Toy guns

[mintmagnum3]

So I have a 7 year old boy who is very much into role play.
He got a police kit for Xmas which he absolutely loves and gets a lot of enjoyment out of. He also likes playing soilders and with his little boy figures.... all of which come with toy guns.
He also loves minecraft and roblox (age appropriate and monitored before anyone jumps on me!!) and all the boy gaming world.

Since he's had his police kit, which is designed for age 3 plus, he's really enjoys playing "battles" and bad guys with his guns that came with it.

Part of me is feeling very uncomfortable with this. Where do I even draw the line? How do I even draw a line? They all do it at school and even when I buy toys that are completely appropriate for his age, and his younger brothers age, they are all based around this!

Am I being too uptight? How do other mums on here approach this?

It's a nightmare, isn't it? Even if you don't give them guns, they use sticks or fingers to shoot.

I've sat DS down and explained that guns fire hard metal bullets that go in people's bodies and kill them, and that's why I don't like him playing with them. That it's alright to play 'I got you' type games but in real life, shooting is very bad and serious.

We also have discussions about what makes a bad guy, if someone does something wrong does that make it ok to shoot them etc - trying to link it a bit to bullying and friendship issues. Eg if someone is mean you could try to work out if they're upset rather than labelling them 'bad'.

You can also go down the route of bow and arrow, velcro darts etc where you still get the phallic missile element but avoid the violence overtones a bit! Paw Patrol used to have shooting that was catching people in a net, but my 4yo says he's too old for that now so I guess your 7yo would definitely be too old!

They're children, you let them play and use their imagination, join in with them. Once they get older and if they start getting interested in more violent games or games based around weapons, that's your opportunity to ensure they understand the dangers, even with toys guns.

I've always had an unwritten rule about no toy guns that look like real guns.
So water or nerf guns etc are fine because it's essentially a form of sport - not replicating killing people.
But it is hard to avoid the role play of real stuff - police, army etc.
You need to start teaching that real police/soldiers only ever use their guns "at work" and they have to be specially trained and British police don't use them (in general).
Children can still play at being police without guns.
When my daughter was in primary school there was a craze for playing "Police Interceptors" (as in the Channel 5 tv show). It was essentially a game of chase. But because UK police don't have guns there wasn't any of the pretending to shoot because that didn't happen in the TV programme.

The way I look at it is I cant control what happens in other peoples houses and I know that DD plays with kids at school who will have toy guns at home and that some of the kids play shooting games at school, I don't like it but I cant do all that much about it.

So we've always made it really clear that guns are dangerous and can really hurt you or even kill you and because of that we don't believe that they should be toys or that shooting people should be a game and that's why she doesn't have any toy guns at home and mummy and daddy won't buy them.

Early Years teacher here. Once children hook onto gun play it’s very hard to unhook them, in my experience. As a PP said, they will use anything and everything to make a gun. There’s an interesting article here as to how gun/weapon play can be beneficial and I agree with it. https://tactyc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/We-Don’t-Play-Guns-at-Nursery-Why-We-Need-To-Talk-About-Weapon-Play-in-the-Early-Years.Amy-Perkins.doc#:~:text=It%20is%20not%20just%20social,encounter%20in%20their%20real%20lives.
It’s uncomfortable for some adults because we are aware of the real life devastation caused by weapons, however for children it is basic conflict/chase/resolution play. Within the classroom the problems arise when the play fighting causes problems so we discuss it in terms of all
games having rules and therefore setting boundaries. Namely, no shooting at people who are not playing the game and no actual touching!

My niece aged 6 at the time took the arm off her large Barbie (it regularly came off anyway) and with perfect comic time took aim at us as if it was a gun saying "I'm armed". They will always find something to use as a weapon even if it's just once. I wouldn't buy something and would educate on the reality in an age appropriate way of it's a regular thing but other wise would be neutral and not make a thing of it and it will pass. My niece never engaged with any form of violent games or play etc and aside from the occasion I don't think she did any other for of gun play

I didn’t allow gun type toys till mine got a bit older and only gave in as it became obvious they would use anything and everything as a pretend gun . I wouldn’t worry too much