toy guns

With rules I see no problem with them.

I played with cap guns as a kid, never was a problem
I also didnt turn into some homicidal maniac

Let them play, you'll know when it's time to teach them about real weapons.

I always had toy guns lying around my house. my cousins have toy guns lying around their houses. We used to play war and cops and robbers and everything. Good times. They're toys, only way their gonna hurt somebody is if you decide to pistol whip. Now when it comes to nerf guns, there are specific ROE rules.

I finally get to post this pic:

If they can't tell the difference between what is a toy and what is real, they shouldn't handle real guns yet. Most kids will be able too at a fairly young age, and then I believe they can do whatever they want with cap guns. Who here had cap gun fights as a kid? I know for sure that I sure did (hey look I'm a poet)

NO.

G-d forbid they ever get hands on a REAL gun, without knowing the rules or being too young to understand, might be a problem.

ALSO I don't like the Nerfy things either, can still hurt an eye with it.

I voted,

Toy guns are fine with limitiations on what they can are allowed to point the gun at.

Click to expand...

I was allowed to play with toy guns, cap guns, as a child, 1960's, but I was told not to point it at anyone's face. Otherwise it was OK. Cops/Robbers, Cowboy/Indian, GI/German,Korean,Vietnamese, and later SWAT & Starskey & Hutch.

When we were older, 12-14 1970's we would play Tag/Capture the Flag with BB guns wearing t-shirt/sweatshirt/Levi jacket combo and would play on the roof of the local elementary school. The School Fence being our boundry. We had a one pump limit and below the neck rule so even if you were wearing a T under a Flanel Shirt the shot would not break skin, and no one ever lost an eye. And no one ever called in a "Man with a gun".

We also,
Stayed out until Dark with no supervision, rode bikes without helmits, learned not to play with matches by burining ourselves, could shoot a gun in city limits, and we're still alive to tell about it.

i think its ok for them to point their toys, but you also have to teach them as soon as you can

ALSO I don't like the Nerfy things either, can still hurt an eye with it.

Click to expand...

No offense to you or anyone else here but im going to rant. America needs to stop worrying so much about the safety of stuff. I played with Nerf guns at a young age and at some point probably got shot in the eye, and probably cried. Im still alive and well. I then learned to be more careful. A few years ago i was shot about a centimeter below my lower eyelid with an airsoft bb going around 270 FPS, again, i learned. And quick. Now i wear goggles.

I think that children can be properly taught to know & understand the difference between toys and real guns.

It wasn't until the past 30 years or so that people started "fearing" toy guns.

Remember that families used to keep guns loaded and on the mantle or next to the door less than a century ago -children back then just were taught not to touch the real guns.

I'm of mixed mind of them, along these lines:

1) I don't want to *teach* kids that toys are guns, and therefore that guns are toys. I don't think that all kids in all circumstances would take that lesson from playing with toy guns, but the bad outcomes as you can imagine could be *very* bad.

2) That said, I think there's at least one positive outcome possible in using toy guns, which is for kids to learn that "gun shaped objects" don't cause cancer, or promote evil, or change into goblins and night and conspire to choke the pets. Most kids I think have no real problem distinguishing between an Easy Bake Oven and the real thing, or a battery-powered jeep sized for them and a road-worthy car. (My niece says her kid-scaled Jeep is a good way to get around on "Planet X," otherwise known as The Basement Toyroom.) I have no problem with a (supervised) 4-year-old learning (and enjoying!) fine motor skills with something like a Nerf gun, or even (I know I am a menace to society) low-powered airsoft guns (with proper eye protection and instilled safety lessons). I was probably 8 when I used long-saved nickels and dimes to get a pretty nifty spring-based plastic gun that shot little orange plastic bullets, and never once did I think it was a "real gun" -- which is something I didn't have access to for many more years.

3) I just ordered a couple of airsoft guns myself, for in-room plinking at odd moments (telecommuting has its upsides), of the kind that, aside from orange tip, looks to be a Brady Campaign nightmare -- metal shell instead of plastic, styled very much like a Walther designed pistol. (http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/a213/)

From the description there ("If it weren't for the blaze orange tip and the slightly smaller gun size we'd be a bit concerned about our co-workers packing these at office meetings.") I can tell the guys at ThinkGeek have not read through the mousegun sticky on THR - this gun is more than 6 inches long!

timothy

we played with toy guns as kids too. no real problems arose from it, other than this terrible addiction i have. but we were not allowed to "play" with our bb guns. we were tought that these were serious weapons. they could potentionally kill someone. and certainly make someone go blind or deaf. the only person that ever pointed a bb gun at someone in our group of freinds was chastized beyond belief for it, and then my dad took his gun, smashed it with a 20 pound sledge hammer, and dragged him home screaming and crying to his parents by his ear! NOBODY ever thought about doing that again! AHHH, the old days, when a parent could DISAPLINE a child in PUBLIC !

I played with toy guns.

Looking back though, I don't think it was a wise choice for a toy.

Toy hammers and other toy tools get used in sets that simulate building stuff. Toy guns get pointed at other kids so they can say, "BANG BANG... YOU'RE DEAD!"........ it isn't setting a good example.

On the other hand, BB guns are fine, so long as they are never pointed at other people.

I think when I have kids, I'll buy them BB guns when they're old enough. No cap guns though. I don't ever want to have my kids think that pointing a gun at somebody you don't intend to harm is ok.

Some of my earliest memories involve playing with toy guns. In 1948, when I was 5 years old, my dad took me down to the local "army surplus" store and for 50 cents bought me a US web Pistol belt and brown leather GI holster for a .45 auto. I had that holster and belt until I was 18 or so, and finally gave it away to one of my younger cousins, so he would have something to play Army with. I never played Army. It was always MARINES. I had one of those solid-aluminum cast copies of a .45 auto, and it killed many a jap for me while I was patrolling the local beachhead (North shore of Hampton Roads) My cousin Buzz and I also kept raiding parties from Nazi U-Boats from invading the homes along Chesapeake Avenue. Good thing we were there. Those Nazis were BAD guys, and the homeowners along the waterfront depended on us to prevent any U-Boat landings. We must have been pretty good at what we did. We never even SAW a Nazi the whole time.
Toy guns were toy guns. But by the time I got my first BB gun (age 7...and my mother was FURIOUS!) Things changed a bit. No pointing the BB gun at a person. No keeping it loaded in the house...at least that's what my mom said. Everything went okay until I hid under the sewing machine and shot across the den and hit my sister Julia in the right forearm. She was sitting in the easy chair in front of the radio, listening to "The Green Hornet". That shot signaled the end of the BB gun for a month, and when I finally got it back was a bit more choosy in the selection of targets. I do recall that my older cousin Tommy (he was born on Christmes, 1942, and I was Born in Feb 1943) and I used to take turns climbing up to the top of a 60-foot magnolia tree in my Grandmothers front yard. The other of us would stand out at the edge of the street, and shoot at the one in the top of the tree. When I was "up the tree", I remember hearing the bb that had been shot at me punching holes in those big magnolia leaves at it went past. I'm sure if one of us had been hit it the face, we would have fallen down that 60-foot tree, probably to our death. But by that time we were 7 or 8 years old and considered ourselves immortal.
The upshot of all of this is that I played with toy guns of all kinds, and never suffered any ill effects from it. Those parents who wonder "what sort of message it sends" to their little ones, should realize that it sends no message at all. Toy guns are just toys.

Nerf guns? We didn't have no stinking nerf guns when we were kids. We used to collect the little antennas from lego sets and shoot em at each other out of red ryder BB guns....

We were then taught firearms safety by parents and all is well.

Toy guns are toys. Period. I grew up in the late 50s and 60's. On tv, I must have "witnessed" a jillion "more-native-American-than-I-am's" being shot off their horses, and halfa jillion cowboys. How many times did I see Wiley Coyote fall from some ridiculously high cliff? I can't recall ever, not even for the briefest instant, thinking that I could fall thousands of feet and suffer no more than the odd, accordian-shaped body. I don't know how I "knew" it, but I JUST KNEW that kind of stuff only happened in cartoons.
Again, I don't know how I knew it, but I KNEW that Dad's guns were real, and that mine, my brother's, and those of my friend's, were not. I KNEW that my Dad would "tan my hide" if I messed with his guns without him being present. We didn't have a gun-safe... the guns were in a simple rack in Mom and Dad's closet. The ammo however, was in a locked steel lockbox. My bro's and my guns were stored in a toybox.
I got off work one day an hour and a half or so early. I was parked in the lot of my son's school. The kids were let out for recess. I watched a dozen or so boys playing "Power Rangers" or some such karate-based crap. If you had kids/grandchildren in the mid 90's, you know what I mean. These kids are shouting "KEYAHHH!", and doing karate chops and sidekicks... and noone is actually making contact with his sworn enemy. Why? Because every kid there knows that it hurts to be chopped/kicked. They don't want to hurt their friends or get in trouble with the teacher on duty.
I guess my point is this... kids aren't stupid; and I think it unwise to treat them as if they are. When they f*** up in the small things; and they will, you have to hold them accountable. They have to be taught that when they f*** up the big things, they'll be held accountable. They'll know this by having been accountable for the small things.
Sorry for the rant. I don't know why kids kill kids. I don't know why "Cho's" kill 32 of their classmates before killing themselves. I do think that taking toy guns away from kids, coupled with all the anti- garbage they're going to learn at school will result in a generation of non-hunters/non-shooters... citizens perfectly willing to allow the 2nd Ammendment to be rescinded.
Just my thoughts.

I played with toy guns as a kid..... we also played "tag" with BB guns.... but someone did loose an eye.... really really really bad idea....

If you let them play with toy guns, make sure they know the difference, and be sure to point out that BB guns ARE NOT TOYS and can be very dangerous.

We had all manner of toy guns as kids, and no harm came to any of us. A lucky few had BB guns, but those were different. Those were "REAL" guns, not to be played with, and we knew the difference.
I don't see any problem at all.

I played the usual shoot 'em up games with cap guns as a kid. We did this a bunch, year after year. My grandparents gave me a bb rifle when I was five. I started shooting real guns with supervision at the same time and guns were kept in a closet or hung on the wall.

Everybody's house had a gun or three or more. You didn't mess with the guns, the power tools or the fishing rods because they didn't belong to you.

I never confused the toy guns with the real guns. None of the other kids did either.

I still have my cap guns and holsters. I found them 20 years ago in a box in the back of my parents' pantry.

John

My pals and I also "played guns" extensively through my childhood in the '40s and '50s.

However, when I had a child of my own, toy guns were forbidden in our house. Instead, I took my daughter to the range with a 1911 .45 when she was three years of age. With all due precautions, but NOT allowing her to see me loading the gun for the first shot, I had her fire two full magazines while I helped her hold the gun.

The lesson was very simple: when you pull the trigger on a gun, drastic things happen. NO sermons or instructions, just "pull that thing".....and BANG! That's also why I chose the .45 instead of a .22 single-shot. Noise and recoil added to the "drastic" impression.

As we drove home from that first session, she asked, "When can we go shooting again, Dad?" It wasn't long, because we quickly bought her a Cricket .22 rifle, and a bit of instruction along with the fun became the order of the day.

She was instructed to inform her playmates that guns are not toys, and she didn't play with such things because she had her own REAL gun, and shot real targets with real ammo. This proved very interesting, because it brought a long succession of youngsters to our door to ask if she actually did own her own 'real rifle'. They were shown the proof, and given some rudimentary coaching in gun-handling at the same time. Many of those kids, with permission of their parents, went to the range with us for hands-on shooting experience. It gave us a great opportunity to start a lot of young'uns off on the proper foot in shooting. I believe it also gave them a different perception about toy guns.

I grew up with caps guns, a plastic AR, a Lone Ranger six gun and holster (with the mask too), etc., etc. Heck, we used sticks and pretended they were guns if we had to.

Without getting into the politically correct nonsense, most boys are going to play cops and robbers or cowboys and indians. It's in their blood.

Once, I got a BB gun though, I had a real gun and my dad made sure I conducted myself accordingly--not that he was always looking though.

On a slightly different note, instead of the four rules of gun handling, I grew up with the Ten Commandments of Gun Safety and rule number one was not to always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

The First Commandment was to Respect all firearms (or something of that nature.)

Respect, to me, is key. Seems that respect is missing in a lot of areas of life nowadays.

Anybody remember the old school ten commandments? It's a shame that I don't.

I played with cap guns also. We didn't have nerf guns. Kids were taught differently then about most things. I didn't grow up with anybody that couldn't drive pretty good by age 13 or 14. We grew up on farms driving trucks and tractors. Hell, There is still a set of yard darts around here somewhere.

I had lots of toy guns and squirt guns as a kid, and yes, we often pointed them at each other while playing.yet, we all still knew that you didnt do that with your bb guns, as they were NOT a toy, and eventually, I was taught that the same appleis to "real" guns too, when I was old enough to learn about and use them. NO problems. Kids are capable of being taught the difference between a toy gun, and a bb or real gun, just like they can be taught the difference beween putting your hand on a hot burner,vs a putting it on the couter. Kids are fully capable of learning to make distinctions. The problem is parents who cant or wont teach thier children the distinction, in which case I wonder if those parents should be anywhere near a gun themselvs.