Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think children shouldn't have toy guns?

182 replies

trianglesaregood · 08/05/2013 13:55

At the park this morning and noticed some pre-school age boys playing, quite aggressively, with toy guns. One looked like some sort of machine gun complete with toy ammo! I was a bit shocked as I didn't think anyone gave their kids these kind of toys anymore; none of my friends do and I wouldn't think it appropriate for my children. Am I living in a bubble? Wondered what others thought?

OP posts:
SirBoobAlot · 08/05/2013 13:56

Nope. YANBU. I hate toy weapons.

SPsYoniTheOneAndOnly · 08/05/2013 13:56

My son has a gun that fires foam bullets. He loves it and I have no issue with him having one.

FreudiansSlipper · 08/05/2013 13:56

ds does not have any

so he makes his own from lego Hmm

youmeatsix · 08/05/2013 13:58

we decided no toy guns for our son, so any pencil or twig did him, taking something with ammo to a playpark isnt on though, not all children enjoy rough and tumble

picnicbasketcase · 08/05/2013 13:58

Neither of my DC have ever had toy guns, and yes, as above, they make them out of sticklebricks, Lego and megabloks. It still filters in from somewhere.

Annunziata · 08/05/2013 13:58

It doesn't really bother me to be honest.

squoosh · 08/05/2013 14:00

I'm not that bothered either.

elQuintoConyo · 08/05/2013 14:00

I didn't have one (I'm a female) but I made one out of my Weebles' swing! I 'shot' my older sister a lot, which pissed her off Grin

I don't want to buy one for DS. Bubble guns etc = fine, guns that look like guns = fuck no.

yousankmybattleship · 08/05/2013 14:01

Doesn't bother me. My children have always had swords, disc shooters, nerfs etc. Don't see the problem.

HeySoulSister · 08/05/2013 14:01

we lived on a garrison...where my dc dad was an armed guard on the gate.....why shouldn't they play?

CoolStoryBro · 08/05/2013 14:02

My children love playing Nerf wars. They run around, they hide, they shoot each other. It's literally hours and hours of fun.

I'm really not that bothered. In fact, DH and I join in!

LadyBeagleEyes · 08/05/2013 14:02

If they don't have them they'll use their imagination, even with pointy fingers.
And that's boys and girls, I'm old but was brought up with little pistols with caps and we played detectives or cowboys people.
I assure you I'm a lovely peaceful human being.

HeySoulSister · 08/05/2013 14:02

do you feel the same way about naice wooden archery sets op?

PlasticLentilWeaver · 08/05/2013 14:02

Can't beat a good nerf battle with the kids Grin

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 08/05/2013 14:03

My DS loves his toy guns.....doesn't mean he is going to grow up and be a gun wielding maniac. It's what little boys like, why shouldn't they play with them? YABU!

HeySoulSister · 08/05/2013 14:03

and just the weather for water guns!!

5madthings · 08/05/2013 14:03

When ds1 was little I tried to have a no toy gun rule...another three boys later it has not worked.

Of they don't have toy guns they use sticks or make them out of Lego etc, they love Nerf guns and have a potato gun.

They know not to point them at people and its just play the same,e as their toy swords' light sabers and bow and arrow.

ElleMcFearsome · 08/05/2013 14:04

I was all anti-guns, then, as Freudian said, mine made them from lego, or as a last resort, out of their fingers (with accompanying 'bang bang' noises)...

ouryve · 08/05/2013 14:04

Mine don't have toy guns and even DS1, who is pretty inventive with anything he finds, doesn't make them.

Then again, he doesn't watch anything with guns in on TV. He knows what they are, of course, but doesn't see any entertainment value in them.

ElleMcFearsome · 08/05/2013 14:05

x-post with LBE Smile

DialsMavis · 08/05/2013 14:06

For me personally
Guns that look like guns= not OK (people still gave them to DS though, Angry ex mil

Nerfs, space guns, water pistols, bubble guns= OK

LadyBeagleEyes · 08/05/2013 14:07

I loved disc shooters even more than ds did.Grin

HeySoulSister · 08/05/2013 14:07

but they are still gun shaped!!!

LowLevelWhinging · 08/05/2013 14:07

yep, we started off as idealistic parents with a no gun policy. 7 years later and we have an armoury cupboard Shock Hmm

they blummin love it and it doesn't bother me.

aldiwhore · 08/05/2013 14:07

I don't like the idea of 'real looking' toy guns, I don't like the aggressive play that comes with it, I'd rather they played "Red Cross Aid".

Just because I don't like the noise, or the idea doesn't mean that it's a BAD THING. I don't choose to buy toy guns for my boys, but they make them out of sticks and play the same games.

I often think I am a massive hypocrite and I am. I have no issue with a lovely summer's day and children playing cowboys and native americans (much as I think the history is not glamorous and the 'Indians' shoudnt' ever be the baddies) but I would be miserable to see my boys playing "Attack Iraq: Let's shoot brown people" which could be argued is fundamentally the same thing.

I think my point is that children think differently to adults, they play and they need that wonderful basic story of 'goodie versus baddies' to explore their world... even if actually they are recreating violence and perhaps being incredibly innacurate both historically and morally.

I once banned all guns. They were then making swords, and there were far more injuries that day.