toy guns

[Robert Hairless]

There are times when I'm filled with despair over what has happened to the people of this country. Now is one of those times.

Up until this generation it was common for kids to play with toy guns and to engage in makebelieve gun fights with each other. Parents and fond aunts or uncles would give toy guns to the kids in their families. Inventive kids would make toy guns out of wood, including rubberband guns that fired bits of cardboard.

Nobody worried, nobody was anxious, and nobody really cared as long as the kids had fun and didn't hurt anyone.

There's something seriously wrong with people in this generation. There's a lack of proportion and an absence of good sense in them. I'm afraid to imagine what they children they influence will be like as adults. Worse, I suppose.

You worry about strange things and aren't concerned about what you've become. Don't you realize that kids have been pointing fingers at each other and saying "Bang bang" for generations without causing the world to end or the Apocalypse to descend--and with far less random violence among children than exists today.

How can you possibly reconcile your strange concern about your nephews' play with the violent statement in your signature?

 

[Feud]

Teach them the difference between toy guns and real guns, then let them play as they like.

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

I didn't bother reading through all of the posts, but I said let them play...

And by saying "let them play" I also think it isn't a bad idea to have non-gun colors for toy guns(ie, not black). Just so they know it is a toy and not a real gun.

 

[JCMAG]

When I was a kid, I took my die-cast and wooden toy double barrel shotgun and broke it over the back of my brothers head.

He later pushed me down a flight of stairs.

While fighting with sticks, I cut open my right eye. It don't function right to this day.

I grew up to handle guns very safely, to always use the handrails in the stairwell, and (as an adult) I've never struck anyone out of anger, although I probably should have.

The important thing isn't to teach kids that toys = guns, because then guns = toys. Teach them that there is a difference between make believe and the real thing, the real thing and make believe.

At the end of the day, though, there are a lot more factors that just how you play with your toys. How your moral character is imparted to you by role models will have a substantial role in both responsibility and your destiny as an adult.

 

[toopercentmlk]

My mother never let me have any toy guns, so I made my own out of toilet paper and paper towel tubes and scotch tape. My creations varied from Terminator 1 style Lever action, double barrel shotgun, to AK-47 influenced automatic rifles complete with spare and removable magazines(one flattened paper towl tube.)

Since then, I've payed my mother back with a strong appreciation and almost fascination with projectile weaponry.

What's the moral of this post? As a child I have proven that if we Eradicate guns, and we will invent guns all over again.

 

[bwavec]

I do not see a problem with toy guns. I played with them while growing up, then transitioned into regular firearms as a young teen.

With that said, I DO NOT consider the current crop of airsoft weapons to be toys at all.

 

[OMGWTFBBQ]

If a kid can't switch modes from playing with a toy gun to safely handling a real one, I don't think (s)he's quite ready for the real thing...

 

[Soybomb]

There are times when I'm filled with despair over what has happened to the people of this country. Now is one of those times.

Up until this generation it was common for kids to play with toy guns and to engage in makebelieve gun fights with each other. Parents and fond aunts or uncles would give toy guns to the kids in their families. Inventive kids would make toy guns out of wood, including rubberband guns that fired bits of cardboard.

Nobody worried, nobody was anxious, and nobody really cared as long as the kids had fun and didn't hurt anyone.

There's something seriously wrong with people in this generation. There's a lack of proportion and an absence of good sense in them. I'm afraid to imagine what they children they influence will be like as adults. Worse, I suppose.

You worry about strange things and aren't concerned about what you've become. Don't you realize that kids have been pointing fingers at each other and saying "Bang bang" for generations without causing the world to end or the Apocalypse to descend--and with far less random violence among children than exists today.

How can you possibly reconcile your strange concern about your nephews' play with the violent statement in your signature?

I really don't see a correlation between my concern and my sig really. My concerns have nothing to do with politcal correctness or what society thinks kids should be doing with guns. As I sat on the couch and watched a 3 year old point a toy gun at people and pull the trigger I couldn't help but think it just might not be the best first lesson of firearms to give such a young child. If he were older and seemed to understand consequences, punishment, and proper behavior better I probably wouldn't of thought as much about it. I doubt I was the only kid who touched the burner to see why I wasn't supposed to, or at least something along those lines.

My own opinion isn't really formed on the topic yet. Right now I'd be inclined to say that I probably wouldn't give a child toy guns until they were old enough to go the range and use real guns as well. I'd want to see that maturity level where the child comprehends his actions and will follow directions. Perhaps its because I don't have children and can't appreciate their level of understanding of the world at such an age but I think if I had a 3 year old I'd want him to have more of the eddie eagle "don't touch, leave the area, get an adult" style training, and less experience treating gun objects as toys. I'd also take him to the range and try to show him why we respect real guns as soon as I felt like it was right.

The important thing isn't to teach kids that toys = guns, because then guns = toys. Teach them that there is a difference between make believe and the real thing, the real thing and make believe.

I can't quite put my finger on what I want to say but I think this comes the closest to what I have in mind. Isn't there a point where the kid in question doesn't fully understand this concept yet? From the time I've spent with my nephew I felt like he knew he had a toy but I'm not as certain that he understood the difference between real guns and toy guns. Until he does, should he be playing with toy guns?

 

[papajohn]

This politically-correct namby-pamby BS about toy guns makes me SICK. Kids need to use their imaginations, that's what they're FOR. If I had a nickle for every time I blasted an Injun, or a bad guy, or an alien, I'd be retired. By the time I was seven I had a hundred bullet scars, because the baddies didn't shoot as good as me. I knew the difference between toy guns and real guns because I wasn't an IDIOT.

I watched Superman every afternoon, and I didn't jump off the roof thinking I could fly. I watched Aquaman, and didn't drown in the pool. I watched the Green Hornet and didn't kill anyone with my blazing-fast Karate Chops.

Every year for Christmas I got a new toy gun, and some of them were DARNED realistic. I learned all about the 1911 from a platic copy that used plastic bullets, loaded into a magazine, and chambered by retracting the slide. Same for the M-14, flash hider and all. I wish I still had those guns, they weren't accurate but they were COOL. It all started with a Fanner 50, and I was lightning-fast and deadly out to six feet. After that, the plastic bullets turned left.

If a kid is too stupid to know the difference then he oughta be educated until he gets it. Or maybe he should just play with dolls. I bet the Gay Community and the ACLU would just LOVE that.

PJ the Curmudgeon

 

[Dksimon]

I grew up with toy guns but also with very strict "do not point them at anyone". Unless of course we were playing laser tag.

 

[TAB]

let them play.

I do think toy guns need to be made look like toy guns. I also don't think kids( before thier teen years) should be allowed to have airsoft and/or paint ball guns. unless they are under supervison, both of those can do real bodly harm( just like a BB gun).

 

[John828]

I had another thought on toy guns. Until December, I lived in Minneapolis in a neighborhood where crack and prostitution were the leading industries. One morning on a walk, I saw three empty blister packs that at one time contained three snubby revolver cap guns. My immediate thought was that some BG's were going to paint the orange muzzles black and use them for robberies (probably not too far off base either.)

Anyway, my only reservation on toy guns are twofold; 1) BG's may use them for nefarious purposes (But heaven help him if I defend myself; ) and, 2) a kid may be killed by a LEO if he is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That being said, I still think kids should be able to run free and wild if their parents have trained them right from the get go. In a perfect world (at least when I was growing up) parents could kick me out of the house at sun up, hose me down with the garden hose before dinner and bandage me up if needed.

 

[1911 guy]

I had toy guns as a kid.

I did, however, have limitations on what I was allowed to point them at. Any inanimate object or animal was fine, people were not. Playing "cops and robbers", etc. meant pointing fingers or sticks. Pointing a toy gun at a person and getting caught doing it was a guarantee that I'd never see that particular toy again. Ask me how I know this.

Even as a little kid, probably kindergarten, my Grandad (Dad wasn't around until I was in third grade) explained that one day I'd have real guns and I'd best learn to be safe then, than have bad habits to break later. I also wasn't allowed to have a BB gun. I was told, and correctly if my friends were any indication, that a kid will do stupid stuff with one that they'd not do with a real gun. I did, however, have a shotgun of my own (single shot 20ga).

 

[#shooter]

Ultimately this is a personal parental issue and I will respect what other parents teach their kids. Personally, I do not like the play style of cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, or war play (including video games) for children. I fail to see the value in play violence. Guns to me are like matches, both are dangerous and useful tools not to be played with. I don’t know of any parents that give their children fake matches and say “go play arson outside with your brother.” IMHO all gun play does is make actual firearms training more difficult by having to break bad habits.

 

[John828]

Being new to the forum and all, I hesitated before posting this but...what the heck.

Sometimes I get the feeling that some around here are a little "holier than thou," but in a "safer than thou" way.

Is gun safety first and foremost when handling a firearm? Beyond any shadow of a doubt!

I think part of what is wrong with our society is that kids are no longer allowed to be kids. "Wear a helmet...wear knee pads and elbow pads...no toy guns...etc., etc." A quarter of all boys are prescribed Rytalin for having Attention Deficit Disorder when all they really need is to put down the video game and go outside, climb a tree, and run around like a wild banshee!!!

Within a generation or two, we are going to "civilize" ourselves into a bunch of barbarians/zombies!

 

[Soybomb]

Or maybe he should just play with dolls. I bet the Gay Community and the ACLU would just LOVE that.

I apparently didn't get the email for the "gays for dolls" or "aclu for barbies" fundraiser. Just what is the link between sexual preference and playing with dolls?

 

[yhtomit]

This thread is making me think: I wonder if I should just start giving out metal airsoft guns as gifts to gun-phobic friends That might be the most practical way to get them to gradually accept the difference between objects and uses.

It's also making me think that whenever I see an *old* toy gun (and by old, I just mean before orange-tip legislation) in a thrift store or yard sale, I should snatch it up.

timothy

 

[Fish828]

if you let children use toy guns but make sure that they treat them like real guns, obeying all of the rules, then they will learn proper gun safety on a platform that can cause no harm before making the transition over to real guns as opposed to learning with a potentially dangerous weapon.

 

[CmpsdNoMore]

I didn't take the time to read all the posts, so I'm just going to say how I was taught and how I plan to teach my kids if or when I ever have any.

I was allowed to have toy guns when I was little. I used to go out in public wearing my holsters with little 3 inch metal "revolvers" and I had plastic cap guns as well as non firing toy musket looking rifles.
When I was younger I was told not to point the guns at any person or animal. When I was old enough, and I could understand the severity of what can happen from firearm misconduct, I wasn't restricted as much. I had a couple Super Soakers.

I never had BB, pellet or live firing guns until I was older, but it was mainly because I didn't have any way of getting into the sport.

When/if I have kids, I plan on giving them a BB gun when I think they're old enough to use it wisely and move up to .22 and larger calibers after that.
Always teaching them to be respectful and safety while shooting and being around firearms.

 

[dewage83]

ok i voted with limitations, people are getting shot from (people,cops, ect) after pulling fake guns. soo no people unless in an airsoft game but thats all the limitations i believe in.

 

[thorn726]

option three is EXCELLENT
and is exactly how my parents dealt with it years ago.

teach the kid that even a toy gun represents a real gun.

we could shoot each other in mock battle, but you did not just point it at mom's face (haha)

 

[Sniper X]

When I was a kid we all played with toy six guns, and lever guns. I never heard one story of any of my friends becoming a lunatic or having a gun related accident. I think it is a good idea to have kids have toy guns if they want them. If rules are set and followed.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

I "killed" my playmates and cousins a few hundred thousand times while growing up with every imaginable "weapon" available. Bows & arrows, six shooter cap guns, lever guns, Thomson subguns, M16s, plastic swords, plastic grenades, you name it. If it wasn't for me and John Wayne, Injuns would rule America and Germany would rule Europe.

Started playing with BB guns at 6 and received my first .22LR rifle at about 12 years of age. Didn't take long to get a second and third firearm. Kept guns and ammunition in my bedroom, completely unsupervised.

Managed to do both without mixing up real guns and toy guns.

Let kids play with toys. It is how they learn to be adults.

 

[theotherwaldo]

You can't stop kids from playing with toy guns.

Period.

You can teach them to be careful about things that they think may be toys.

It's like sex ed: It helps prevent horrible or embarassing mistakes, and should be done just a little earlier than you think that it's necessary.

Kids find guns. Your guns, your neighbor's guns, the guns tossed out of passing cars, whatever.

Let Eddie Eagle be your guide!

 

[MT GUNNY]

Parenting is the Key, I played with toy guns and I turn out alright.