What's wrong with America? Well, there is probably a pretty long list, but after hitting both Target and Toys 'r' Us this weekend, I've got a pretty short list. For Christmas I wanted to get Matthew a toy gun. The one that I had in my mind was the Daisy rifle that all the cool kids had when I was little. It was really cool looking and when you shot it, it went "bunwg". When I went to Target--nothing. At Toys 'r' Us, more of the same. The only guns that they had were branded with Batman, Indiana Jones, Kung Fu Panda or something like that. I think that this will result in a whole generation of little boys who won't have the fun that Joey and I did. We spent a lot of time playing "guns" with our neighbors. When I was looking for info on the web about this, I came across
this article from 1988 about K Mart and Toys 'r' Us phasing toy guns out.
So this morning, I jumped online and went to
toyarsenal.com and found exactly what I needed (pictured below.) It's not the exact gun that I was looking for, but I think Matt will love it. How about you? Did you play guns growing up? For Jim and Alex (our friend who is a policeman and my brother-in-law hunter), what do you guys think about toy guns? Are they DANGEROUS?
8 comments:
I don't remember playing "guns" when I was a kid but I do know I had a few especially a battery operated Uzi water gun. That was sweet.
My brothers had bb guns when I was growing up. I remember them saying, "hey, ab, show us how fast you can run across the yard." And I would excitedly run fast as I could, only to find out that I was being used as a moving target. I only remember being hit once--didn't hurt too bad.
I don't think playing toy guns is dangerous. It seems much more innocent than playing a 'gun' video game where you kill people with gory graphics.
I did play guns with neighborhood friends - usually cap guns or water guns. I don't think there's anything wrong with it...I'm only mildly weird, but it wain't cuzza the guns.
Luckily, I never graduated to shooting bottle rockets and roman candles at other kids like the older guys in my neighborhood did!
I was just thinking about this today. A girl at Starbucks was telling me that her cousin (21) was shot and killed accidentally while he was messing around with a gun he'd just bought. It reminded me of the two rules we had growing up in our house about guns:
1. A gun is not a toy
2. Always treat every gun as if it were loaded
My dad never let us play with toy guns. I guess he was trying to teach us a respect for the real guns that were in our home.
I'm not trying to be a downer about toy guns. That's just how I was raised. I guess I didn't need toy guns, because at the age of 10 I was out shooting the real thing.
I don't think I will let Jacob have toy guns because we have a whole safe full of guns and that creates a conflict for a kid I think.
You don't have guns in your house, so that doesn't exist for your boys. I'll be anxious to check out the merchandise at Christmas.
Alex
After further discussion here with Tricia I need to change my above comment...we did have some toy guns growing up but we were never allowed to point them at each other. So, I guess I need to decide exactly how I will handle that in our house. Food for thought...and I've got a couple years to think on it.
Good post.
Alex
I don't think we BOUGHT too many toy guns, but I think all boys left to their own resources will make guns out of whatever is handy: their two fingers...like Matty, a stick, a clothespin + rubber band...whatever. I think Alex's "rules" would about cover it, especially the part about treating every gun as if it were loaded.
Shube
I think Shube is right when she says that boys will find a way to make a gun. Jacob loves playing with guns, especially the nerf guns with darts. I don't see anything wrong with him having them, as long as he is taught the right way to handle one... even if it's a toy. And especially having a dad around to show a son how to handle the gun and the proper use of one. People are too paranoid of guns nowadays. It's not the guns that kill people, it's the people who improperly use guns that kill people.
There was a little boy who was just shot here in Cleveland because he and his older brother found a gun, and were playing "gangster". Don't know if video games had anything to do with that, but I know that their home life was not the greatest... I think ultimately that's what it comes down to.
Jim
Also, that gun you got Matt is sweet. And that website is awesome... I'm sure we'll be getting something from there soon.
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