Toy guns turn kids into killers?

[kfz]

Do you subscribe to the modern way of thinking that children need to be seperated from the nasty things in life becuase its these things which are doing them no good at all.

My 2 year old lad has been running round with sticks and broomhandles pretending to shoot everyone, so I thought it was time for a toy gun. Can I get one? Only in poundland, seems the main toy sellers wont touch toy guns with bargepole, far too politcally incorrect.

Quite annoyed by this really. evidence seems to fly in the face of this 'modern'sim' as gun crime and culture is more widepsread than it ever was. I spend most of my childhood running round the streets with a Tommy gun while my mate had a MP40. Seems my son cant do this it will corrupt him and I am a bad parent to allow it.

I just dont see how shielding kids from something and pretending it doesnt exist is better than confronting and understanding and dealing with something. Guns kill people, toy guns dont. There will be a time when he will understand how dreadfull guns are and I will take responsibility for that education, but in the meantime hes just 2, its just a game.

Stop now before I get even more ranty.

Kev

[von Poop]

Rant Away mate.
Bugs me too.
Sprogs play with toy guns, simple as that.
Never had any trouble finding 'em either, brilliant toyshop in Leicester (Dominoes) that has provided AK's MP5's Uzi's... etc. for my two.
Funny how the mates that are a bit sniffy about plastic guns are also the ones that are so finickety about cleanliness and all the other 'threats' that are suggested for children, let 'em be happy & slightly mad I say, that's what kids are best at.
I've got 3 mates that weren't allowed guns as a kid, 2 joined the army and one is now a collector of rifles of the second war....
I also shall stop now as I too can get .....errrr.... quite irate about this

[lancesergeant]

Teenagers with replicas I can see the sense of blocking. But a kid running around with an obvious plastic job I can't see the argument.

To those on PC planet it makes sense to ban everything, and shield sprog from the nasty things in life. Reality check there will come a time when they find out the world is not made of sugar and spice and all things nice. What then? Save it for later, then the state can find funding more councillors and bleeding heart brigades at our expense.

[Peter Clare]

Guns do not kill people, people kill people. Having said that, I too played with toy guns as a child during the fifties, the games I played have not turned me into a killer and are not likely to, the PC fraternity have a lot to answer for.

A bit like Ba Ba Black Sheep. Oops, shouldn't have said that.

[Rich Payne]

If there's nothing in the shops, why not make him a wooden one (or a polystyrene one if mum doesn't like the idea of him swinging the butt on the family cat)

[lancesergeant]

There are plenty of implements within reach if one is that way inclined. They will tell us not to have sharp knives next in case we cut ourselves - or have savage knife fights over breakfast from watching last nights horror movie.

[lancesergeant]

Ba Ba black sheep. On farms , well Irish ones anyway a lot of them have a black sheep for luck. The only suspersion I can draw is that the black sheep is the isolated one different from the rest - on account of it's colour nothing else. However somewhere along the line somebody has deemed that the colour could be elluding to or be derogatory to Afro Caribbean people.

[von Poop]

ooooh you've set me off again!
Why the hell should I feel concerned that having a Penknife/multitool on my person could cause embarassment if a Copper noticed??? Knife and Gun amnesties! what a joke! Little old ladies turning in pruning knives and 'military antiques' for destruction!! what does that achieve?? is the kind of swine that's in the market for stabbings or shootings going to pop down the nick and hand over his collection of sharpened screwdrivers?????

hmmm...
Too many !! & ??.... maybe I should go for a lie down...

or maybe stack a wheelbarrow with the assorted old military blades around the house and hand 'em all in...

Cheers,
Adam

[Rich Payne]

You're quite right about screwdrivers, I've stuck far more of them in my hands than I ever have knives !

I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am now middle-aged, but when I was in the Scouts in the '70s (not all that long ago, surely) we were allowed / encouraged to pass the proficiency test and carry a sheath knife when in uniform (as long as the blade was less than 6") I still have that knife. It would cause a modern day rookie woodentop to radio for armed assistance.

Sharpening and use of felling and hand axes was also something that was taken for granted at 13 or 14 and I don't remember any of us being silly with them. We knew they were dangerous and behaved accordingly.

Have people and the world really changed that much in 30 years ?

My God, I feel OLD.

[Rich Payne]

Originally Posted by Von Poop

ooooh you've set me off again!

...

or maybe stack a wheelbarrow with the assorted old military blades around the house and hand 'em all in...

Cheers,
Adam

Adam,

You'll have to be quick if you want to use a wheelbarrow... this is a picture of the BEF using a barrow as a Military Vehicle so they're probably already illegal in France and it will only be a matter of time before the rest of europe follows !