Kids and toy guns - What's your philosophy?

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

SDG

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2007
Messages
88
Location
Tulsa, OK
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.
 
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:
 
If a kid can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, then I don't need to make them treat a toy gun like a real one. I do prefer it when all safety rules are followed however. A nerf gun can be used as a safety teaching aid, but it doesn't mandate all the rules be followed all the time. For example, during HVZ, I saw so many safety violations (and friendly fire actually incurred a penalty) that I gave up on trying to get people to stopping looking down the barrel and muzzle sweeping with fingers on the trigger Now airsoft ought to have all the rules obeyed; they leave welts and can be used to actually do some pretty realistic war game simulations.
 
Last edited:
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)
0405111759a.jpg

He knows very well the difference between a toy and a gun...here we are shooting balloons with his 22.
101_0130.jpg

Thats how I did it with my oldest son....he turned out OK.
0913110937-1-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
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.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
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.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

R
  • Locked
"Guns are not toys," so why toy guns for kids?
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
Dave R
D
E
  • Locked
These Afghan boys have some nice toy guns
Replies
7
Views
922
rbernie
rbernie
C
  • Locked
Do you allow kids to point toy guns at people?
2 3 4
Replies
94
Views
7K
AKElroy
A
T
  • Locked
Toy guns and your kids
2 3
Replies
61
Views
2K
Agouti
A
S
  • Locked
Do you let your kids play with toy guns?
2 3 4
Replies
82
Views
3K
jdowney
J
Back
Top