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| This looks pretty innocent, right? |
Before Christmas, there was a Kris Kringle in the 3/4 classes at school, and both my boys participated. Erik came home with a yo-yo and Luey came home with a twin pack of water pistols. As mean as this may sound, the pistols went in the bin. Not only will I not buy fake guns for my boys, but I won't allow others to buy them for them either.
Bryn does have one toy which resembles a gun, and it launches a bat-like creature into the air. I have allowed him to keep this gift because it's not actually a gun, but a propeller mechanism for the bat-like creature... I'm not 100% comfortable with that decision, but I'm trying not to over-react to my complete loathing of guns.
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| Not quite so innocent looking. |
Guns were solely invented for the maiming or killing of humans at a distance. Yes, they have been used for hunting, but that was secondary to their original purpose.
People often say gun play is harmless, and yet, if toy shops sold "water-boarding" kits, or "Nooses", or games that encouraged children to mimic strangling one another, parents would be appalled. My children have had Lazer Tag parties, and have accepted (and will continue to accept, I'm sure) invites to Lazer Tag parties, so I can't sit on my high horse and judge others, and this is not what I'm trying to do, either. I do wonder why I have allowed them to have Lazer Tag parties though, when the very thought of having toys guns in the house makes me anxious and even a bit angry.
My brother once had a real life gun held to his person. It was unloaded, but the threat to him at the age of eight was still very real. I just don't see gun play as harmless. At the very least it's is a form of disassociation and desensitization, at worst it makes pretend maiming, killing, and generally evoking fear as a form of power over someone else, a fun game.
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| By the way - these boys are holding TOY GUNS. |
4 comments:
I don't like it either and haven't allowed it. That said a psychologist once told me they are fine, and they can have a toy one or they'll just pretend something else is one anyway, and that it's a totally normal way for boys in particular to let out aggression in a safe way.
I just don't like them full stop.
The scene you describe in the lift is extremely off putting to me. Little kids running around shooting each other, falling over, creating a story line, not so much, unless a child was particularly obsessive and using it as an outlet for something concerning. In which case it isn't the guns then i guess.
What I find off putting is the coldness of shooting someone without their consent, without being engaged in a mutual game. Perhaps this is why you find lazertag acceptable, you go to a certain place, don equipment, there are rules, it is more like "tag" than real applications of guns.
If I let my kids have guns, they would never be allowed to shoot strangers ... what is that teaching them, that others in public are the backdrop for your amusement, at *best*?
Rach, I don't stop my children from making guns with lego or sticks or the like (though I strongly discourage it by gone on ad nauseum about what it actually means to shoot someone), it's the placing into a child's hands a gun replica that I find abhorrent...
I find gun play more offensive than hand to hand combat scenarios because it's so "remote" - killing with a greatly minimised risk to self.
Leah has made an interesting point which probably touches on my main concern...which is perhaps the other person doesn't want to be 'shot'. I know I don't, and often the girls don't...so yes this distinction is important. F doesn't have a huge obsession with guns per se but geez if all the lego games/sets etc these days don't have firearms?
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