Toy guns: yay or nay?

[TabascoNatalie]

I've recently been in a debate, where mothers were absolutely agains little boys playing with toy guns.
as for my family, my ex-military husband would think i'm crazy if i said "no guns, no tanks, no fighter jets at home..."
so we have everything

so, what you say?

[IADad]

The biggest problem I have with toy guns is pointing them at each other. I'm fine with toy guns, or playing with thing like guns (yard sticks, sticks, umbrellas) as long as they are "shooting" them at targets or imaginary or toy foes... I think there's much to teach kids about responsible handling of weapons so just keeping them away from them does little (especially, since even if you have a strick "no gun" rule, they are going to play with them at friend's houses, arcades, and even vvirtual guns in games. I'm mus rather devote that energy into guns are serious, there's no taking it back once you've shot.

Since you metioned fighter planes, I have an interesting side note that's related:

Did you ever notice on "Little Einstein's," that there is a "Vilain" that is called "Big Jet?" Interestingly enough, the Einstein's rocket, is cartoony and make-believe, but "big Jet' (who is evil) looks pretty realistically like an F-15. There's no need for that, they could have drawn an "evil nemisis" of a plane without making it look like any real plane in particular. I wonder how the people flying those planes feel about covering the butts of the writers of that show. I wonder how a child of an F-15 pilot or crew member feel's about Daddy's plane being called evil...or did these people even think at all?

[TabascoNatalie]

now there's a big wave of radical feminism+pacifism = disarm the boys

i guess i'm even more readical feminst -- i feel that girls should play with guns, as I did... but i have boys :P

i think radical pacifism is going to backfire.

if i refuse my boy the toy guns... he'll be dreaming of them , and thinking how bad his mother is. plus there's plenty of material to make guns of...

so i'm very pro-gun mother

[Rosa]

Ours don't have any because I can't trust Flynn with anything bigger or more dangerous than a tea spoon and even that is risking it.

[Xero]

To be honest, I don't have anything against kids playing with/owning toy guns. Even Eli has a couple toy guns, and he'll point them at us and say "boom boom!" lol and we'll go "Oh no! Ya got me!" and I think its funny. He doesn't get it right now, and when he's old enough to understand I'll explain to him how dangerous a real gun is and the way his dad likes guns, he'll more than likely be taught how to shoot one pretty young and how to handle one properly, and with care. BF likes to go out back and shoot the wood chucks. I can imagine he'll let Eli try to help him someday or take him hunting. I figure once he sees what a gun does to an animal, he'll probably have a good understanding of what would happen if he shot a person with one. I think its very important for kids to UNDERSTAND guns, past the fact that they are "bad" and not allowed to be touched or pointed at people. But I'm not too crazy about it right now because I'm pretty sure my 2 year old isn't going to sneak out at night, search my neighbors sidestand table and shoot up the preschool down the street. So I let him have his innocent fun.

My mom however was/is completely against guns as toys, and none of her kids have ever been allowed to own any.

I am a VERY strong believer, however, of always having your guns locked up tight when you have kids in the house if you own any. Gun safety is very important to me and any and all guns owned by my family will always be completely locked up. I'm not about to take any chances like that.

I really get a kick out of it when Eli picks up the hose attachment for the vacuum cleaner and throws it over his shoulder and uses two hands to pretend to shoot it at us, and it looks like he's got his own baby sized bazooka LOL. Nobody showed him that either he just picked it up one day. He's around a lot of people that play video games, I know for a fact that's the culprit. haha

[Cthru]

My michael has toy guns.. daddy likes to hunt and would some day like michael to be his hunting buddy.

On the flip side - yesterday there was a pre-teen in the neighborhood who had a BB gun (maybe a rubber pellet gun - not sure) he was obviously up to no good with it. My husband came inside from the garage and asked me to call the local non emergency police line as this kid was acting sketchy hiding behind trees and aiming it between two houses.. then shoving it in his pants acting like some kind of gangster. Well by the time I got the phone 3 cop cars were already pulling into the culdasac and at their door (we think he shot a car?). There was quite a scene over there. In the end I think they took the gun and gave a slap on the wrist - maybe even fined the parents. So I guess in situations like that, you have to consider where your kid is at mentally and behaviorlly and judge if they'll be set up for big trouble with something like that.

[lizzy_09]

My nephew, Zach loves to play with his water pistol. He kind of pick this up from his dad since my brother loves to hunt. Have nothing against this either. Plan to teach him about the responsibility about this as well.

[TabascoNatalie]

i'm kinda afraid of those airsoft rifles etc.
back in my country,we had no sorting of "toys", and there'd be an airosoft rifle (a replica of AK47), Made in China, and sold as a toy (where you could actually KILL an infant or an animal with it)
I had one like that, so i know what i say.
i wouldn't like my boys having "toys" like that

[mom2many]

I have no problem with them, we are a hunting/gun enthusiast(sp?) family, so limiting toy play would really be silly in our house. We use them as learning tools, since firearm safety is also a big thing in our house.

We own a few airsoft guns, all the little ones have one and Lupan has one, but they are the cheap kind and don't hurt if you are hit with them (i was hit, so I know ) we have a little target area so they can shoot them and they have to wear safety glasses at all times.

[Xero]

Originally Posted by TabascoNatalie

i'm kinda afraid of those airsoft rifles etc.
back in my country,we had no sorting of "toys", and there'd be an airosoft rifle (a replica of AK47), Made in China, and sold as a toy (where you could actually KILL an infant or an animal with it)
I had one like that, so i know what i say.
i wouldn't like my boys having "toys" like that

You can't kill anything with any airsoft gun. My BF and his cousin have the biggest collection of airsoft guns you'll ever see, ranging from the cheap ones to the most expensive you can get (and they look incredibly real) and we fight with them all the time for something to do, and I've been hit with every kind (as have they) and the cheap ones are annoying but don't hurt at all really, and the expensive ones with Co2 power in them hurt like HECK and I've actually been shot in the face point blank with one and it left a huge welt on my cheek. Even the most powerful airsoft guns can only really leave a nasty welt even when shot at a person right up close, and that's the extent of it.

Of course, I wouldn't reccomend shooting babies or animals with them, as they could probably really hurt them (a baby especially) and I would always be worried about the prospect of the shot landing in an eye or something (plus that's just MEAN), but there's realistically no chance an airsoft gun of any type can KILL anything. It MIGHT knock out a bird though... lol but he'd get back up.

BUT you have to be 18 or older where I live in order to purchase airsoft guns.

So if you've got some annoying chucks in your back yard, don't take your airsoft gun out to kill them. It wont work. lol