why do some parents not allow toy guns?

[baskingseals]

dd was playing with her cousins, who had a friend round. they were playing an elaborate army game with nerf guns. friend particularly enthusiastic, dd said he got on her nerves because he kept on shooting her. mum comes to collect friend and tells my sister that she doesn't allow guns at home - not judging my sister, just stating a fact.

do some parents think that by not allowing toy guns they are minimizing agression?
does it work ie if you don't allow toy guns are your children less aggressive?

I just feel that unless I kept him in all the time, he will be exsposed to the concept of weaponry and fighting in some way at some time. It is a fact of human history. It is wrong and by goodness do I wish there was world peace and had never been such things as guns, tanks etc. He will learn about war and violence - either through school, media or friends. Will some of this result in him role playing, maybe. It maybe a way of learning, of dealing with what is an awful fact of life. I can disallow toy guns in my house and talk it through but I can't abnormally shelter him from concepts

Same with girls and sexualisation. I vow never to have magazines or barbies too. However she will be exsposed to it, unless I never let her out. All I can do is give her an inner confidence and talk about it.

Boys (and girls) playing with guns in a light hearted game is as harmless as girls playing with their dolls, it just seems to be a natural instinct to role play in this way however the one parent I know who forbid their son to play wigh guns found the opposite happened, he developed an obsession with them and ended up in the Army as an Artillery Specialist! It became the forbidden fruit. I think the worlds becoming slightly too PC.

Not sure it is about what the world is coming to: ime banning toy guns was a popular thing to do in the sixties and seventies. And fwiw mY greatgrandmother in the early thirties wouldn't let visiting children play with toy guns in her house because it made her uncomfortable. Her house, her rules.

I feel the same, I don't like seeing it, so I don't see why I should have to in my own house. It's like swearing: I accept that as my dcs grow older they are exposed to it, I find it very likely that my teen and pre-teen do swear when with their friends, but when I am there they can respect my feelings.