Toy guns?

[Awf Hand]

What does anyone here think of toy guns and having kids play with them?
 
Just curious...

[Conan The Librarian]

I don't have anything against them, but don't approve of some applications of them. Just like real guns.
 
Water guns, Nerf guns, guns with sticky darts, and airsoft guns have been around for a long time, and they are fun. Purely fun. They need to be handled carefully, because even a low power airsoft gun can injure, and people have been killed using Super Soaker type water guns.
 
Today's usage, I think, focuses best on target games. When I was a kid, the emphasis with toy guns was with war games. The difference is probably because of the recent memory of WW2, and the then current Viet Nam war. As with other cultures at war (notably Japan between the 1890s and WW2), toy stores were stocked with mock armaments so that kids would be used to using weapons.
 
We have no similar situation today. The landscape is different, and one of the disturbing applications of toy guns today is the "shooter" video game, which depict the player has hunting down and shooting a victim. I disappprove of games like that.
 
As for paint ball, I think it's a children's war game played by people who are old enough to have grown past that stage in life.

[Jim, West PA]

Oh boy ! I've run into a lot on controversy on my outlook on this subject. But here goes.
 When my sons were children i had a strick rule in our house.. NO TOY GUNS. I was a firearms dealer, gun builder and gunsmith at the time. We had many real guns at home. My sons were taught very young that guns were not toys. I also taught them anything and everything there was to know about guns and always urged them to come to me with any questions, desires, curiosities. They knew firearms safety AND consequences. I made every attempt to demystify every aspect of guns to them.
 Did my approach work ? Absolutely. They always displayed very good sense and absolute safety when it came to firearms. ( even in situations with non knowing individuals involved) They are all crack shots. They knew then, and know now, thier weapons inside and out. How to maintian, repair.
 They all grew up serving, still serving, in the Military, One currently a local LEO and one concidering it when he returns for the middle east..
I should add that the only problems i ever had with this policy when they were kids was that a few family members insisted that i was not "alowing my boys to be boys" unless they had 'toy' guns, and continued to try and give them on birthdays and Christmas. My boys, without hesitation, would simply hand them back and say, " guns are not toys". They had no problems with this, but then they all had thier own real guns confidently locked away.

[FPH]

I grew up with toy guns (western and military).  However, I was taught not to never point a toy gun at a person.  I also had been taught to tell the difference between an actual firearm (which I was taught to fire)and a toy by the time I was 5.

[Conan The Librarian]

Jim, West PA:
 
I wish there would have been more dads like you in my neighborhood growing up. Probably would have had more opportunities to shoot real guns, and get a grounding in safety. As I recall it, our training on gun handling came from Rat Patrol, and similar WW2 TV shows. There were no adults preaching safety and correct use. A lot of us learned gun safet by doing something stupid with a BB gun, getting in trouble for it, and learning our lessons that way.
 
Come to think of it, I don't recall anyone teaching their kids safe gun handling in my area. There were people who should have known better, like cops, ex marines, etc. I think that knowledge of gun use was just assumed at the time.

[mechanic]

A couple years ago I noticed the butt of a Beretta 92 sticking out from the shirt of one of my scouts.  About scared me to death!  When I grabbed it, I realized it was an airsoft.  That also scared me, because that could get him shot......it looked too real.
 
Someone had told him that at scouts we would shoot bb guns, so he came prepared.
 
Ben

[tom548]

I had  a toy gun or two and grew up ok.  My own kids turned out to be two girls so I bought more dolls than toy guns.
I do have lots of real guns and made sure the girls were told about them and taken to the range and demonstrated how dangerious they could be if miss used.  This was done with water filled milk jugs. The little hole in paper just does not get the point across. They liked shooting with me till boy came into the picture.  I thing they need to learn about guns and be tought the proper resect for them. That is what parrents do.