Toy guns/weapons

I just think the only reason to have real guns and knives is to cause serious harm or death or war and all of those things are tragic.So why play with fake ones?

Paint balling and water fights are different in my eyes.

Cooking dinner for the family is not illegal or fatal (unless you’re a really bad cook) so to compare toy guns to a toy kitchen isn’t really right.

Presumably you never watch action movies, police shows, or anything where a character gets killed. After all that would be you finding those sort of things entertaining.

I guess you don't let them play fight either.

I don’t think toy guns automatically turn kids into school shooters, but I do believe they can encourage certain behaviors, just like some violent video games.

Saying that toys are just for fun misses the bigger picture—play is a huge part of childhood development, helping kids build cognitive, social, emotional, and physical skills.

Studies have shown that when boys play with dolls, it can boost their empathy. So, imagine the kind of influence a toy gun might have.😉

Why?

Does playing with guns make you likely to use them later on?

They must have bought some guns to their children to think it’s acceptable. yes, and?

I also bought them toy kitchens, I am not convinced that they are enough of an incentive to make them cook diner for the family later 😂

Don't buy guns if you don't want to, I judge people who buy cleaning appliance for their kids, but each to their own. Just don't get upset if your kid play my kids weapons when come for a playdate or a sleepover. When they are older, they seem to all love Nerve Guns, then they go on to paint ball. Big deal.

I fully accept that some parents don't want their child to have toy weapons.

I object to the very clear implication that those parents who do are, by definition, bad parents.

We have a nearly 5 year old boy and we don’t have won’t have toys guns or knives in the house.

Why should children be playing with a replica of something thats illegal unless you have a license?

Water guns are a different story as it’s very clear the aim is to get someone soaked.

OMG BigHeadBertha candy cigarettes!!! I remember them - imagine giving a child a sweet replica of a cigarette now, including a red bit on the end?! 😨

I also remember at infant & primary school (I started school in 1968) we would be asked to bring our father's old tobacco tins in to keep crayons in. They never imagined that our parents didn't smoke because most people did. I like to embarrass my uncles with pictures of them proudly holding my baby cousins with ciggies in their hands & mouths - their adult GC are horrified.

@MumbleJumble123 you are not being over-sensitive, these posters are bonkers.
Remember lots of posters on MN are Americans!

I've raised three boys without any toy guns in the house, they don't consider themselves deprived, and their bollocks didn't fall off! I don't agree with weapons as toys because I don't see emulating violence as much fun. But then again I didn't encourage wrestling with each other either, which some adults seem to think is an essential part of child development. My boys did play lots of imaginary games, and it's possible they used sticks or lego, but I don't regret not buying toy guns.

Sometimes I wish I can see the face of these posters. They must have bought some guns to their children to think it’s acceptable. We learn also with play. Guns are a HUGE NO!

I didn't allow DS to have guns, neither did most of his friend's parents. One day (aged about 7/8 he was playing with lego with a friend. They made guns & were 'shooting' each other with them. I said 'DS, DS friend, you know that your mummy & me don't like guns because the only games that you can play with guns are games about hurting people' to which DS replied 'they're not guns, they're water pistols' 🙃I have to confess that had trouble keeping a straight face at that. I muttered something about pistols being guns no matter what they fired & suggesting that we build a space station instead.

I didn’t want to buy DS toy guns so he made them out of Lego.

I feel like I have a different perspective on this now that I live in the US with the gun culture being what it is here.
When I was in the U.K. it wasn’t something I ever really thought about - toy guns/weapons were always banned on school dress up days etc and that was really the only time it came up.
My DH works in high level law enforcement. And while we are on US soil, he has to carry a gun every single day for work. The day we moved into our new house, he had the “gun talk” with the DCs. We have a biometric gun safe in our walk-in wardrobe that only opens in response to DH’s thumb print, and the DC’s know the rules: you don’t go into our bedroom without an adult and you don’t go into the wardrobe for any reason at all. DH got the gun out, showed it to them, let them handle it (unloaded of course!), took it apart, showed them all the parts and explained what they do and how they work together to make the gun work. He showed them bullets and explained how they work. He went HARD on the danger and ultimately what a gun is for: they kill people. It removed the mystery of it for the DC’s but also hammered home that guns categorically are not toys. My DS (he’s 8) has been to the shooting range with DH and seen target shooting etc and he does have NERF guns with little target set up in the garden. I have no problem with it now because after the real gun talk with DH, he fully understands that playing at shooting people, even with a NERF gun isn’t ok, but having them and shooting his targets? That’s very different.

Can't wait till my kids are old enough for nerf guns, then again when they're old enough to come target shooting with me and my real firearms.

I agree with you. The fact my partner bought one for his son (who then proceeded to “shoot” me in the face with it) makes me question him as a person. There’s really no need! Water squirters I’m ok with. But why anyway would want to see their kids pretending to kill other people - which is what giving them a toy gun is doing - beggars belief

I think the best thing to do is focus on it all being pretend and when someone is "shot" they aren't "dead" they are just out of the game.
Teach children to say "you're out" not "you're dead".
If that makes sense.

We just used fingers when there was nothing else we could use.

As a tomboy in the early 1960s with a brother and lots of boys in our road, we all played “cowboys and Indians” and none of us grew up to be involved in gun crime. One boy did join the army though.

Given real guns are given to children in America im absolutely fine with toy guns for play here. My DDs have played with them, laser, cap, nerf, water…. My 7yo dd has a very cute pink and white one to go with her Barbie cowgirl costume.

Ive never heard of anyone turning into a psycho from playing with toy guns as a child.

I definitely see why you don't like it. It reminds me of the candy cigarettes, kiddie cocktails, slingshots and other no-nos that were big when I was a child. Fortunately, those kinds of things are more rare than they used to be. So that's some progress, anyway.

However, I think kids also just tend to think grown-up things that they're not allowed to have are exciting. Of course they do. And if you make a big deal out of toy guns, you might just make it seem even more exciting.

I didn't let mine have toy guns but they'd run around the yard "shooting each other" with sticks or their fingers anyway. Of course I'm in the US where there's an entrenched, sick and idiotic gun culture. But my point is that mothers aren't the only influence. But we are still definitely a very strong influence. I'd just calmly keep them out of your kid's toybox and move on to the next horror lol. Good luck with it.

Even without having pretend guns or swords the urge to play "goodies vs baddies" does seem to be a thing.
When my daughter was in primary a popular game at playtime was Police Interceptors (the Channel 5 programme).
They would run around being the different cars - so obviously some were the criminals, some the cops.