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?

Do you? I’m not sure that all the young people involved in gun or knife violence are always evil, or even have much intent. They do have access to weapons though, so something that would have be resolved in a punch up (which of course can also be fatal) now involves knives or guns. And of course live in a society saturated in violent imagery.

I just don’t see the need or the inevitability in perpetuating any of that in imaginary play. Like someone said uothread, cowboys and Indians is now frowned upon. I daresay our parents or grandparents would have rolled their eyes are anyone saying they didn’t want their kids playing at white supremacy.

You can buy a Lego meth lab a la breaking bad if anyone wants to expand their kids’ experiences

I don’t like toy guns myself but it’s a bit much to say that any kid playing with a toy gun is playing at murder. Shooting can be a sport - it isn’t always violent. And when I do see kids playing with toy guns it’s invariably along the lines of ‘lets shoot the bad aliens because we are space heroes’, not ‘let’s pretend to be serial killers and go on a murder rampage’.

Is wink murder ok?

Okay I'm hiding the thread as HQ won't delete it. Enjoy the laughs.
Yes, what a dhe HQ won’t delete your shame

Why would anyone answer such a stupid and nonsensical question?

Can't get worked up about toy guns. Completely different issue from drugs IMO.

My brother (now over 60) had toy pistols (with caps that went bang and a holster) as a small boy - most little boys did then. He also had an air rifle when older. Neither has turned him or masses of his contemporaries into criminals or homicidal maniacs.

In any case, it's common enough for kids to improvise a gun, with a suitably shaped stick or whatever.

Guns can be used safely and thus should be instilled in children. Yes they look great in
Movies but they just always be used cautiously and correctly. I have shot rifles several times, under controlled conditions. All rounds must be checked and double checked for safety. The rifle must he discharged when finished with and any safety features applied. It must also always be pointed down or towards the correct target. If you do anything wrong your ears will be ringing from being shouted at. Teaching children about gun safety is better than just banning gun play as that makes them risky and exciting.

@politicalcorrectnessisgreat

Okay I'm hiding the thread as HQ won't delete it. Enjoy the laughs.

come on, this was a wind up wasn't it?

but no thought over anti-feminists toys politicalcorrectnessisgreat?

Where do you stand on toy hoover, toy ironing boards specifically marketed for girls and not boys?

At least you can find pink hello kitty or glittery toy guns

My 4 year old never tries to pretend play guns because he has never seen one. He doesn't watch anything on television that would depict this, & we don't have any gun based toys.

I can only assume the same is true of his friends at preschool as none of them ever seem to play guns.

I don't know how children as young as 3 even know what a gun is.

They only pretend play something they know exists so you absolutely can insulate them from that, quite easily.

My 6 year old DD has a couple of nerves guns. We've had hours of fun shooting each other, but it's PRETEND. After all of that pretend play we like to go and shoot up a load of heroin You're being ridiculous OP. I think most children have had some form of pretend gin at some point, but they are hardly all drug addled serial killers are they?

Zombie thread!

Probably should shoot it before it gets anyone else.

@Racecardriver

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.

This is peak humble brag 😂

@DdraigGoch

Zombie thread!

Probably should shoot it before it gets anyone else.

Bollocks, I never normally get caught!

Now I think of it though, there are only 130 or so firearm deaths per year in the UK. There are however 1752 people killed by cars. I hope that the OP doesn't let her kids play with toy cars, doesn't she know that she's raising potential murderers!

Not really a fair comparison given that motor vehicles have lots of useful applications. There is nothing a gun does that's useful, that can't be done equally well by something else. All you can do with them is target shoot or kill/hurt people.

🙄. When we were kids everyone had toy guns. There wasn’t much else. We played cowboys and Indians all the tine. We all turned out just fine.

@pepeleputois

Possibly - but it is also from 2018

I had a toy gun as a girl. Also ate those candy cigarettes that used to be "a thing". I have yet to either shoot someone or take up smoking.

We don't really have guns, but I did support my dc pretending to be both pirates and vikings on a regular basis. To my knowledge they have managed to refrain from making anyone walk the plank in older life.

I personally don't like guns, but thinking about power and playing with ideas of being good or bad are totally normal for dc.

Because they're completely different things

We'll close this one now - it's a few years old and was just reenergised by a spammer.