Is it ok to give your son a toy gun?

Question

Some people say it promotes violence in young children. I just want to know what you guys think.

Answer 1

I think it is ok. I would wait till tell were at least five or six. And explain to them the differences between a real gun and a fake one beforehand. I would tell him that real guns kill and toy guns sometimes look like real guns. That's what I told my son. I was opposed to him having toy guns. Then like my brother told me, if he don't play with them when he is little, he will play with them as he gets older. Which is more dangerous? Before I let my son have a play gun, I sat him down and told him he wasn't allowed to aim it at a person, or pretend like he was shooting a person. He now understands he difference between real and rake guns, and he knows how dangerous the are. Where as before hand, he man not have until he was exposed to a real one and done something stupid.

Answer 2

I have found that among my students, the kids that are most prone to violent acts are those students that have not grown up around guns, but have been exposed to both violent TV programming and violent video games. If you look at your parent's generation or your grandparent's generation both of which were more than likely exposed to toy guns, their generations have not been plagued by the levels of social violence that we see today. Based on these facts I think it is safer to say, that exposure to violent video games, TV, movies and music than exposure to toy guns.

Personally, I see giving a child a toy gun paramount to the first step in firearms safety if it is used wisely. Giving a child a toy gun and leavin it at that is inviting violent behavior. Yes, when I was a child and had a toy gun I played such violent games as "soldier", "cowboys and indians" and "cops and robbers", but I was also taught there was a difference between toy guns and real guns. I was taught to treat every gun, real or toy, as if it were real. My family also emphasized that what a gun does can not be changed after the trigger has been pulled. This is how I hope to expose my children to guns and gun safety. It is wiser to instill respect for firearms than fear of firearms. If you wish to give your son a toy gun, teach him firearms safety as if it were a real gun. See link below for the ten commandments of firearms safety.

Do we plan on giving our *daughter* (and any future children be they boys or girls!) a toy gun? Yes! Along with that toy gun, though, she will be given the foundation for a lifetime of firearms safety. To keep her toy gun, she must use it responsibly. Should she point her toy gun at anyone or the dog she will lose the privilege of a toy gun. Learning gun safety is like any other learned skill. Safety is not an accident. We plan on using toy guns to teach our children how to be safe.

Bound and Hubby.

Answer 3

I had six shooters and double holster when I was five, back in 1960, and I was a girl. I think it is fine, as long as he doesn't learn to pistol whip anyone. Anything can be used to hurt another person, chairs, a table leg, a pen in the eye. I live in Montana and most boys learn about shooting real guns so they can take hunter training when they are twelve.

Learning that guns aren't toys is important.
toy guns are toy guns, but guns are real.
I think that violent behavior in children starts with lack of respect for others, not from having a toy gun.

Answer 4

Yes its ok. My daughter and son both have toy guns. I grew up with guns, both toy and real and I'm not a psycho who goes around shooting people. I just bought my daughter a bb gun for christmas and she loves it. It stays put up when I'm not home and she doesn't shoot it unless I am right with her. Toys do not promote violence, not disciplining your kids and letting them get away with whatever and fight all the time promotes violence. Let kids be kids.

Answer 5

I think it is OK that you can give your kid a toy gun. At present, my 3-year-old has "monster issues". He thinks that there are monsters under his bed, in the closet, and around dark and spooky corners in his bedroom. The Monsters-Under-My-Bed thing is something new that recently popped up. Maybe from watching too many Halloween cartoons. Anyways.....

So I went down to the K-Mart and I bought him one of those electronic GI Joe .45 caliber guns. That night when I was putting him to bed, he started in with the monsters. I pulled out the gun and I told him that this was for killing those monsters. It gave him a sense of power, that he was in control of the monsters.

We haven't had a monster problem since.

Boys have an affinity for guns. It's hardwired into their brain. They can, and will, take a stick and pretend it's a gun.

They will play Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Chivalrous Dragon Slaying Knights, etc. Boys are naturally violent. Guns, toys or otherwise, won't 'make' them violent.

Answer 6

ABSOLUTELY!

Toys are how children learn lessons about the real world. Its how you show him that the toy gun is just a toy, that real guns are dangerous and should never be touched except by adults.

If you shield your child from dangerous things, someone else is going to teach him about those things. Do you trust whoever that might be more than you?

I teach my nephew how to punch, kick, knock someone down, shoot, he knows how to put on a rear naked choke that will make a grown up pass out, but...he also knows that those things are ONLY for sport and fun with a partner who is willing to play along.

He has never hurt another kid, because he is taught responsibility along with it.

Its just an anecdotal theory, but I'm willing to bet a lot of the kids that accidentally shoot a friend, were never taught about guns and gun safety. If they were, they would know boundaries.

Answer 7

I don't know about son but my daughter had toy guns...I had toy guns. It isn't WHAT they play with that promotes violence..it is what they are TAUGHT in the home. Although we played with guns as children neither my daughter nor I have the need to own one as adults...

Answer 8

I do not think it promotes violence, i mean come on kids likes to play cops and robbers and how can you play if you don't have a toy gun?

Answer 9

I don't know. But what I do know. Is that I grew up playing cowboys and indians in the backyard with boys who had toy guns. And not one of those boys killed anyone. It did not make them violent men. They are all fathers today and work in the military. I think it depends on how they are raised. And if they have something wrong in their brains (like major chemical inbalance). I don't think toy guns have anything to do with it.

Answer 10

you won't like it, yet each little boy performs with toy weapons of a few variety. if your youngster would not play with toy weapons, the different boys will think of he's a nerd. that's the two Nerf or Nerd. Your determination. (heavily now, Nerf is in basic terms some vast stupid plastic and foam rubber component that would not look something like a authentic gun. that's no vast deal.)