I'm sure this has been done, but I didn't see it in a search.
I absolutely hate toy guns, especially in the hands of children. They have a difficult enough time telling reality from fantasy.
I know a lot of gun-owners, and the divide is pretty clean. I know it's not a statistically-significant sample, but......
1) Those who let their kids play with toy guns have kids with TERRIBLE trigger discipline, muzzle control, and general safety with REAL guns. They play cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, and other shoot-em-up kids games. And then when the parents try to teach them about real guns, the kids don't take it seriously enough, because the habits with toy guns are so ingrained. It's very hard to expect a 6 year old to point a realistic toy gun at his friend, and then respect that it is absolutely unacceptable to do it with a gun that looks exactly like it.
2) Those who don't (which is a smaller group) all have kids who are respectful of the power of the gun. I know of two different two year olds who can say the gun safety rules, and put it into practice. I was showing one father a handgun of mine, and he turned to his kid and said "Now what do we do with guns?" And the 2 year old says, "Finger OFF the trigger. No pointing. It's loaded."
Is this just coincidence? We're not yet parents, but we've agreed - no toy guns in our house. But the kids will get all the real guns they want.
What do you think?