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Old 04-11-2014, 10:34 PM
 
Location: Fuquay-Varina
3,999 posts, read 10,804,431 times
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We often played with toy guns or imaginary guns as kids. It was what boys (and girls to a lesser extent) did and frankly, it was a lot of fun! On any given day we were explorers, police, warriors, robbers, cowboys/Indians, or heroes saving the world. As an adult I have never owned a real gun, nor had the desire to shoot someone. I believe stopping children from expressing primal instincts/fantasies leads to conflicted teenagers and adults.
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Old 04-11-2014, 10:38 PM
 
1,030 posts, read 1,569,323 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady View Post
I had toy guns when I was very young. I learned to shoot a .22 rifle when I was 8 (and I was somewhat behind most of my peers who had learned at about 6), I was taught to shoot a handgun by a Texas Ranger at 11 or 12. (Never quite got the same hang of that as the rifle, and still prefer a rifle, I'm just better with it.) We were also taught gun safety, respect for guns, and how to handle them and how NOT to handle them - took the "forbidden fruit" mystery away and made it just another tool, no more likely to be sneaked out and played with illicitly than a screwdriver.

When our first child was born in the early 1970's, being good hippies, we forbade playing with toy guns, as did all of the good hippie parents of the kids that our son grew up with. We both volunteered at a church day care for little ones, and we taught them all about how guns were B.A.D. We did own the original .22 rifle that my Daddy taught me to shoot all those years ago, but it was in pieces in three different rooms, up high, with the ammunition in yet another room, and we never used it - it was more along the lines of a family heirloom.

When our son picked up a stick and pretended it was a gun, we had The Talk with him. When I discovered him eating a piece of bread into the shape of a gun so he could play with it, I sat myself down and had a serious talk with myself. We decided that perhaps we were messing with something developmentally necessary and we should not let our ideology interfere with our son's development.

He doesn't have guns now (well, he does, but it lives at our house and he probably doesn't even remember having it). He's one of the most peaceful people I can imagine.

Our daughter got her own .22's, a pistol and a rifle, when we moved out to the ranch when she was 12. They were used for target shooting and varmint shooting (the latter mostly by me after she moved out - I believe in sharing the world with critters, but when a rattlesnake bites my horse or my dog, they forfeit the right to hang around the home place). Didn't hurt her any, either.
I think this is the crux of the matter; ideology. Kids simply don't view the world as we do. We shouldn't try to force our ideology on them when they are just kids doing kid things.
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Old 04-11-2014, 10:50 PM
 
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Cap guns, toy guns, water guns, BB guns, Airsoft & Nerf etc. DS had them all, now he has real ones including an AR, a shotgun, rifle and an assortment of hand guns. He loves to hunt and to shoot. We don't hunt but he and DH have spent hours shooting. I do not believe that toy guns lead to violence, I believe that role playing games is a way for kids to deal with their energy and for some their aggression.
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Old 04-12-2014, 01:16 AM
 
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When my parents first had kids, my mom sent letters to all the relatives that they would be raising their kids in a pacifist household and not to send violent toys. After the 2 oldest chewed their toast into guns and fought across the breakfast table, they relented with us youngers, and my brother that did nothing BUT play with guns is now a cop... Could be a connection...

For us, I don't like guns as toys even though my FIL is a collector and my husband grew up making his own bullets. We don't buy them, but they're not forbidden - if my son chews his toast into a gun, I die appropriately when shot.

But it often comes up that "Mommy doesn't like to play violent games" because they're dangerous and not nice, and it's fascinating to watch my son figure out the morality on his own. We were watching Frozen the other day and I got a long, thoughtful lecture on how it was okay for the princess to punch the bad guy in the nose because he was a bad guy, but even more so because he lied...so that's what made it okay because she needed to protect her family and show him he misbehaved, but otherwise punching is not a good thing. I gotta say, it wasn't a thought process we had consciously tried to teach him, but I'm pretty happy about it... =) (Not that I want him punching anyone...but the logic is pretty good...)
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Old 04-12-2014, 08:22 AM
 
Location: A coal patch in Pennsyltucky
10,256 posts, read 10,502,306 times
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I grew up in a small town in Western Pennsylvania in the late 1950s and 1960s, and playing with toy guns was the favorite pastime for boys. We played cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, and war games where we fought the Germans and Japs. Even though the Viet Nam War was going on, we were still fighting WWII because we would watch the John Wayne movies of the era and the TV show Combat. I remember one boy at the time who was not allowed to play with toy guns, and he was also not allowed out of his yard until he was around 15 years old.

It's amazing how attitudes have changed! The favorite boy's television programs of the late 1950s and 1960s were the Lone Ranger, Davey Crockett, Rin Tin Tin and Daniel Boone. In fact, there were so many Westerns with outlaws, gunslingers and Indian fights that you probably could have watched a couple every night. Anyone who watched TV at the time remembers shows like Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Death Valley Days, The Rifleman, Wagon Train, Bonanza and hundreds of others. These shows all involved guns and companies like Mattel sold toys based on these shows. Every boy wanted a leather holster set with two six shooters like the one below with the Greenie Stick-M-Caps and Shootin' Shells. See Mattel Shootin' Shell Toy Cap Guns, Fanners and other Mattel Toys for more examples of what was popular in those days.



We progressed from toy guns to BB guns and .22 rifles. I got both a BB gun and .22 rifle for Christmas in 6th grade. I remember we always allowed to bring one of Christmas presents to school and show it to the class. I took my Daisy BB gun to school that day and showed it to my classmates.

In the early 1990s, my children were all under age 9 and not as into guns as I had been. They did, however, have the Super Soaker squirt guns that were very popular at the time. My wife stored these guns in an old dresser in our basement. We had a neighbor boy who was 3-4 years old at the time who was obsessed with the "gun drawer." His mother forbid him to play with toy guns so he would sneak away from home though the two back yards that separated our houses and enter the rear door into our basement. The mother would be frantically looking for him and we would always know where to find him when she came to our front door. Her son would be contently playing by himself in our basement with the Super Soaker guns. She was appalled that we had such awful toys but she had difficulty keeping her toddler away from them.

I'm not aware that any of the boys from my childhood committed any crimes with firearms. I think that today's video games are much more violent. We would grow tired of running through the woods pretending to shoot at each other after an hour or so. Today's kids, teenagers and adults live in a fantasy world with video games where they go without sleep and other social activities to continue playing video games for countless hours and days.
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Old 04-12-2014, 09:53 AM
 
Location: North Carolina
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I didn't read all the responses. I have two children and I don't let them play with toy weapons. I don't think any child that does play with them will grow up to be a serial killer. I am just not comfortable with the way our society seems to normalize violence. A quick trip to IMDB's forums will show people discussing the "funniest" murder or rape or some other act of violence. I believe people are becoming desensitized to inappropriate behavior by what they see in movies and hear on the news.

My children get along very well and find ways to entertain themselves without being able to shoot each other with toy guns. The also find ways to argue and dislike each other sometimes too. I plan to take them both to a shooting range and teach them how to use a weapon when they are old enough, but, for now, they both know that guns and drugs are not "play" things and notify me or another adult (ie. at school) if they should see either in their vicinity.
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Old 04-12-2014, 01:55 PM
 
Location: Central, NJ
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My son is only 3.5 and I think too young for them but I don't know if we'll "ban" them. Maybe when I think he can understand things more he can have them. We don't watch what I consider to be violent shows but he is definitely all about good guys and rescuing. Cars 2 has ray guns on the cars and so do robots and even Buzz Lightyear. He holds a little flashlight he has and calls it his "shooter" now. And they're always pretending sticks are swords and guns so I definitely think it comes naturally.

I think nerf and marshmallow guns are annoying so I'm certainly not buying them. lol
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Old 04-12-2014, 02:02 PM
 
1,277 posts, read 1,922,248 times
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My son (born in '89) was really into the James Bond movies when he was about 11 years old. He had a toy Walther PPK gun which he wouldn't let go of for about 6 months. The James Bond phase passed and his toy gun was relegated to the bottom of the toy bin--never to be played with again. Before that, he slept with his Darth Vader toy light saber. Today, he has zero interest in guns (but still likes Bond movies!).
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Old 04-12-2014, 09:06 PM
 
19,957 posts, read 30,004,669 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by golfgal View Post
There was a 20/20 report done several years ago about kids playing with toy guns and playing "cops and robber" type games and the study showed that kids that played games like these were actually less violent, especially boys, because they had a healthy outlet for their behavior. It was very interesting. You can probably find it on their website. Kids will still make guns out of whatever they find--sticks, legos, their fingers, etc.
it also takes the mystery out of it....

you tell a kid...bad bad bad,,,you cant do it,,the kid is curious..


i had squirt guns as kids..

i grew up in a hunting family, so we were taught gun safety at an early age..when you grow up hunting, you are taught strictly to respect a gun,,,it is not a toy (a real one)
i went hunting at 14 yrs old,,

my son,,,always had squirt guns,,,i let him use my bb gun- i got him one,,we would target practice with that..
when he was 12 , i got him a 20 gauge shotgun.....for christmas,,,,we shot it off the deck - he could bring that hunting with us,,,in the coming fall..

my son now is 21, going to college,,,he has no guns,,,not a gun nut,,,no mystery about them,,,,he has a roommate,,,that was denied ever touching a gun growing up,,he wants to go to a range and shoot a gun,,,wants to know what its like..
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Old 04-13-2014, 01:26 AM
 
Location: New Jersey
16,849 posts, read 10,480,457 times
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Meh... We played with toy guns all the time when we were kids and neither I nor any of my friends ever shot anyone with a real gun and none were violent. I don't think violent toys/games make kids violent; though I do think that violent kids are often attracted to violent toys.
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