Do you let your children play with TOY GUNS?

Question

I have a home daycare and I do not allow guns. A good example why- I just had a 4 yr old boy start, who is allowed to play with toy guns at home and at his previous daycare. Even though I have no toy guns, he grabs anything (or even uses his fingers) to point at my dogs or other children and yell "bang, bang" and says things like "your dead" or "I'm gonna shoot you" or "I'm gonna kill you".

He quickly learned that the words shoot, kill and dead are also not allowed here (nor will they be at any school he attends in the near future).

Answer 1

That's sad.

I would never let my children play with toy guns... water guns sure, water is fun! i wasn't allowed to play with them. my mother and father weren't allowed to play with them... and they turned out just great. people are preparing themselves for what could be a huge problem in the future.

Answer 2

No, I'm not into toy guns or real guns, for that matter.

I realize that there are parents out there who do allow it, and that's fine. My children, however, don't have toy guns.

One day I was at the play area of a mall with my daughter. A young boy of about 6 was playing with a toy gun. He was going into the other childrens' faces and shooting them. If he had put that gun to my daughter's face, I'd have yelled. The parents of this child were just standing there, thinking it was the funniest thing. The highlight was when this child shot himself in the head and fell over. Yeah, kids play dead, but sad to say, this child was a bit too over the top.

Nope, don't like 'em.

Answer 3

Yeppers, in fact my daughter was using a squirt gun this during the celebration yesterday. ALL the kids were. My husband is a Police officer and a BB Gun is NOT a toy. It is a weapon and is classified as such, no I would not allow my daughter to use one unless it was out where she was only shooting cans or bottles. My husband actually confiscated two BB guns from the neighbor boys, they were shooting at neighbor's pets and other children. The parents of course wound up in court and the kids never got their guns back. Rule of thumb, if you can't teach your children responsibility with a weapon then they shouldn't have one in their hands. I view squirt guns as toys because they don't use bullets/pellets/bbs. But some of them CAN do harm. The one my husband has looks almost like an assault weapon. (children and their toys!)

Answer 4

I may be the odd one out but what ever happened to playing cops and robbers. Kids know the robbers are the bad guys and the cops are the good guys right? I don't think pretend is bad. Kids just naturally do it. I also don't believe that video games and movies cause kids to kill people. Just my opinion. My son had a cap gun when he was little. He probably had a cowboy set to. He has never harmed a flea and never got into any trouble. I don't think toy guns are bad..
Water guns still shoot people. Thats called "fun" but toy guns are not. Hummm

Answer 5

I am not a big fan of letting my boys play with them but I have gave in and bought them a few toy guns. The rules before they opened them were there was not going to be any gun pointing at people or house animals. My husband is a hunter and we will teach these boys to hunt so we have explained wht animals are to be hunted. If one of the boys points a gun at his brother they are grounded from playing with it until they can follow the rules. I have talked to them that guns hurt people and could easily kill someone. They have done very well with those rules.

Answer 6

I stopped letting my children play with toy guns when they began chasing each other yelling, "I'm gonna shoot you in the head!" and "I'm gonna kill you!" These, mind you, were water guns but still. My son who is 5 has started playing with guns but I have already told him that they will be taken away as soon I as I hear him say something toward his sisters. Now all I hear is , "I'm killing zombies." This, I am okay with. But, this day and age you can never be too careful. Keep for standards. No one can fault you for them.

Answer 7

I'd say its the fault of the parents and the previous day care facility to not instill some sense in him before allowing him to play with toy gun figures.

We always had toy guns to play with, but we were never allowed to pretend to shoot people. If you cant teach your child the difference between real life and pretend, acceptable behavior and not, then they have no business playing with toy guns.

My son is only 5 months old, but we already have squirt guns and things of that nature in his toys. Some day when he's older iam sure him and his friends will play cops and robbers or army or something. But becoming obsessive about shooting and killing things is something a child is taught or allowed to do.

Everything in its time and place, and in moderation.

Answer 8

I am 14 and my grandpa gave me a real gun when i was 4.
my mom keeps it hidden until i come of age and get a license.

i am allowed to use bb guns. but only with parental concent and supervision.

for a 4 year old do be doing that.... i would say everytime her does that put him in a timeout.

that type of thing worked for me.

he soon will figure out doing those things there are bad, and should stop.

if he grabs something take it away from him.

Answer 9

NO. The only type of toy guns I allow are water guns and I never used "bang bang" or anything else violent. Only a fun way to get wet.

Answer 10

Yes & No... I know that dont make any sence, but my son will get one for his bday or something like that and he will play with it for a few hrs and then when bed time comes it goes in the trash!!!! I dont like guns and he know that they will hurt you so he dont mess with them much... We can go to the store and he dont even look at them... Which is good... I also dont allow the words, "die, kill, shoot". So you are great there becouse those are things that kids dont need to be saying. I do allow my son to say dead because people do die and we tell him the truth so he knows if you die you are dead and you are in Heaven with our creater... But anyways back to the point my son does with them but he dont... On top of that GUNS DONT KILL PEOPLE DO...so u need to teach your child right from wrong....