A question for those who think playing with toy guns is okay?

[politicalcorrectnessisgreat]

Would you also approve of your child playing pretend drug taking? Or pretend rape?

I am not okay with my two DSs playing with guns. I asked my friend if she would be okay with her little boy pretending to inject heroine or snort cocaine and she said that of course she wouldn't.

I just don't get why people think it's okay to allow their child to pretend to kill someone but are utterly disgusted at this.

Anyone care to explain?

I let my 2 young dc’s play with water guns in the garden. You may think I’m an overprotective parent but I generally tell them to stop when they start pretending to inject themselves with heroin or play the well loved game of rape.

Good luck trying to stop your children playing with guns or playing some kind of shooting game ...pick your battles with your kids (in my opinion this one is not worth it)

What games do you allow your kids to play then op??

Guns are things you are legally allowed to use, in some instances.

Shooting up and rape are never legal. They're not comparable.

Where do you draw the line? No need guns, no water pistols. Nothing which might be picked up and pointed at someone with a 'bang' noise. Do you remove Lego as it can be built into gun shapes? Toilet roll tubes? Smartie tubes as you can fire a small missile out of the end by thumping it?

Catapults, bows and arrows?

It is absurd to compare them to drugs. Whilst I can kind of see where you are coming from, there is the whole point about drugs being illegal. Whereas you can demonstrate safe use of weaponry.

My eldest children are in cubs and from the age of 7/8 they can handle rifles and be shown how to fire them and be safe with them. I much prefer the idea of guns being demonstrated in a safe and controlled environment. That isn't going to happen with drugs is it?

Well a child shouldn’t be exposed to taking drugs or rape. But they may well be exposed to Olympic shooting, or shooting at ghosts/baddies in games, aware of cowboys etc.
I’ve worked with kids for years and the settings that don’t allow gun play the kids still do it with their hands or with sticks.
And my bil is very anti gun play and the first thing my nephews go for when they come to our house is the nerf guns whereas mine aren’t particularly interested. The amount of tantrums there have been when bil says they can’t play with them is unreal. I’ve always said if they found a real gun on the street they would be very likely to play with it.
Teach kids the difference between real and pretend - especially in places like the US where they are likely to come across the real thing. And teach them to play nicely - ie not pointing at someone who doesn’t want to play the same as I wouldn’t want them to be chasing someone with a stick against their will or bothering people in any other way.
But banning it makes it more appealing ime.

If you live somewhere with gun issues the. I understand why you might act like this.

Guns are used by respectable people like the police and the military who are often adults that kids aspire to. Many kids enjoy playing a good vs evil game whether it's sword fighting or cops and robbers. I believe it's been proven to be good for a child's development to consider the good vs evil argument

Do you judge kids who play doctor and "inject" their patient?

What about swords, knights and castles?

You do realise that guns don't only kill people and can be used for other things?

My son creates toy guns out of lego and stuff and runs around the house shooting nazis because he is an allies soldier. I really can't bring myself to disapprove so long as he does it silently. I recieved a charming lecture from him today about how nazis and communists are very bad even though the communists helped the allies but the allies are good because they only killed to protect themselves from the nazis while the nazis and the communists killed their own people which is very bad. Not exactly noble prize winning material but not bad for a four year old. Guns have far wider applications than criminality.

I think guns are accepted in our society whereas rape and drugs are not. If you watch Star Wars (u certificate) there is plenty of fun and sword fights.

There won’t be any rape or drug abuse though.

Okay nobody on here gets it, fair enough.
I think it is just socially acceptable then. Murder = life
Drug use = not long
Rape = just a few years possibly
Doctor injecting patient = legal

So, one is a more serious crime than the others yet in our society we have made it acceptable for children to play murdering. I don't buy the 'boys will make a gun out of anything' rubbish, only if they've seen others do it. Mine don't and my friends 3 sons don't either, they play ball games and Lego, but not killing each other Lego.

Like it or not there are socially acceptable times for killing. In war. In self défense. In defence of others.

Doing coke not so much. Heroin maybe as an anelgesic.

Bless you op

How old are your boys?

They might not around you OP but when they're at school they will.

Well round here guns are used for shooting pheasants mainly

My boys grew up playing with toy guns & I was perfectly happy to allow it. They have grown up into lovely young men who wouldn't hurt a fly. DH does a bit of shooting as a hobby and our boys were taught how to handle firearms safely from a very young age. One of them also shoots, the others have no interest. It's a totally different scenario to what the OP is suggesting.

How are kids supposed to practice pretend dieing if no one pretend shoots them?

I used to think that toy guns were wrong. We weren’t going to have them in the house etc etc. My son found sticks, rulers anything he could use as a gun and went ‘ bang bang your dead’. He played mechano, Lego, dressing up in petticoats and cooked too.
In fairness he carries a gun professionally sometimes and shoots very large guns occasionally but he’d consider himself aa maintaining global security, peacekeeping and providing humanitarian aid in some of the world’s most dangerous settings.
Definitely never thought about murdering anyone except his sisters and that was only when he was in primary school.

Well they’ll see other people doing it at school and it will be all the more exciting because you’ve banned it. Well done.

Okay nobody on here gets it, fair enough

No we just disagree with you

Dione
:)
Good point

My mate tried to ban guns. Then her kid nibbled his sandwich into the shape of a gun and used that instead!

So when my DS shoots a paper target, he's murdering it? When he shoots cans off a wall, he's murdering them? Gosh, I didn't realise!

Gets my child's toy gun out and shoots myself in the head.