Outlaw Nerf Guns?

My kids have both. Even my ten-year-old has no issues differentiating between a toy and a firearm. Right from wrong. Reality from playtime. Regular Nerf wars at our house as well as meticulous gun safety. The problem in our society is 1) Overstated to make the anti's case for them and 2) Far deeper than Hasbro.

I used to take scrap wood and make my own toy guns. Painted 'em black, too, so they'd be extra scary.

larryh1108 said:

AA, although I appreciate your message the facts remain that for all these years, we played with toy guns and know the difference.
I bet every poster in this thread played with toy guns

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So did I. One of my first "toy" guns was the broken stock of an M1 Garand that I found in a trash bin behind the ROTC Building at the University of Kansas, when I was about 8 years old. (This also goes to show that kids will make toy weapons out of just about anything, if commercial items are not available.) Nevertheless, the question remains whether parents, and society in general, should sanction this kind of play. As I said, I would be in favor of training with real guns starting fairly early. It's never too early to stress discipline and safe gun handling. Play with toy guns is the opposite of that.

In 1948, on the ship on which my parents and I immigrated to America, there was a little American kid with a set of cap pistols, who was going around "shooting" the other passengers. The "shooting" was accompanied by all sorts of threats to "kill" people by this little brat. This left a very bad taste for my parents, who were just coming from a country (Greece) which was embroiled in a civil war, and where teenagers, not much older than that kid, were actually shooting people in the streets with real guns.

So it all depends on your perspective.

And we can all appreciate each other even if we disagree. Thanks for expounding on your point of view.

Kids can often distinguish real from make believe better than adults give them credit for.

I suspect Hasbro will soon cave to the Left, as so many other entities and individuals have. Falling all over themselves to virtue signal. ~The Virtue Signaling Force is strong.~ How did any of us survive having access to cap guns, NERF guns, BB guns, and OMG, OMG even .22s at an early age? Better get those Assault NERF machine guns while you can

A A maybe we should make our kids stay indoors and study every day so that they will become smarter than we are. No need for them to play-----that will just get them in trouble. They need to take life seriously! SO--so wait a minute------------------How's that working out for all those kids in Japan? Suicide rates off the charts? Come-on they need to buck up and grow a set and soldier on right. NO

I hope it is not too late as a nation to let our kids be kids and we as their caretakers can teach them what is important and what to not stress about before social media takes over. I have no kids but ALL the children in the local area can, and often do ask me for advice. While I am happy to guide them about right and wrong, I wonder about their parents at the same time.

The scary part is now the generation who grew up on social media and had their faces in their phones now have kids who emulate them. Young kids today now get some app thrust in their face from the time they are old enough to watch Barney. The streets have so few kids riding bikes, walking dogs, playing football or soccer, etc. The truth is kids don't go outside to play any more, they go to their room to play on their phone apps or SnapChat or whatever is in vogue today.

Their parents are too busy on their social media apps that they don't have time to teach kids right from wrong or how to handle anything life throws their way. You have a problem as a kid? Google it. Mom is too busy to help. It will only get worse since I see no laws restricting access to phone apps coming down the pipe. I also have no idea to fix this.

AOC and her friends are probably right about the end of the world happening in the near future but instead of the problem Du Jour it will be AI deeming humans are too broken to save and just go ahead and remove the problem. We will not fair well with IR and microcomputers on advanced weapons systems against our meager 2A if it comes to thatI am afraid.
Sorry for the thread drift.

buck460XVR said:

I don't think it's necessarily that news is false, just how it is reported. IMHO, the constant, hour after hour of reporting on the same crime scene for days, along with constant pictures, descriptions and interviews with friends and family of the shooter, gives a way for folks who feel they have no purpose in life to get their 5 minutes of fame and go out with a bang. They want to go from being someone who no body notices to a household name, even tho it is is a negative content. They think because of the intent media coverage, they are going down in history and will be remembered for something, even if it is in disgust.

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I live in the same county as Marjorie Stoneman Douglas school and am so tired of seeing the video of students being herded out by police every time there is a shooting anywhere. I know the little perp's name but refuse to say it. You're right the glorification in their own minds is what drives many of these shooters.

larryh1108 said:

The scary part is now the generation who grew up on social media and had their faces in their phones now have kids who emulate them. Young kids today now get some app thrust in their face from the time they are old enough to watch Barney. The streets have so few kids riding bikes, walking dogs, playing football or soccer, etc. The truth is kids don't go outside to play any more, they go to their room to play on their phone apps or SnapChat or whatever is in vogue today.

Their parents are too busy on their social media apps that they don't have time to teach kids right from wrong or how to handle anything life throws their way. You have a problem as a kid? Google it. Mom is too busy to help. It will only get worse since I see no laws restricting access to phone apps coming down the pipe.

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The problem with that is counting on the apps to be correct. Our store is located one traffic light south of the intersection of two state roads so it is on every decent map around. I tell people we are one traffic light south of that intersection and invariably they ask for our address to plug into their gps. Problem is, if you enter our correct address, it will plop you in the middle of that intersection, roughly 4 blocks north of our actual location. We have to edit what we tell people so they will actually get here. They have issues because they can't follow simple directions and the electronic brain they are counting on helping them is wrong. How much other information is incorrect that these people are regarding as reliable.

I also have no idea to fix this.

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Me either. Let me Google it.

FlSwampRat said:

Problem is, if you enter our correct address, it will plop you in the middle of that intersection, roughly 4 blocks north of our actual location.

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I had those problems when I traveled a lot for work. The only way to get past that is to stand directly in front of your business and ask your GPS your location. It will give you the LAT and LONG of your location. Write those numbers down and text them to the people who are directionally challenged. When we first bought our house, the GPS didn't recognize it and sent people 5 miles away. I set my "Home" button on my GPS as the coordinates of my house. Problem solved.

You gotta wonder how some of these people managed to reproduce if finding the location of places is so difficult....

bdickens said:

You gotta wonder how some of these people managed to reproduce if finding the location of places is so difficult....

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That's probably all they do well......

I'm beginning to think people should have to get some kinda license for that....

I just happened to notice that the "do gooders" that worry about the children haven't listened to the words to "It' beginning to look alot like Christmas". From the song..
"A pair of hop along boots and a pistol that shoots"
They would have a ball with that.
Dean

forgive me if you have read this before as i posted this some wheres before. about 25 or so years ago the school system in winnipeg canada tried something. at one grade school they gave all the gradeschool boys small dolls and all the small girls small plastic handguns. then they observed them at play on the playground hours. this is what they saw. the boys used the dolls like they were guns and run around playing cowboys and indians or cops and robbers. the girls took the toy handguns and made dolls out of them and played dolls. their it is guys and gals. when i grew up with a gun in my hand, it later kept me alive in the military. im glad i knew how to use one before i went in. i used to make guns out of wood when i was little, still do, now they look really nice. built a lot of muzzleloaders over the years. restoring a old long tom now and putting a lot of tacks on a cva crocket 32 i built last winter. gives me something to do. my muzzleloader look nice and shoot well also.

Dean C said:

I just happened to notice that the "do gooders" that worry about the children haven't listened to the words to "It' beginning to look alot like Christmas". From the song..
"A pair of hop along boots and a pistol that shoots"
They would have a ball with that.
Dean

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Sadly, someone has noticed this. See link below...
https://www.foxnews.com/media/popul...like-christmas-for-including-lyric-about-guns

I have three boys. They we must have over 50 nerf guns. Oh and we have nerf wars.