AIBU to give a pop-gun as a present?

[mrsm43s]

Thought my Xmas shopping was complete, but I'm having a bit of a wobble about a pop-gun rifle that I've bought for a friends 4 year old son.

Are toy guns (even wooden, vintage style pop-rifles) a no-go? I can remember being annoyed by a spud gun gift when mine were little, but that was because it shot little bits of potato around the house! This doesn't actually shoot anything, so no mess and no chance of anyone getting hurt.

Got a bit uneasy reading the thread about the boy playing with the gun, and actually it stirred memories of PFB moments I had about DS playing with guns, until I realised if he didn't have a toy gun, he'd just improvise and point a banana at you, or build a gun out of lego!

Would you have a problem with your child being given a wooden pop gun?

Give the gun, or charity shop it and buy something else?

Ask the parent first OP. Only way to be sure if they are ok with it

I have given these to my nieces, 7&9, my kids have received these too, lots of fun, if your unsure maybe as the parents?

Ask!

If my kids had been given something like that it would have gone straight in the bin. I'd ask the parents first then change it if they're not happy.

Personally I think a wooden pop-gun is pretty innocent; it's not like it's a replica AK-47 or something and I think most four-year-olds are more amused by the pop noise than the fact that it's ostensibly a gun.

However, the only way you can really know is to ask the parents - some parents would be absolutely fine with it and others might not. It also depends on whether you think they're the sort of people who would be genuinely annoyed at their child getting a gift they weren't hugely keen on, or whether they'd just give a rueful sigh like most parents and move on.

My thought is that a gun is a gun. A 1950s looky likey is still going to be waved about to pretend to shoot people in the same way a plastic machine gun would.

Some parents wouldn't like it. Ask :)

I'd throw it. You should check with the parents.