Young Children, and toy guns?? what's a parent to do??

My eldest child is a girl, and after I had my boy I realized he was very aggressive compared to my daughter. He was tougher too. Sometimes he acted like an animal, I mean ferocious.

Then, I realized, He's a boy! with the fire of life in his eyes, it's completely natural.

He will listen to you even if it dosent seem so. Just tell him the difference , and remind him "daddies not the bad guy, so no cutting daddies throat, alright champ?"

reply to post by JakiusFogg


All my friends and us use to play with toy guns as a kid.

Not one of us now ( i'm still friends with 7 of them ) own a gun. Yup, NONE of us own or would ever think about owning a gun.


Toy guns do not make you want to shoot real guns. They make you want to pretend to shoot with the Cool awesome toy gun.

That is the fun in it, that it is not real, but it's still awesome. Toy guns are fun....real guns are not..

Must have been NERF's fault I guess.....All that Dangerous foam.

I don't know how old your kid is, but when my son hit about 3-4 years old, a gun was made from anything, stick, lego, thin air, and this is all despite never having encouraged the things.

Bottom line, it's hardwired into them, and there is nothing you can do to stop it (unless you actually want to harm their development).

My advice, just ride with it, my Son is 9 now, and has a selection of Nerf guns, but he is not a violent child, far from it (although he likes a good playfight now and again).

I took my son to see the Hunger games last weekend, and you know what he said ?

"Oh my god mum, I can't believe you took me to see such a violent film !"

See not harmed him one bit .

Sidenote: My 5 year old daughter likes to shoot her brother every now and again too, strictly revenge for being wound up you understand

reply to post by JakiusFogg


Well my parents didn´t allow me to have toy guns as a kid. I remember buying a real looking revolver with my vacation allowance when we were on vacation in France, and how it mysteriously vanished once we got home, lol.

I grew up to be a total weapon freak so it didn´t have the desired effect at all lol. Although short term it stopped me from pointing it at every person I came across so I guess it had some merit.

I also remember making my own raggidy guns from pieces of wood and pvc tubing, but I was so clumsy that they would often fall apart at the first TATATADUM.



I think it was Tour of Duty that started it all.

Originally posted by solargeddon
I don't know how old your kid is, but when my son hit about 3-4 years old, a gun was made from anything, stick, lego, thin air, and this is all despite never having encouraged the things.

Just make sure that they dont draw a gun in school, or pretend to shoot a classmate with his finger while playing cops and robbers on the playground

reply to post by LucidDreamer85

Toy guns are fun....real guns are not..

I respectfully disagree.

It is the other way around. Guns are great fun. You just have to be responsible.

This was a tough decision for me and my husband as well. We didn't let the kids play with toys guns till we realized that they when they wanted to play outside they would pick up a stick in the yard and pretend it was a gun. We didn't have a T.V in the house when they were small but they visit friends or see guns elsewhere and the other kids are playing cops and robbers so they do too.

We decided to let them have their plastic gins and when they were old enough I took them out with my riot gun and a watermelon and showed them what a real gun does and explained that this is what a gun will do to a person. Please note all our guns had gun locks and the ammo is locked up with a another lock and key. My husband has the key to one and I the other. Needless to say no kid of mine owns a gun and has no interest in having a gun.

When you take something away from kids it becomes the forbidden fruit and they want it even more, I am not saying to buy your kids a gun.

There are countries like Switzerland where there is a gun in every household. Their kids don't end up shooting everyone up at school so it makes me think there is something else to it than owning a gun or being around guns. I think it has more with the culture and attitude about guns.

I wish more people put as much thought into raising kids as the OP. After all for the most part it is we the parent who determins how they turn out. It's a big responsibility.

I played with toy guns because the transformers had lots of 'em... PEW PEW PEW PEW

Thundercats and He-Man were fully ripped sword swinging gay icons, so i hit the gym and brought a plastic sword of omens and a boy friend - okay not the BF that was a joke

Kids today watch pokemon and like to play card games and such, my point being your son will want toys from the things they watch on tv or read about.

You're a tyrant if you wont let your kids have a plastic toy gun, which represents defense and safety, why are you trying to train your kid that guns are evil? Do you also train him to think poorly of all marshal arts? You might want to take away his hot wheels and turn off the tv too. I cant believe you would question this???? MSM is working on you people!!!

reply to post by JakiusFogg


first off you shouldnt read too much into what the MSM tells you

secondly if you explicitly forbid you kid not to do something the are more than likely to do it

reply to post by JakiusFogg


Since my son turned 7, I have taken him out to the range with me.

He has grown up learning gun safety, and handling.

I've since seen a "cross-over" from real to toy guns. The lessons havemade an impact.

This is just my personal take, good luck!

reply to post by Juggernog


Perish the thought, nowadays its Halo !

I'm sure the week before half term I saw one of the kids packing a imaginary uzi 9mm

Should you let your child play with an electric drill, circular saw, or razor knife?
No, not without them being old enough to trust and teaching them the proper use.

A firearm is another tool simple as that. It is not to be feared so much as respected.

Teach the children firearm safety over and over until it is second nature.

Even if you keep guns away from your kids and forbid them to know about them they may come across one at a friends house or even later in college.

More people are killed in auto accidents every year than with guns and I am sure you will let them drive when their old enough.

He's a boy. He wants to play guns, swords, war stuff, draw pictures of those things, and giggle his brains out over fart and poop jokes. That is in our nature, we are wired this way. Let him be a kid, and if you still question it, sign up for shooting lessons with you and him. The best thing a father and son can do is bond over men stuff. And heck, he'll even get educated and trained out of it.

Children want to emulate what they see. Toy hammers, shovels, brooms, vacuum cleaners, ovens, lawn mowers, cars and trucks... The list of things that adults use due to necessity but children have as toys is endless.

Don't all healthy children try on various roles and play with the "tools of the trade"? I'm female, but I remember playing doctor, teacher, fireman, cop, cowboy, and many other roles.

Another factor that I see is that children need to have heroes, and they need to try to be like their heroes. Heroes don't sit down with the "bad guys" and give them a talking to, they "take 'em out."

Cops & robbers, cowboys and indians, and similar games are also about defining right and wrong, good and bad, and part of the early stages of the development of morality and ethics. Trying to prevent a child from going through this stage could possibly do more harm than good.

And, as others have said, I think all little boys go through a stage of fascination with blood, gore, and violence. Remember in Jurassic Park when Timmy was fascinated by the T-rex killing, saying "look how much blood" or something like that, and had to be dragged away? Part of the reason that scene is funny is because of the truth in it. Little boys are like that, but most of them grow out of it.

Just some things to think about, I'm not going to try to tell anyone else how they should raise their kid.

reply to post by JakiusFogg


This is very interesting, because I believe we as parents know exactly where our children are getting these vain imaginations from: television, video games, and school mates and music. I have a five year old and 4 year old and I make it my business to tell them whats real and whats fake. For instance, Batman, Ben-10, Superman, etc. these are not real people, and people can't really do these things. They understand fully, and in my opinion please don't allow your son to chop a sword at you and say those things, there's a thin line between respect and disrespect. He may not know but he will when you explain it to him. Personally I don't allow the toy guns because at some point in time he's going to point it in someones face. Not Cool!. We are our childrens first teacher and can't allow them to make us feel uncomfortable in our home. Say no to guns, and yes to prayer, because God through Jesus is our only hope in these troubling times. Meet your son where he's at, if he can say I'm going to kill you, you can "now why would you want to do that, i wouldn't do that to you". Im teaching my children to use their imaginations for all the right reasons...and i realize its going to take a lifetime but hey i signed up for it.

reply to post by JakiusFogg


When my 15 year old son was little I tried to go against toy guns, for the same reason. I didn't buy him any, I told my parents not to buy them, and I would steer him away from them when he got to shop. It turns out kids seem to want they can't have more. When you're at family and friends houses with kids, your kids play with their toys. Slowly, I eventually gave in. Turns out "toy guns" and real guns are one of his favorite hobbies. He plays air soft, and he is a hunter. He is very educated in and respectful of gun safety, he actually just wrote a pretty good paper on the subject. I say let them do what they want, just teach them what's right. Good luck We all need it.

its weapons that are dangerous, its the person using them. as long as kids are raised right then it doesnt really matter

I can't stand helicopter parents. :/ The ones who are terrified and overprotective of their children. Our neighbors won't let their daughter outside but a few minutes a day, and will not allow her to play with other children in the neighborhood. It's so sad.

Children will find a way to make a gun. Out of their fingers, sticks, etc. They just do. They will find a way to make swords too.

My brother grew up with toy guns and as an adult hated guns and wanted nothing to do with them.

Let children explore, don't be afraid to let them outside in nature. Stop over protecting them. Let them play outside until the street lights come on.

There's a great PBS documentary running about children and their innate need to be in nature and how exploration in nature enhances intelligence. Watch it!!

It's funny, as a kid , I was obsessed with guns and military toys. I had a massive collection of toy weapons and fighter jets. I was the only kid in school to collect the Gulf war, Desert Storm trading cards en.wikipedia.org...
This hasn't turned me in to a pro war violent individual as I'm exactly the opposite. I even passed on some of my old fighter jet toys to my 3 year old god son, who now takes a die cast model of a Rockwell B-1B Nuclear bomber to bed instead of a Thomas the tank.