Tag on to Toy Guns Parents Caught in Middle Jff.

I have a friend who is adamant that her kids can't play with toy guns (water guns, etc). I don't really care if my kids do or don't. We have various squirt guns, etc. Okay. So, knowing this, when her kids come over, I have my kids put the Super Soakers away so it's not an issue. Last time they were here, the kids all decided to play Harry Potter. They found some sticks to use as wands. My friend's son (who is 7) kept pretending that his wand could shoot bullets at people. My friend was totally horrified. I thought it was sort of funny. I mean, she has been SO careful to shield him from all of that stuff, and honestly I think it's made him more intent on it. My girls, who have access to toys that shoot (from rubber band shooters to water guns) have very little interest in those toys (except on hot summer days, when they do enjoy the water guns - but would just use a hose if the water guns were unavailable).

And that probably made the boy want to point it at the other kids even more. Not to be judgmental but -- that's ridiculous. If you're going to let your kid play with a gun, pointing it at people is kind of the whole point.

I mellowed on the toy gun thing. The only thing I don't like is toy guns that look like real guns. I think they should look VERY toy-like.

My rule is that my daughter doesn't touch any gun -no matter how much it looks like a toy- until she has obtained the permission of the adult in charge of her. (or it is her toy gun.)

A lot of toy guns look real.... And a lot of real guns look fake. So we feel that it is better to be safe than sorry.

Once she has obtained permission, she can play with it however she wants. The only exception is that if someone asks her not to "shoot" them, she has to respect their boundaries.

Actually my husband feels the same way about lazer tag.
It's a game but at the same time you have to point a toy lazer weapon at people, aim and pull the trigger.
He hasn't objected to our son going to a few lazer tag birthday parties but we don't make a habit of doing lots of lazer tag.
Paint ball guns would be the same thing - the military loves to train with them for a reason.
And my husband is a gun enthusiast and shoots targets at the range all the time.

it's a funny thing, isn't it?
we don't have guns (nothing against 'em, just haven't got around to it) but our kids have always played with pretend weapons of various types and it never occurred to us to pounce on their play.
if you can't point a pretend gun at your pretend foe, why play? have people forgotten what it's like to be a kid?
but i've got friends who are gun owners, and they're actually much more concerned about pretend gunplay than folks like me. i went to see an adaptation of macbeth with one friend and her kids, in which macbeth and banquo opened the play by stalking around the stage with rifles, including pointing them into the audience, and her kids were SO upset and so was she. and i can understand it- when there are guns in the house and kids are being continually educated in how to handle them properly, it does make sense that those lines must not be blurred.
honestly, when i heard the arguments, it kinda made me glad that my boys just got to blast away with their various fake implements of destruction.
khairete
S.

When my son was in kindergarten I watched as he and his buddies took a basket of beanie babies and started "bombing" each other with them. It was pretty funny, they were making explosion noises and everything.

I don't have a problem with my boys playing with nerf or water gun type toys at all. We actually don't happen to have many "gun" toys but their friends do and they have a blast playing with them- I just get sick of finding the nerf discs everywhere! We are actually going to a birthday party tomorrow where the invite says they're having a "water gun fight". I probably wouldn't want my kids to play with a "real" looking gun only because it could scare someone else and lead to a bigger problem. I know not everyone will agree, but I don't believe playing with toy guns leads to gun violence at all. I would say the majority of the parents that my kids play with feel the same, because I've been around quite a few bbq's just like the one you've described minus the dad.

Interesting, what's the point of playing with them then? We all know that toys cant hurt and they are just playing/acting out different scenarios.

You don't just use real guns on people they are also used for target practice and hunting.

Our first rule with the real guns is if you have to take it out and/or point it at someone then you had better be prepared to use it. It other words you never point a real gun on someone unless you have no other way to defend your self.

My daughter is only 7 and we have not taken her to the shooting range yet. Since we have 5 acres of land we will teach her to shoot with a bb gun in the yard. Same rules apply.

We do this with certain toy weapons, though we allow nerf sword play and water gun fights with no head-shots. We don't own guns nor will we - but I grew up in a home with guns - and it's how I was raised. It may not seem to make sense under the circumstances, but it has a point. Pretty much what AKmom said below. If the Dad is not a gun owner, his Dad probably was.