From the article: Children Playing With Toy Guns
Toy guns have caused injuries and several deaths, but some parents still feel that a toy is just a toy. What are the rules in your household for toy guns and gun play?
TOY GUNS
- I do not feel that playing with guns is where the problem starts. Boys are naturally drawn to guns. If they are taught right, I don't think they are going to go about shooting people. Many years ago as a child, we played cowboys and indians. We had guns to play with as well. TV seems to be where most of the gun problems come from. A child should certaintly not be allowed to watch just anything on TV or play just any game on the computer. TV should never be a babysitter! If your children aren't taught about guns, you can be sure they will learn about them from other kids at school. Why not teach them correctly and allow them to play correctly. There a number of other toys that can be physically dangerous such as a baseball bat. You just don't allow them to play with the bat until they are old enough to understand how to use it. Now that we have been in war for some time, children have to be taught why Dad and Mom carry a gun. Don't lie to them....tell them the truth.
- —Guest BJ
Teach Gun Safety
- My brothers and I played with guns when we were litte. My father taught us gun safety from the start. You never point a gun at a person even if it is a toy gun. We never had an issue. So let them play but teach them safety from the start.
- —Guest Michelle
Toy guns
- my 2 yr old uses his finger or my inhaler as a gun,even though he has never seen or own a toy gun.I would really love to stop him from doing it but all my effort has fail.
- —Guest Nkoyo
Hoping to avoid them completely
- But I hear it's inevitable. I won't buy them because I don't think pretending to hurt someone is a game or fun.
- —Guest Danielle
Everything becomes a gun.
- I never let my eldest son see TV until he started with Barney around 2, and I definitely had no “guns” around. However, when he was around 2 1/2 yrs old every stick he picked up became a gun of sorts. I used to try to stop him, but that just increased his persistence and activity. He is now 10 1/2 and there are cap guns, nerf guns, and gun play video games (sans blood) everywhere. We talk about gun behavior and require that gun play NEVER point at a face, and preferably not a person. I would like to take him to a gun range for target practice, but haven’t. I think the training would help him realize that there is appropriate places and times. He has fired a real gun at a friends farm with all dad’s around. He loved it. Neighbor boys have the air guns and so he is adamantly requesting one. We have said not till he is 12.
- —Guest Melinda
Boys and Guns
- As anyone who has been the parent of a boy for more than 3 years can tell you, boys will turn just about anything into a gun--a stick, a paper towel roll, a finger, a puzzle piece. (Maybe there are some girls too, but I've never met them.) And then there's all the other weapons real and imagined, knifes, numchuks, swords, light sabers, etc. Trying to hold the line on weapons and boys is tough. We had an unofficial no-toy-guns policy in that we never bought them but if someone gave him an unrealistic looking water gun we let him have it. Fortunately our son was only marginally interested in guns. He liked swords and light sabers better (though whacking someone with a toy one of those actually hurts unlike a pretend gun shot). But really it is up to the parent to really instill values of non-violence. I am far more concerned about video games and TV shows that show what to do with guns.
- —Guest Holly