy guns, cap guns, squirt guns some I made out of wood. I progressed to bb guns .22s and shotguns. I finally got old enough to have my own handguns. I have never shot anyone.

I got older and decided there is no such thing as a toy gun, it seems as I took the ccw courses and defensive handgun courses they only strengthened my resolve and confirmed my belief in no-toy-guns.

I raised a girl that's 18 now and taught her to shoot when she showed an interest. She did not get toy guns and she doesn't seem worse off for it.

Unless you count super soakers in the summertime there have never been toy guns in my adult home.

 

[Robert Wilson]

At my three year old's preschool they have a strict "no making finger guns" rule. (The place is staffed entirely by women, of course.) But making "water" guns with fingers, Legos, etc. is fine. So the kids all run around pointing their fingers at each other and yelling "Bang!", and if anyone objects, they'll say "It's a water gun". This satisfies the complainant, "bang bang" noises notwithstanding.

That perfectly encapsulates the foolishness of the entire subject, as far as I am concerned.

 

[MTMilitiaman]

As important as I feel instilling firearms safety and good shooting practices in your children is, there are far more important lessons in life. One of them is learning to distinguish the difference between what is real and what isn't, what is play, and what is not.

My brother and I never had any problem "playing" guns with the other children, then shooting real guns under the supervision of our grandpa. That is because we understood which guns were toys, and it was made very clear to us that there was a difference. If your children can't distinguish between toy guns and real guns, and the importance of treating real guns with absolute respect at all times, or if they can't tell fact from fiction, or haven't been disciplined enough to understand the concept of consequence and the importance of obedience, then I'm sorry, they got bigger problems than whether they can play with toy guns.

Played cowboys and Indians but unfortunately my Indian friend/city raised/opponent had a real hard plastic tomahawk and after I shot him with my six shot Gene Autry cap pistol he still came forward (meth?) and popped me with the tomahawk.

That is why I upgraded from the .38 caliber cap pistol to the .45 caliber cap pistol.

 

[Riverrunner]

My boys pick up a stick or branch and it becomes a gun. You can't regulate there imagination. But you can teach them safe firearm handling. Use common sense.

 

[9mmforMe]

I have a 4 year old daughter and have already started teaching her about gun safety...it should all start there in my opinion. When she gets older I will bring her to the range if she shows interest.

I think the violent/explicit video games that kids play nowadays, potentially, can be more influential in negative ways than a young kid playing with a toy gun. In the end, parental influence/education will be a major factor in molding their children's behavior, for good or bad. Yes, society will be a factor in conditioning our children, but we have to be the filter for propriety.

 

[oldfool]

every time this subject cycles around, I am a little stunned and amazed at how toys somehow became evil in America

boy child of the 50's, here
every child of the era grew up playing with toy guns, green plastic "army men", toy warplanes and tanks, etc. etc., playing cowboys and indians, playing war with toy guns, etc., etc., cap pistols, water pistols, stick guns, finger guns
and that included a lot of little girls
and what every kid wanted was a toy gun that looked more realistic, not a one of us would have been "caught dead" playing with a blaze orange gun, other than maybe a water pistol

same was true for numerous preceding generations of Americans, no matter what the toys were made of
somehow or other, America survived, and multiple generations of Americans did not cause their own mass extinction as a result of playing with toys

almost feel a little sorry for so many of you here who -
never wore a coonskin cap
never lusted in your heart for a set of Mattel Fanner 50s, and were eventually were rewarded with a set.. (maybe why I am still a revolver guy, although I have transitioned to k-frame style)
at age 9, I could have outdrawn a bunch of you IPSC guys, with either hand, alas, not so anymore

and you guessed it, yes
we bought our children toy guns
we bought our grandchildren toy guns
and we buy our great-grandchildren toy guns

and all of 'em knew by age 3 the difference between a toy gun and a real gun
and all of 'em knew by age 3 the difference between a toy knife and and a real knife
and all of 'em knew by age 3 the difference between a toy car and and a real car (and had toy cars they could sit in and drive, some with pedals, some with batteries)
and all of 'em knew by age three, stoves are HOT
but none of 'em grew up believing that either toys or guns are "evil"

sheesh, get over yourself
children are not stupid, they are just short people
on average, smarter than tall people

PS
and we complain about 'politically correctness'
yup, we have seen the enemy, and they R us

 

[oldfool]

well, it is still going to be mid nineties in south Georgia today
instead of taking my toys to the range, thinking I may just stay home and play with my toy gun

6" model 66 k-frame, loaded with red snap caps and a laser-lyte pro
but I promise, mommy, I won't point it at anybody, nor at the dawg
and I won't shoot my eye out, either !

(but I won't let the other kids play with it, if they happen stop by to visit, because it really is a real gun, and they know that, so I will just lock it back up in the safe, and maybe we will play with the Wii toy guns)

ya'll have fun now !

 

[powwowell]

I just don't understand the OP. Why strangle a child's imagination? I grew up with Roy, Gene, Hoppy, Lash and all the Western sit-coms on TV. I played with toy guns. Made a lot of them. Sticks for guns, paste-board boxes for forts and ships. So did millions of other Americans.

The OP probably didn't mean it, but when taking away toy guns, he sounds anti-gun to me.

 

[hardluk1]

My parents had a picture of me in my twin holsters and 6 shooters when i was around 3. Played army and cowboys and injuns. Played hard with the kids. Started shooting a 22 colt when 6 . Owned my own 22 and have carried a rifle at 13 in the woods with friends hunting. I do know that when I grew up if you really screwed up someone was there to help when dishing out punishment was needed. Both my girls at an early age learned to shoot and under stand that a real gun will kill but neather took up shooting sports to any degree as they became older. I guesss if a child that shows some interest in firearms and there parents don't take the time to teach them early about weapons is makeing a mistake. But let them still play. Teach them well and hope for the best.

 

[Zoogster]

Some studies have actually shown that boys who act out aggressive games as children are mentally healthier in both the present and future.
By that I mean playing good guys and bad guys, and using pretend violence against each other or imaginary bad guys makes them healthier (and the studies show productive in school as well.)
(The same studies have however found girls typically don't benefit from the same allowance of aggression, and it can actually have the opposite effect with them, reducing performance at school.)

It helps them to learn to apply violence at least in concept in good ways later in life if necessary.
Aggression is natural for boys, and so role play that teaches them to channel it positively is far healthier in the long term than leaving them immature in that area.
The kids that grow up using pretend violence are more likely to come to the aid of another human being when real violence against a real bad guy or dangerous animal is necessary to stop an attack.

Violence channeled positively is what created our nation, has protected our nation, and defended against many predators both human and otherwise.
Tyranny is also sure to prevail when the people are unwilling to exercise necessary violence at times.
The last thing you want is most good people to be pacifists. Then it is the bad guys and the tyrants of the world shaping the outcome.

Long before guns children were pretending to be use swords, spears, and other then current weapons while pretending to be the local guards, bandits, soldiers, gladiators, and similar roles they were familiar with. In pretending to play these roles they learned to apply good and bad, right and wrong, and when use of force may be appropriate. Playing the good guy or playing the bad guy the children learn right and wrong, and become familiar with the willingness to use force. Maturing in that department, as they hopefully will continue to mature in their understanding of when violence should and should not be used.
Keeping children emotionally and mentally immature in that department causes more harm than good.



As for toy guns and real guns in particular, it still takes teaching a child to treat the real thing with respect. Handling of a real gun and safety must still be taught, and the child cannot be left to fill in the gaps with their own experience of playing with toys.
I also think anyone given a real gun should understand the difference between life and death, and the implications that has with a deadly weapon. If the child is too young to understand that then they are too young to be given a lethal weapon, irregardless of how well they can be taught to point and shoot the thing. A monkey could be taught how to shoot a gun, but I wouldn't want them making life and death decisions even if they could run the courses at the range with a great score and good muzzle control.
For this reason I actually think toy guns are more appropriate for young children and role play than real guns and the shooting range.
Children may pick up some bad habits in weapon discipline playing with toys, but those are easily and quickly overcome when taught real safety any time in the future.
Immaturity at a later age in understanding good moral use of force is a lot harder to overcome irregardless of how well or safe they know how to shoot a gun.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

boy child of the 50's, here
every child of the era grew up playing with toy guns, green plastic "army men", toy warplanes and tanks, etc. etc., playing cowboys and indians, playing war with toy guns, etc., etc., cap pistols, water pistols, stick guns, finger guns

Boy child of the 1960s here, and I did the same things. At the time The Adventures of Superman (with George Reeves) was popular in reruns, and my friends and I would tie bath towels around our necks as capes and jump off any elevated object. We still knew that it was fantasy, so we never tried to jump off roofs or out of windows thinking we could really fly.

 

[Manco]

While I can understand how plausible the theory seems, as well as the concerns about allowing children to form bad habits (especially since I've so strongly stressed developing good habits), in practice it really comes down to whether a child can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, as others have already pointed out. I always could, at least as far back as I can remember, and played with my toy guns much differently than I did even my BB gun, which I handled in the same manner as I do firearms today, following all the same rules of safety that I was taught. I didn't want to hurt anybody, after all, and I knew that a BB gun could cause some real damage, while a toy replica (which looked fairly realistic back in the day) or cap gun would not (unless you held it too close to somebody's ears!). I had a lot of fun playing cowboys & Indians (or frontiersman with my coonskin cap and the works), and then cops & robbers when that trend took over. It didn't do me any harm, as far as I can tell, and if anything helped further my interest in and respect for the realities of firearms and history.

Zoogster, I hold the same view from a psychological and developmental standpoint, and couldn't have expressed it better. In general, it is always better to allow natural development, and coming to grips to one's own aggression is a necessary part of it. Toy guns are simply representative of the tools we use in inflicting violence on one another, for either positive or negative reasons, and in the modern world are a natural part of this exploration and development through play.

 

[The Bushmaster]

People underestimate children. They tend to be smarter then their parents. Believe me. I know. I raised 5 children. They know the difference between reality and fanticy very early in life. And yes. Not only did I and my brother play with cap guns when kids (I had a Hopalong Cassidy double rig) we insured our kids had toy guns to play with.

 

[hammerklavier]

My rule is "NO pointing a toy gun at someone who isn't playing the game with you!" Nothing more annoying that some kid with a toy gun pretending to shoot every adult that walks by.

 

[Leanwolf]

My brother and I, and all our friends, played with toy guns for years. We were also taught by our fathers and uncles, etc., to leave the real guns -- which it seemed almost every adult male owned -- alone. We were also taught the safety rules about real guns, and as they were never locked up, just stuck in closets or visible racks, all we had to do to "see" one of them was to ask. But we had to ask.

We never played "Cowboys & Indians" when I was a kid. We played "War!!"

Of course, we had to flip coins to see who were the Japs and Krauts, and who got to be the American soldiers or Marines. No one wanted to be a Jap or Kraut because the Japs and Krauts always were killed at the end of the games. As an American soldier or Marine, we might be "wounded" ten times or so, but we were were "alive" when our mothers called us to come in and eat.

This was during World War II. Rare was the kid who happened to come up with a roll of caps for his "fifty" shooter. A roll of caps contained 50 shots. Unless you were really "uptown" and had one of the six shooter cap guns that used the round, flat faced six shot caps that loaded almost like a real speed loader, which at that time, had not been invented. Mainly we had to "fight" by shouting "Bang! I gotcha you dirty Jap (or Kraut!)" Any kid who managed to obtain a roll of caps was a "big shot," and the envy of the neighborhood.

To my knowledge, not one of us ever later had a firearms accident, and we all owned real firearms quite young. I.e., I owned my first centerfire handgun when I was 13 years old. I've never murdered or accidently shot anyone.

It is up to the parents to teach their children respect and the difference between playing with toy guns, and handling the real thing, safely. Some parents do: many don't.

L.W.

 

[VegasGeorge]

I absolutely hate this topic. It drives me nuts. Toy guns are toys, not guns! I put parents who prohibit toy guns in the same class as those who won't let their kids climb trees or ride a skateboard. For some unimaginable reason, those parents think that playing with toy guns is going to hurt their children. Actually, the opposite is true. Playing cops and robbers, or cowboys and indians, or army teaches kids an entire skill set that would otherwise be missing. And it's a skill set that could make the difference between life and death later on in the real world.

 

[Hanzo581]

Nothing wrong with toy guns.