Sanitizing the Youth?

[Remmi]

Alright, I'm one of the younger members of THR at 21, but I've recently become aware of something that's a touch disconcerting.

I've a pair of younger brothers, 9 and 10 years old respectively, and I spend a lot of time with them on my free days, We do all the big brother stuff, I watch cartoons with them, play video games, etc.

Well recently I went to purchase them their Birthday Presents, since it's in January, and my ten year-old brother specifically said he'd wanted a toy AK-47, I figured it'd be pretty easy to find some cheap plastic copy he could have fun with, like a cap gun you know?

Boy was I in for a shock.

I went to three separate stores and I found ZERO in regard of toy guns, at least toy guns that in any way resembled a GUN; there was a wide variety of NERF blasters and things that look like they belong in a 1960's B-movie, but not a single cap-gun or dart-pistol that resembled a real gun in any way shape or form. Did I miss the memo that kids can't have toys anymore?

Even on top of that, I've watched some of the cartoons my brother's watch, Anime from Japan that's been dubbed for kids - and I've noticed that they started editing out all the guns, seriously, just 'Shopping them off the frames in them, because apparently seeing the hero having a gun pointed at them is somehow more psychologically potent then the obvious question of why he's being threatened with a pointed finger.

What the hell's the deal with this? I was aware of Jack Thompson's little private war with violent video games, but this is really kind of stupid; how is a toy gun or a depiction of a firearm in a damn CARTOON going to make some kid go wonky and commit a crime? Heck, the paper-thin evidence for violent video games making kids killers is better then this.

What's the point of shielding our kids from the TRUTH of the real world? How is that going to make it better? What, make them totally oblivious to the existence of firearms til' they get one shoved in their face? I mean, normally I'm not one to cry havoc about censorship and government operations, I don't consider myself a revolutionary - but this is pathetic; so we take away our kid's toys, we've got people trying to take away their video games, and now they're censoring them out of Television?

What, are we practicing for the final samba of total gun control; or do we just want our children to be psychologically stunted wusses?

 

[chipperi]

I agree totally, I am 31 and remember playing cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians with those rather explosive and smelly rolls of little red caps,and toy guns without the stupid red plug in the end. While outside in the mud, and refusing to come in when my mom called or smarting off and getting my hide tanned.

Now a days kids are pampered undiciplined video game zombies. That seem to grow up to be criminals, wusses, or even worse... liberals.

Our future is bleak.

 

[jrfoxx]

How bout this: http://shop.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=383831
only $40, and if the fact is airsoft and shoots plastic bb's is a concern for some reason, it should be a siple task to pour some Liquid Nails (or similar thick, strong glue) down into the barrel to render it permanantly non-firing. I'd think with a google search, you could find one even cheaper.

 

[Remmi]

I think you sort of missed the point, Jr. Just a tad.

 

[buttrap]

My how things change, when I was a kid I had a .22 falling block gun my dad had taken the hammer out of as a toy gun.

 

[Autolycus]

I dont think it is sanitization of the youth to be anti-gun. I think it is more that kids have essentially replaced toy guns and most outdoor activities with video games.

Anime is usually full of guns and realistic ones at that. I think it is probably just the editing format. I might be wrong though.

 

[Autolycus]

I wanted to ad that many of the video games are full of guns and that it is not necessarily anti-gun in a sense.

 

[Geno]

Dunhams has some very realistic Airsoft guns. That aside, yes, it is becoming more difficult to find good firearms related toys at the stores.

 

[Mannix]

I was forbidden from having any thing more than a squirt gun until I was 12(dart guns, cap guns, etc.).

My dad wasn't around.

I had a chronic lack of "boot" when I needed it most.

I played a whole lot of video games.

Somehow I'm not a "liberal" or a criminal. I suppose me being a wuss would depend upon the definition you used .

 

[NGIB]

I thought everyone knew that if your kids play with toy guns they grow up to be criminals and malcontents. Then if they also play violent video games as well, they may become real bad folks.

Seriously, someone always tries to legislate morality and "protect" our kids. I've always felt this job belonged to me and the wife - and we raised 3 good kids, and two of them veterans...

 

[crazed_ss]

When I was just a baby my mama told me. Son,
Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns

- Johnny Cash

 

[RLsnow]

victory is mine!

i still find plastic toy guns and such (that make lill pop noises and you get the smell of gun powder ) in my local shop ... getting hold of a real gun remains a problem though

 

[che_70b]

I know people who try very hard to shelter their children from viewing violence and shooting in movies and keep them far away from weapons. Seem like a bad idea to me, I can so no benifit to raising people in a phantasy world. Beyond that it really seams likely that if these kids ever have to face real violence they will be even more unprepaired to deal with the attack itself and the mental aftermath.

 

[another okie]

che - I understand what you're saying, but it strikes me as funny that keeping kids away from movies is described as keeping them in a fantasy world. Movies are the fantasy world.

 

[jkingrph]

I wonder about the world too. I'm 62 and when young all we played with was cap guns( mostly sans caps cause we could not afford them) a few dart guns, and homemade rubber band guns. Cowboy hats, holsters, and stick horses( mostly a long wooden stick, broom or mop handle with the working part removed). We had hours of fun like that, setting up ambushes ect., and to my knowledge no one of our group has had any trouble as teenagers or adults using guns. After school there were the old Bob Steele series westerns on TV.

In high school I carried a cartridge collection (live ammo) mounted on a board to school for a display. Another friend brought a couple of single action revolvers for display, and one day another friend brought a vintage flintlock longrifle, with a beautiful maple stock and inlays , to school to show me,

Now there are computer games and organized sports. What happened to creativity?

 

[El Tejon]

Just go to a gun show. There are always hundreds of airsoft toys at gun shows--and cashews, almonds, jerky, fudge, soft pretzels, everything but guns.

 

[crazed_ss]

Computer games and organized sports are pretty fun.

Besides, With the advent of first person shooters, I think computer games haved sparked a lot of interest in firearms. And if you want to talk about toy guns, have you guys heard of Airsoft? It's scary how real those things look.

 

[wheelgunslinger]

LOL. El T called it.
Plenty of airsoft, cold steel, tyranny response teams, transparent toys and such.
Not many guns.

 

[Remmi]

I'd just like to point out; I was looking for a *toy* gun. This is a ten-year old I was shopping for; the last thing I wanted to buy for him was an actual projectile weapon. I'd be getting a phone-call from my mother about him putting out his or his younger brother's eye within a week.

 

[El Tejon]

Hah, I've purchased enough real guns to equip a platoon of Marines for kids under 10.

If brick and mortar places have a dearth of toy guns, then there are dozens of other places to purchase toy guns.

 

[Mannix]

An airsoft gun shoots a little 6mm plastic pellet at around 300fps. It doesn't have enough to leave anything more than a little red mark. If you think that that's too much firepower for a 10 year old, plug the barrel or the hole the pellet gets fed into, deactivating it, or, if you're a REALLY nice brother, you could get an AK parts kit and make it look and feel just like the real thing , just plug the barrel and weld some of the internals in place.

 

[Remmi]

I'd actually considered buying a non-firing replica for him; but when I mentioned it to our Mother over coffee the other day, she gave me the look normally reserved for times I've done something on the level of car-wrecking or mass murder.

 

[igpoobah]

My kids got cap gun revolvers and a pump-action shotgun toy that uses little fake shells and makes a realistic shotgun blast sound for Christmas....

 

[AirForceShooter]

Just don't let your kids draw pictures of guns in school.

AFS

 

[Vermont]

I agree totally, I am 31 and remember playing cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians with those rather explosive and smelly rolls of little red caps,and toy guns without the stupid red plug in the end. While outside in the mud, and refusing to come in when my mom called or smarting off and getting my hide tanned.

I did the same thing 10 years ago. Well, we had to spray paint the red plug black, but that wasn't hard. We also walked around our neighborhood with a BB gun. It was a metal, all black, handgun. I'm surprised that we never got asked about it by the police. Of course we weren't stupid enough to point it at their car as they drove by, which is surprising in it's own way considering some of the stupid things we did back then.

That seem to grow up to be criminals, wusses, or even worse... liberals.

If you want to blame liberals for trying to take away your guns, go for it. I'm with you, but taking recent history into account, blaming them for censorship of television is wrong. When Bush was elected, the FCC started increasing censorship and enforcement of indecency regulations. In June 2006 (when congress was still controlled by Republicans) Bush signed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 which increased indecency fines tenfold.