Toy gun muzzle control--ridiculous?

[JohnKSa]

My nephew (10) has a toy gun that he plays with sometimes when we visit.

His lack of muzzle control irritates me at the just below conscious level and I find myself getting mad when he points it at people.

At Thanksgiving he was playing with the gun and pointed it at his sister's head and then turned around and stuck the muzzle against me. I pushed the muzzle away from me and told him that he'd never be able to have a BB gun until he learned not to point guns at people (or something to that effect).

This has kind of eaten at me a bit and I wonder if I should have just written it off as "kid stuff" and kept my mouth shut. I had an ND a few weeks ago and maybe I'm oversensitive about safety at the moment.

What do you guys think?

 

[DigMe]

I think it's proper to teach them muzzle control during casual around-the-house use but if he's going to play war or something you gotta let him do it. However, you can teach him that he always needs to be careful not to point his toy gun at guys from his own team.

brad cook

 

[Kamicosmos]

Tough call. I'm not a parent. I voted that it's never to early to start learning...but. When I was a kid I got to play with water guns and toy guns, and my brother and I played war in the backyard all the time.

That said, when I got a BB gun, my dad told me to treat it like a real gun. ( I had been given Gun Instructions when I was quite young, around 8 or so.) So, I understood that toy guns were okay to point at my brother when we were playing...but the BB gun was only to be shot at cans in the backyard and to never be used as a toy, even when unloaded. (That changed around age 16 when other friends got bb guns....Oh, the youthful stupidity!)

So, I guess it depends on the kid. Can they know the difference between toys that in no way can hurt, ie a water gun, and a BB or real gun that can?

 

[Dean C]

Never too young

I'm somewhere between "never too young" and "he's just 10". Circumstances would dictate how I would act. Playing cowboys or soldiers either outside or inside puts me in the "he's 10" category but the point blank stuff pegs me on the "never too young" side. That's how I raised my two boys. Both now own guns too and respect them and me too.
dean

 

[waktasz]

I'm 22 now and my mom who had never seen a gun until last year always told me not to point my toy guns at anyone. I didn't know you could still buy a toy gun now

 

[dairycreek]

Kids are superior learners! A lesson taught to them tends to stay taught, particularly when it is taught by someone they love and respect. Of course they should be taught the rules of proper gun handling when they are young. Good shooting

 

[Chipperman]

IMO 10 is plenty old enough to learn the RULES.

My sons are 3 1/2 and I've already started to tell them that, "we don't point our guns at people."

I figure by the time they are old enough for a BB gun, it will have started to sink in.

 

[Oleg Volk]

My grandfather told me not to point a toy gun at people when I was five. I thought that was silly because the gun was just a toy. Twenty years later I came to agree with his view.

 

[Atticus]

That bugs me too. I would say it's OK to point it at someone when playing cops and robbers or whatever....but not to simply walk up and point it at non-participants.

 

[AK103K]

Our kids learned to handle firearms at a very early age and had no difficulty in knowing what was real and what wasnt. They knew the rules for real guns and that toys were toys and we never had one instance of confusion, between the two. I think if you have waited until 10 to start teaching them, you have waited way to long. I also think one of the big problems with kids these days is a lot of people dont let kids BE kids. To much PC BS. Teach them the difference and let them be kids.

 

[g56]

One of the most common shooting accidents among children occurs when a child finds a gun and thinks it's a toy, point it at someone and shoot, the only gun that a child should be allowed to point at another human being is the end of their finger, they shouldn't be allowed to point any kind of toy gun at a person, it is the basis for their future handling of firearms.

 

[AK103K]

One of the most common shooting accidents among children occurs when a child finds a gun and thinks it's a toy, point it at someone and shoot,

Thats the point. Why does the child "think" its a toy? They should have been taught the difference as soon as they can readily be taught, which should be from the time they are born if you have guns in the house. If the child "thinks" a real gun is a toy, you havent done your job as a parent.

 

[Liberty.45ACP]

It depends on the child. Our son (just turned 11) knows the difference between toy guns (water, nerf, etc) and real (air rifles on up). I have no problem with him pointing a water gun or anything similar at others that are playing whatever game it is. I also know he is very concious of any real weapon he or others are handling - he doesn't hesitate to correct me or anyone else. I think it depends on the ability of the individual to make this differentiation. This even applies to adults.

 

[GigaBuist]

Muzzle control for a kid with a toy seems excessive, but I grew up shooting little plastic pellet/disc guns and such at my brothers growing up. Teaching them to only point at what they INTEND to hit though makes sense, but going so far as to never allow them to point it as a person who's actively playing with them is a bit much. I can see the argument for it, but my childhood would have been even more boring if my parents thought that way.

Trigger control though, that's another matter! Get that one ingrained in their memory right from the get-go. Whenever I pick up a water pistol I still keep my finger off the trigger, it's just habit. I just wish I had learned with water pistols first before firearms. Never had an ND, close call, or anything, but I made that mistake a few times on the range when I got my first pistol.

I'll admit though, watching a 2-3 year old kid shoot a water pistol into his own mouth gave me a weird feeling but perhaps that was because his father is a pistol safety instructor.

 

[Micahn]

I in my younger years lived on a farm in Indiana. My father made sure I both know how to use guns and how to respect them at a very young age. I would say I was around 6 or 7 when he started teaching my how to both use and respect firearms. He would take me target shooting or squirrel hunting and we had a great time back then.

I feel every kid should start learning that same stuff at a young age if they have a chance of being around them. I have 3 girls now and they all know both how to shoot and how to handle them in a safe way. I started then with a BB gun at a young age in the back yard and they just loved it. My youngest (She is 17 now) could spend hours out there shooting at targets with that thing.

I would be willing to say that almost every time a kid shoots someone they was never showed the right way to handle firearms and to respect them. That is sadly one of the problems with this world today. Young people just do not respect people or things like they did just 30 years ago or so. If they have to respect then they care less about things and that can only turn ugly for all.

Anyway on this case I would at the least talk to the parents about it. Maybe even offer to work with the kid to teach them what they need to know about this sort of thing. That way if the parents themselves do not really know what to do at least the kid will learn what they need to know about the subject. Who knows you just might save a life.

 

[Ryder]

Never too young.

Sure it's a toy... So make a game of learning the rules. I have spoken with kids who weren't mine about gun handling in the past. I explain why they need to be careful even if it's a toy. Most kids exhibit a newfound appreciation for the power of their guns and like the fact that you've given them some instruction.

I wouldn't hold it against a kid if they've not had an opportunity to learn this yet, it's not their fault.

 

[Zach S]

Never too young to learn.

 

[victory]

If you enforce muzzle control on him when using toy guns, he's gonna be loosing a lot playing cowboys and indians.

Better solution, teach him the difference between toy guns and real guns.

 

[Jrob24]

Better solution, teach him the difference between toy guns and real guns

Ditto. There's a reason it's called a TOY
How else could I have enjoyed Photon , Laser Tag and super soaker fights as a child?

 

[Smoke]

My son just turned 5. He has numerous toy guns but knows not to point them at people or animals. (pets)

He can shoot all the imaginary stuff he wants.

He was allowed to shoot a B.B. gun, supervised, at age 4.75. He does well with it. A kid that plays like your nephew would not be allowed to handle even a BB gun in my house.

Smoke

 

[PATH]

When playing outside with a toy I, as a lad, pointed my toy firearm at those I was playing with. I never pointed the toys at anyone in the house as per my father's instructions. Damned impolite behavior as it were.

Children should be taught from an early age the rules concerning firearms. Children should also be taught which friearms are toys and which are not.
I say you are never too young to learn!

 

[ReadyontheRight]

Kids will be kids, but adults gotta be adults. I don't think treating toy guns like real guns is ridiculous at all. Human beings don't need a whole lot of guidance to be destructive. We all DO need a lot of guidance to THINK about the consequences of our actions.

There are no hard and fast rules on toy guns/water guns, but there are certainly times for teaching moments. Sounds like a good time to talk about the 4 rules.

 

[berettaman]

He's just a 10 year old kid.How about getting one of his toy guns and play with him?Be fun uncle john while you still can.You don't get these times back.Let him have fun untill he shows intrest in real guns.

Maybe I grew up in a different era when kids with guns were just kids with toy guns.(pow,pow,chchchchchchc,you're dead.)(huht uh you missed)

 

[P95Carry]

Indeed - as a toy it should be possible to use as such. However this is a sticky problem because on balance the pointing is something to be discouraged.

Education is the key - providing the distinction between real and toy is clearly defined. My step son, now 17 - used to do a lot of paintball and it bothered me if in the house he waved the thing around and pointed ... even tho it was without gas bottle or ball hopper etc. In essence, if a gun has a means - any means - to emit a projectile then it must, IMO be a strict non-pointer. The exception with paint-ball is of course when used as intended, with protective gear etc.

This is an education each parent should undertake - the difficulty will be making the demarkation - sufficient to avoid the dreaded pick up of the ''real thing'' and still treating it as a toy. Each case will be an individual one - hard to make hard and fast guidelines.

 

[CarbineKid]

With all due respect, I think you are getting alittle carried away. It is a TOY. The toy is ment to be played with. That means "shooting" the bad guys, aliens or whatever monsters come at you. I use to play "cowboy and Indians" "cops and robbers" and occasionally go on a raid against some "germans" when I was a younger. Back then the toy guns looked real, unlike todays gay pride pink and yellow toy guns. Was it fun, yes, dangerous..no.
With that said I do believe a child should be taught the diffrence between the two. That alone is important if theres a firearm in the house. SO on a side note how do you guys feel about toy knives, and toy grenades..lol