Did your kids play with toy guns?

Question

Did they all grow up to be murderers and terrorists? My brother and counsins all played with toy guns.

I wonder what kind of message we send our little boys by telling them the toys that naturally interest them are evil and bad?

I had a son and a daughter, my son would remove the head from his sisters barbies and bend them into a "gun shape" because he didnt have toy guns - yes I let myself be influenced by the PC freaks.

Boys are genetically programmed IMO to play cops and robbers, good guys and bad guys, to play with trucks and what are considered "traditionally" boy toys. You can offer them a whole assortment of toys and these are what they want to play with - and whatever makes a lot of noise.

In retrospect I feel bad, I dont believe its healthy to give your son a message that his instincts and choices are wrong -

I started taking my kids target shooting though when they were 6 and 7, wanted them to know how to handle a gun safely and for them to get used to them so if some kid showed up somewhere with a gun it wouldnt be like real exciting and facinating to them, and so handling a gun wouldnt be this huge temptation for them.

Answer 1

I grew up with guns. RR play guns as a little kid, BB guns when I turned 6, a pellet gun when I turned 10 and a deer rifle when I turned 12. It wasn't just me either, it was every boy around where I grew up. They would even give us time off from school to go deer hunting. None of us grew up to be killers. I didn't even carry one as a tramp when most everybody else did.

We were taught about guns from the time we were babies. we would never point a gun at someone so yes, it is the person's fault who doesn't teach their children about guns and gun safety. How do you know they aren't going to be around them just because you won't allow it in your home? Guns don't kill people, people kill people!

Answer 2

My son was born in 1972. I would not allow him to play with toy guns. My father-in-law thought that I was a jerk! But, by the time he was 6, his dad was teaching him how to shoot a real .22. When he was in the 6th grade he was reading at third grade level. When he decided to play Dungeons and Dragons, he got into knifes and swords. I was so excited that he was reading something... anything! In the 7th grade he was taking Kung Fu (type) classes and collecting real Chinese weapons. Fortunately he didn't use them. When he was 20 he joined the navy. At 35 he has joined the National Guard. Throughout all of this he has become addicted to some world wide war video game. So much so that he meets with some of the other players every night at 7:00 PM.

I don't now if my peace & love attitude did him harm or good, but that can't be changed. He never hurt anyone. All he wants to do is to help people in disasterous situations. Every child is different. Who knows how they will turn out?

Answer 3

I never realized that toy guns were even considered to be evil or bad. Didn't know it was even an issue. But, I live in a remote part of the U.S., and there isn't any PC here, or current trends. Anyway, I grew up (53 now) with toy guns, and bought my first rifle with my own earned money at 15. Hunting is a big part of life here - northern Minnesota. High school students are allowed 2 excused absences during deer season. This is a small town, and I'm sure there are more guns than people in this community. I'm pleased to report that all our young hunters are quite responsible and respectful of gun safety. There are various public activities and gatherings during the many different hunting seasons. I know that things are different in large cities. That's why I live here.

Answer 4

Surprisingly, no. Not through any efforts of mine, though. I neither encouraged nor discouraged an interest in weaponry.

My grandson, however, was shot accidentally by a friend who was showing off his dad's new rifle. As he pulled it out of the closet, it discharged. The grandson didn't even realize he'd been hit until later, when he was walking home, he felt a pain in his side and put his hand there and was surprised to see it wet with blood.

Fortunately, the bullet traveled completely around his body, missing vital organs and bones, and came to rest just under the skin beneath where it entered.

I still maintain that children need to learn to respect a gun and learn how to handle it safely if one is in the house.

In the instance of my grandson, someone was careless in storing a loaded gun, and the lad removing it from the closet was careless in touching the trigger.

We were taught by my my grandfather how to load and fire a rifle and shotgun, and in an earlier incarnation, I worked at the NRA (for about three months), and was taught how to handle a semiautomatic handgun.

Answer 5

My son was born in 1980. I never allowed him to have a gun of any kind, I hated guns with a passion. My ex-husband was a gun dealer. He wanted our son to have a gun so bad that he sneaked him a gun, it looked just like the one that he owned himself. So both of these guns were in the house. The toy one was in my sons room and the real one was in our bedroom closet, on the top shelf in a box. (Had no clue about either one of these guns.)

I was in the kitchen one evening cooking supper. My daughter (about 2 years old) was standing at my feet. I heard my son (about 6 years old) say "this is a hold up..get your hands in the air". The next thing I knew was I heard a click. This all happened very fast. But I turned around very fast to see what was going on. My son had the REAL gun in his hands! The gun was pointed at my daughters head. Now IF there had been a bullet in that gun, I would NOT have a daughter today.

My fault you say because I don't allow my son to play with guns in the first place...I don't think so. I would think that was my ex-husbands fault for not only getting him the gun in the first place, but also cause he didn't teach him about the gun either. He also should not have gotten him a gun that looked like the REAL THING.

I hated guns then and still do to this day.

It is always the UNLOADED gun that kills.
"Oh I didn't know that gun was loaded when it went off, I swear I took the bullets out!"

Answer 6

My daughters weren't interested in toy guns. I played with toy guns especially cap guns. However, I have grandsons and I don't think I would left them play with toy guns other than water guns. Usually water guns are brightly colored and cannot be mistaken for a real gun. The problem is that too many young kids are walking around with real guns and taking them to school. If you put real-looking toy guns in the mix, people get hurt. One cannot always tell the difference between the two and that includes law enforcement. It's not worth it. Unfortunately, the world is not the same as it was when we were kids.

Answer 7

We played with toy guns as kids. I remember getting a holster set for Christmas one year. I had a BB gun that belonged to my dad when he was small and my brother taught my daughter to shoot one. All the guys when we were growing up had guns and went hunting. In high school I even took a course on gun safety and was the only girl in the class to get 100. We were taught about guns, how to shoot and how to have respect for them and for the lives of others. Unfortunately, life is not as it was then and to many kids do not have respect for others or a gun. They wouldn't think twice about taking another life.

Answer 8

Yes, both of our children went thru the cowgirl and cowboy
stages. And so they had pistols and caps for them. During
the summer they had squirt guns in neon green and orange.
Both hubby and I had been avid western fans since we were
small, and we'd had them also. I had an entire outfit with
skirt and vest and holsters. I was a packin,little mama. LOL.
Our grandson posed with a set of guns and holsters once.
And he enjoyed playing with them. But when our daughter
remarried a man who was death on guns,she changed her
attitude and no longer allowed toy guns. So when he came
to his grandparents, he had toy guns there to play with. Well
until he told his parents. Then they wanted those we had to
be given away. And so he'd make guns out of many things
just to pretend. And yet when he got into the GI Joe trend
his parents bought him all of the war accessories and tiny
guns. What was the difference? It made no sense to us at all.

Answer 9

I did not encourage playing with guns. My kids did have air guns, water pistols and thier dad even bought then BB guns. They did not care for the BB guns. The first time my youngest shot a bird he cried after he did it. He had probably heard of other kids doing this and tried it out. He was not prepared for the effect that it would have on him. I raised my kids to be kind to all living creatures.
But they had all the GI Joes and Star Wars figures with all the guns and stuff to go with.

Answer 10

Yes, they did. They had water guns, and also toy guns to play cowboys and indians with. They did not grow up with a desire to use guns.

It was part of the time. They had a lot of fun and grew out of them as they grew older.

Thanks for the interesting question.