Shoot 'em up, bang...bang!

AKA2D '91 · #1 01-16-2002, 06:45 PM

Remember as kids, the boys would play cops and robbers with there toy guns? Remember when they boys would get their "B-B" guns and pellets? Sometimes, they didn't have guns, but would use a stick as their gun. I remember those days, but those boys didn't grow up to use the "real" guns as a means of "survival".

Should parents allow their children to play with toy guns or simulate situations like "cops and robbers" or "cowboys and indians"? Should stores continue to sell those packages of the gun, the holster, and the "play" bullets/pellets?

What are your thoughts?

ENDROAD · #2 01-17-2002, 01:47 PM

Yes, these items can be sold to the interested consumer. Some parents see no harm in their children pretending. However, I am not one of those parents. I do not scold my son for pretending to have a gun but he pretends with "other" toys. He uses his imagination and pretends with the guitar that we bought him or one of my hair rollers and a stick. He pretends to be a soldier or a policeman. There are no stick up games.

The reason why I feel that the toys can/should continue to be sold is because again parents should be free to make their own decisions.

My son wore Luvs instead of Pampers. I would have been upset if someone told me my child had to wear Pampers. So we cannot make the decision what toys another person's child should play with. As Americans we have seen the horror associated with guns and I feel that these toys should not be so "realistic." Again I think that a child's most used play thing should be his/her imagination.

AKA2D '91 · #3 01-17-2002, 06:55 PM

I know many who will not allow their child/ren to play with guns or simulate playing with one.

Since there is so much GUN VIOLENCE in OUR community, is this issue not an important one? Aren't we the ones most affected from gun violence?

FuturePhD · #4 01-18-2002, 10:33 AM

While I am not yet a parent, I do have strong feelings about this topic. When I was in high school, one of my friends was accidentally shot and killed by another young person who was playing with a gun.

I grew up afraid of going near a gun and I probably wouldn't know what to do with one if I had it in my hands. There were no fake guns in my household (except for waterguns) and neither me or my brother played gun-related games. I don't know where these kids are getting guns, but if there was a gun lying next to me, I wouldn't touch it except if my life depended on it.

I think toy guns reduces the seriousness of real ones and doesn't allow kids to think of the consequences of playing like that. I won't allow my children to play with toy guns, and I think they should be banned. It may not be my perogative what other people let their children play with, but it is my business if my child gets shot by some kid who's parents didn't teach them the difference between a real gun and a fake one.

ENDROAD · #5 01-18-2002, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by FuturePhD
It may not be my perogative what other people let their children play with, but it is my business if my child gets shot by some kid who's parents didn't teach them the difference between a real gun and a fake one.

I certainly don't think that 9 out of the 10 children who use a gun to kill someone thought it was fake. Case in point a three year old recently killed his police officer father . The father came home from duty and was in the kitchen with his wife. He had taken his weapon off and laid it on the table or counter. The three year old picked it up unnoticed and shot the father in the chest. The couple have another child (a five year old) and one on the way. The officer was fresh out of academy and 22 years old.

It was a mistake. Realistically we cannot think that EVERYONE will agree that allowing your child to simulate gun play is a bad thing. Again I say My son does not play with real or toy guns but he does simulate the play with everyday toys and other things. He is being imaginative. I cannot watch him play all day long. I can control what he plays with.

This is obviously a epidemic in our communities and has been for some time. The answer is continued education in the homes and schools and monitoring of children's activities. Don't just pay attention to your own child take the time to mentor the neighborhood children too. Tell them it is not a good idea to play with guns. Tell them over and over again. My son's prekindergarten has a written policy on gun play. They say to these 3 and 4 year olds "We do not play with guns at St. XYZ Day School. Children have a large influence on their parents and if a child says to their parent "I don't want to pretend to play with guns,I would rather you buy me a toy car instead of a water gun" then you have at least saved one child from a possible accident.

I think this is a good topic and I hope that those who post and those who just read will make an effort to say to at least one child today or this week, "Guns are dangerous and I really want to see you grow up so please don't play with guns."

gentleness08 · #6 01-18-2002, 12:40 PM

I have a 3 year old daughter and she sometimes come home from daycare saying "Pow-Pow" because I think some of the kids at school play "pow-pow", although they don't have toy guns at school. It really alarms me, when she does that because I really don't think kids at that age have good understanding of the difference between toy guns and real guns. They don't understand that a gun can kill.

I always reprimand her for playing that game. I tell her that I don't want her playing "pow-pow" because guns are dangerous and they really can hurt a person. I continue to explain this to her because I want her to understand this, so if for some reason she is exposed to a real gun, she will not touch it. She will know it is dangerous (no, we don't have a gun in the house), but you never know if somehow she could get exposed to a gun at sometime away from home.

Any child in my family that I see simulating gun play, I reprimand them (not in a mean way) and let them know that guns are toys. I tell them not to play that game and to play something else.

I really think that toy guns are not a good toy, and I would never buy them.

Kimmie1913 · #7 01-18-2002, 02:00 PM

As a child my parents made a decision not to buy toy guns for my brother. Being the imaginative kid that he was, he turned everything he could get his hands on into a gun. It was a game to him and he could imagine a gun like he could imagine a spaceship or anything else. Preventing him from playing imagination games became a fruitless effort and education became a focus rather than controlling his play time.

This is a debae that has gone on for years but I wonder how significant the correlation really is. Like the three year old, many shootings involving kids and guns are a matter of opprtunity. Short of instilling an actual fear of guns in to a child and all the children they will ever be around, I am not sure that banning toys and games is they way to make the difference. Or to keep them from gun violence later on. There are a whole other list of things that bring kids to committing crimes than what toys they played with.

Steeltrap · #8 01-18-2002, 02:18 PM

When I was little, my sister and my parents also decided not to buy my nephew toy guns. He's only three years my junior, so he was practically my brother.

I rode him mercilessly when we were kids. I called him a sissy and all that because other boys in our neighborhood had guns.

Today, however, I'm very happy that his mother and grandparents did not buy him guns. I'm also not sure if there's any correlation between toy guns and later gun violence, but I have a hunch there may be a little something there.

ST

novella000 · #9 01-18-2002, 02:42 PM

i don't buy my son guns to play with... nor do i allow him to simulate with other objects...

When we see guns on TV, (and he does, as lots of boys do, think they are cool), we usually end up having a a discussion about how guns are only for the army, and the police, etc.... he understands that these are people who are VERY grown up, and don't really mean to hurt with the gun, unless there is a lot of bad stuff going on.

He kind of gets it...
I bought him some army men (you know the green ones, that come 100000000 in a pack for $0.75???

), to satiate the desire for the good guy/bad guy play he likes to emulate from television... The plastic army men have guns, and he can act that stuff out, without being the agressor, per se.
Consequently, he identifies guns with a specific purpose... He knows that they are not for him, but for grown ups who have certain JOBS. I do watch him/LISTEN while he plays. If I don't like the way he's going, I gently intervene and redirect...

I am not sure how I feel about the idea that stores should be prohibited from selling toy guns... ???
Let me ponder on that... good question.

prayerfull · #10 01-18-2002, 04:49 PM

I don't buy guns of any form (water gun, laser guns, etc.) for my kids because I don't want them to think that guns are "play things".

I also get very ticked off when people buy my kids toy guns of any form (even water guns) without asking me first if I approve of that gift.

Kids are kids though, and my kids will simulate playing with a gun with any object (pencils, sticks, bats, etc.). I don't encourage them to do that at all, but don't really have much of a problem as long as they don't point that at someone and make shooting noises.