Toy Guns

[meh_too]

Would you allow a 4 year old boy to play with a toy gun?

[freddie*rooster]

Yes I did,  he bought it with his own birthday money. It only lasted a short time because he decided to point it at me after me telling him not to.

[cosmosgrove]

I tried the whole not buying guns for my son, very difficult when his grandfather is a sporting shooter and his uncle was a policeman, every thing he was given was turned into a gun. Think golf clubs, brooms, tennis racquets etc, it seemed safer in the end to let him play with toy guns. 

But in our family you're not allowed to point guns at anyone even toy guns. I never understood a friend's reasoning for not letting her sons play with toy guns yet violent video games were allowed from a very young age.

[*crikey*mate*]

sure, if they wanted to - Cowboys and Indians was a great past time kids' game - had bows and arrows too.

it's not something they took into their teens.

They all learned to use stock whips too - doesn't mean they will grow up and be interested in S&M

2 of em are also learning how to rope steers - doesn't mean they will grow up to be into bondage..

[*crikey*mate*]

oops - one of the crikeys now does like to do archery.....

def shouldna let him play with those bows and arrows when he was a kid, eh?

and they all did fencing for a few years

[cherry*135]

No, no toy guns in my house. 

[crystal**flake]

When our kids were small, they had reasons to play with guns.... they watched movies about cowboys, tv shows like The Lone Ranger, Zorro..... today's children don't get that.

Very true.  My kids didn't play with guns cause they never asked for one but they did play with the water ones.

[i-need-a-martini]

I didn't buy guns for my son and discouraged others from buying them for him.  I did let him play with gifted water pistols on rare occasions.

It just seemed wrong to me to have a child playing with a replica of a weapon that could kill people ... a sweet little innocent child saying "bang, bang, you're dead".  

However, he would pick up a stick and make a gun toy out of that.  

And, now, he plays games on his computer that involve shooting people ... 

I relate to that.

I was really anti toy guns (as well as sex biased toys in general) but my son used to turn everything into a gun as soon as he could walk. I have no idea where it came from as we don't watch anything violent and there was no-one around him who would have taught him that.

It must be just 'in' some boys.

I also refused to buy him war related toys. So when Action Man was all the rage I bought him a Ken doll instead. It was Movie Ken really sweet with real hair and chinos. 

My son refused to play with him.

Then someone bought him an Action Man and I was pleased to see he started playing with Movie Ken at the same time. Until it was pointed out to me that the only reason he played with Movie Ken was so that Action Man could shoot him in a battle. 😐

And as Katy says, now he plays 'shoot em up' games on the computer. X-(

[*notatroll]

I used to blow up my plastic toy soldiers with crackers I got from the general store when I was a kid.That was the name of a small shop run by some really nice Chinese people back in the 1960's

[2106greencat]

I honestly am not a believer in the theory that movies, games, toy guns etc have any sort of detrimental effect on kid's.

If you are raised with values and morals then you know what is right and what is wrong, what is real and what is make believe. In saying that, I am not insinuating that if you are not brought up in that way that you will be a nutcase,  just that You decide what You will do later in life.

If one day someone decides to do something violent, I think it is inside them from the beginning, some kind of internal thing that no one else can be blamed for.

It is hard to put into words what I am trying to convey, but as an example - people that go on a shooting spree in a public place - they can not be normal, seriously, and I don't think playing with a toy gun or a barbie doll when you are 4 years old is going to determine the actions of that child later in life..

[polksaladallie]

Having had a loaded gun pointed at me on more than one occasion, no.