Inside Fatherhood

21 opinions for Should Kids Play With Toy Guns and Swords?

• Peter
  May 2, 2007 at 3:54 pm

  Steve,

  I ‘StumbledUpon’ this posting; rarely do I reply but this posting is so riddled with self-incrimininating and offensive material, frankly I don’t know where to start.

  1. Above all, there’s a deep insensitivity here - you should really have thought harder about how this might have sounded to the parents of the 32 children who were tragically ‘hunted’ down last month. Or for that matter, any parent of the 16,000 shootings that fatally kill a child (no matter how old) each year in this country.
  2. Not only does a posting like this give Bloggers a bad rap it helps perpetuate the notion that dads are neanderthals when it comes to being responsible, thoughtful parents.
  3. So when exactly is a hunter not a killer? When you’re hunting to survive, when it’s desperation, or when it’s just a fun pastime to kill a defenseless animal? Judging by your video you’re above the poverty line so I have to conclude the latter. Is it God’s will for you to kill unnecessarily, I wonder?
  4. Aside from the shameful wastefulness of hunting, I fail to see the purpose / usefulness of what you’re teaching your children. Idealogically, aren’t we having children these days to create a better group of people for the future, a more rounded society, smarter, more sensitve to the world we inhabit albeit a brief occupancy. A society that is free of the quirks and flaws that hampered us and our own anticedents? Isn’t that the responsibility of being a parent - to create a better version of yourself? Isn’t it upto our children to decide if they want to live with the gun or not - letting them play with them at an earlier age is hardly creating a neutral starting point, now is it?

  Try to think a little harder before you go public with something like this and help the world be a better place; putting a toy gun in the hands of a child teaches them one thing. A gun is fun, it’s good to shoot and I’ll shoot whatever I like.

• jt
  May 3, 2007 at 12:12 pm

  O.K People im am 14 almost 15 and i played with toy guns and swords when i was little and that taught me to respect the weapons and not to treat them like toys and today at the age of 14 io shoot gun and have many of them and i also have many knives and swords that i collect and i think my parents letting me play with the toys that i helped me respect the weapons and i agree thaty if parents isalate the kids from the weapons then it will make the kid clueless and make them want to have on and then they will not respect it so i think parents should use the toys as teaching tools

• Inside Fatherhood » A Response to the Liberal Minded Mentality Regarding Gun Control
  May 3, 2007 at 1:13 pm

  […] thought I would create a new blog post based on a comment I received on a different post. It was in response to whether or not we should allow kids to play with toy guns and knives. I said […]

• Ronald
  May 9, 2007 at 11:11 am

  Peter has no idea what he is talking about. Peter exhibits an irrational fear of weapons, probably due to emotional immaturity. “self-incriminating”??? What is that supposed to mean??

  Peter if you don’t like hunting fine, don’t do it. But do you eat meat?? Hunting is probably more humane than the fashion in which some animals are slaughtered.

  Guns are fun, just like cars and boats and power tools are fun. Yes they are fun to shoot, if they didn’t shoot they would just be chucks of metal. However, only criminals shoot whatever they want. Just like any tool if not used appropriately they can be dangerous. If I am not careful while driving I could kill someone. As with everything in life you must be responsible.

  Hitler disarmed his people, 6+ million died in the holocaust. Stalin’s subjects were disarmed, 20+ million died from starvation and murder under his reign. Mao disarmed his people 40+ million died.
  Want a more recent example: England banned private ownership of firearms. The crime rate skyrocketed and now so many knives are being used to commit crimes that they are considering restricting kitchen knives. If you want to rely on the government to babysit you, fine. Just don’t be surprised when the police fail to show up or don’t arrive in time to help you. Don’t believe me? “A government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen.” — Warren, et al, v. District of Columbia (1979).
  Also see:
  Bowers v. DeVito, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 686 F.2d 616 (1882)
  Cal. Govt. Code Sections 821,845,846
  Calogrides v. City of Mobile, 475 So. 2d 560 (S.Ct. Ala. 1985)
  Chapman v. City of Philadelphia, 434 A.2d 753 (Sup. Ct. Penn. 1981)
  Davidson v. City of Westminster, 32 C.3d 197,185 P.2d 894 (S.Ct. Cal. 1982)
  Hartzler v. City of San Jose, App., 120 Cal. Rptr 5 (1975)
  Keane v. City of Chicago, 98 Ill App 2d 460 (1968)
  Keane v. Chicago, 48 Ill. App. 567 (1977)
  Lynch v. N.C. Dept. of Justice, 376 S.E. 2nd 247 (N.C. App. 1989)
  Marshall v. Winston, 389 S.E. 2nd 902 (Va. 1990)
  Morgan v. District of Columbia, 468 A.2d 1306 (D.C. App. 1983)
  Morris v. Musser, 478 A.2d 937 (1984)
  Reiff v. City of Philadelphia, 477F. Supp. 1262 (E.D.Pa. 1979)
  Riss v. City of New York, 293 N.Y. 2d 897 (1968)
  Sapp v. Tallahassee, 348 So.2d 363 (Fla. App. 1977)
  Silver v. Minneapolis 170 N.W.2d 206 (Minn, 1969)
  Simpson’s Food Fair v. Evansvill, 272 N.E.2d 871 (Ind. App.)
  Stone v. State 106 Cal.App.3d 924, 165 Cal. Rep 339 (1980)
  Warren v. District of Columbia, D.C. App., 444 A.2d 1 (1981)
  Weutrich v. Delia, 155 N.J. Super. 324, 326, 382 A.2d 929, 930 (1978)

• Ronald
  May 9, 2007 at 11:23 am

  I missed that gun death stat in your post Peter, I’m calling BS. Here are the real facts:
  In 2004 (the most recent year for which data is available), there were 29,569 gun deaths in the U.S:

  * 16,750 suicides (56% of all U.S gun deaths),
  * 11,624 homicides (40% of all U.S gun deaths),
  * 649 unintentional shootings, 311 from legal intervention and 235 from undetermined intent (4% of all U.S gun deaths combined).

  -Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2007.

  Your full of it Peter and you know it. The number you gave is crap don’t try to lie to me, it annoys me. Have areal honest debate, don’t make up numbers it makes look like even more of an idiot.

• Peter Bryan
  May 9, 2007 at 4:49 pm

  Ronald, kind words, thank you. Two admissions;

  1. Granted, not all gun-owners are bad people.
  2. I stand corrected, in total 29,569 people died unnecessarily through gun death, not 16,000 (suicides by firearm). You’re right to point out how much larger the problem really is, thank you.
  Ref: The Economist, “America’s tragedy”, Apr 19th 2007 (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9040170)

  (extract)
  “More bleakly terrible is America’s annual harvest of gun deaths that are not mass murders: some 14,000 routine killings committed in 2005 with guns, to which must be added 16,000 suicides by firearm and 650 fatal accidents (2004 figures). Many of these, especially the suicides, would have happened anyway: but guns make them much easier. Since the killing of John Kennedy in 1963, more Americans have died by American gunfire than perished on foreign battlefields in the whole of the 20th century. In 2005 more than 400 children were murdered with guns….”

  Your earlier posting…

  >Bush, Blair and Merkel can hardly be compared to the dictators Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Are you suggesting we are in as much political danger now as we were 70 years ago? Are our economies and societies as vulnerable to the rise of a dictator now as they were then? Yes, there are racial and social tensions but seriously, what are you saying?
  >The UK’s crime rate: The truth is that the UK police has changed its system for recording crime since implementing new gun control laws. This change in recording crime made it appear that the crime rate went up…. The British Crime Survey, which was unaffected by this change, shows a decrease in crime. Go to the section under violent crime in the British Crime Survey. “The increase in violent crime recorded by police, in contrast to estimates provided from the BCS, appears to be largely due to increased recording by police forces. Taking into account recording changes, the real trend in violence against the person in 2001/02 is estimated to have been a reduction of around five percent.” (from Chapter 6- “Violent Crime in England and Wales” of Crime in England and Wales 2001/2002- pdf file)

  You said you’re annoyed; does your annoyance find you reaching for YOUR gun? ;-)

  FINAL WORD: If you want to be taken seriously do your research (and spell-check wouldn’t go amiss either…)

• Ronald
  May 10, 2007 at 4:57 pm

  No, I don’t reach for my gun when I am annoyed. I do try to spell check my writing, though I am sure there are errors that I will miss. I am sorry I didn’t catch the omission of some rather important words. My bad. You try tried to give BS data and I called you out on it, do not insult my intelligence because you are unhappy I challenged your ideas.

  As for the facts, you are misunderstanding the real meaning of the stats provided. Suicides can not be counted towards your argument, since suicides are not enabled by the presence of firearms. People will kill themselves by any means if they depressed enough.

  The BCS is based on interviews with people. The real numbers are the incidents that are reported to police. http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/sta_index.htm
  The changes to the report crime data were made in 2002. In 1997 England enacted a ban on ownership of handguns in the two years following, before any changes to reporting standards, there was a 40% rise in the number of handgun crimes. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1440764.stm)

  As for the political situation in the US or anywhere else for that matter, yes I would argue that we are at risk for an oppressive tyrannical government. Jews living in Germany never dreamed the holocaust would happen to them. Many Russian and Chinese supported their respective revolutions and lived to regret it. History demonstrates that no good comes from being disarmed.

  Did you even bother to look up any of the legal cases I named? I am not putting my trust in the government when it comes to my safety.

  I am a gun owner, but I am not a violent person . You don’t know me, so you will just have to take my word for it. I believe I started with the personal attacks and it was inappropriate, so I apologize if I came across as a jerk. Having said that, I don’t stereotype you and others who follow the same school of thought, so please don’t stereotype others who disagree.

• Barnegat Blummis
  May 12, 2007 at 9:19 am

  I am a gun owner. I own three handguns. They are kept loaded and out in plain sight on the coffee table as a subtle subliminal message to all visitors about what I can do if I were totally crazy.

  In addition, when I was a little kid, I had a toy bombsight with four little bombs and a nice target. I had many waterguns, a bazooka, a mortar, a howitzer (Swedish Army surplus) with only 45 rounds of HE and 12 of smoke and a few random RPG’s which I fired at passing trucks. I had four BB guns, with BB’s and dart ammo as well as a .22 rifle (automatic) and a US hand grenade which was mistakenly labeled “decommissioned”.

  I played with this stuff only about 7 hours every day and only injured 17 of my closest friends and relatives.

  Nowadays, or at least when they release me from the institution, I am a neurosurgeon and part-time sandwich chef at a Burger King near you.

  See? Playing with weapons hasn’t changed my basic peace-oriented, meditative and tender soul.

• MK
  May 12, 2007 at 1:44 pm

  I just wanted to toss in my $.02…

  I am a firearms afficionado…in college I developed an interest in shooting sports (not hunting, just punching holes in paper targets). I became a very good competitive shoter, shooting regulalrly in an indoor rimfire league (.22), centerfire handgun matches (.45) and high powered rifle matchs (30-06). My interest was sincere enough that I wanted to take it to another level, and became an NRA Certified handgun instructor. I staunchly defend our right to keep and bear arms as resposible American citizens. I say this because it is a somewhat enigmatic interest for a peace loving, bleeding heart liberal who abhors violence.

  I have chosen not to allow my children to play with toy guns or other toys resembling weapons which inflict injury or destruction for this simple reason. I do no want my children (or those they play with) to ever become comfortable or desensitized to weilding a weapon against another human being…play gun or not. If a child develops a level of comfort with this pseudo violence, it sets a foundation which MAY make it easier to do so with a real weapon. Now, my wife nows how to defend herself or our family with a gun, and I will similarly teach my children the safe use of real guns when they have reached a suffiecient level of maturity. However, since they will not have had a foundation in pointing at others playing “bang, your’re dead”, it will be far easier for me to impress upon them the horrific destructive power of a gun, and they will develop the proper fear and respect for such an ominous tool. Two fundemental concepts in becoming an NRA Certified handgun instructor are #1) treat every gun as if it were loaded and #2) never point a gun at anything you do not wish to destroy. I believe these lessons will be better learned if they have not been playing with toy guns, pointing them at others, and becoming desensitized to this action. If the time ever comes when a member of my family may need a gun to defend themselves or our family, they will be full of the sense of gravitas such an action entails. I pray such a time never comes to us, or anyone else. A weapon is a tool of absolute last resort, and play guns inhibit this value.

  Good luck raising healthy kids, who reject violence. We are raising the stewards of our future safety. God Bless!

• Amie
  May 14, 2007 at 12:57 am

  (I Stumbled Upon this post.)I am not a father, I am not a gun owner, I am not a Republican, but I am a parent who allows her children to play with toy weapons.
  Toy swords were a given since our family does Renn. and Medieval reenacting. So in essence, our boys are actually trained to play with swords…the right way.
  The toy gun debate raged inside of me as our first son’s first birthday approached. I finally relented, realizing that hundreds of generations played with toy guns before any child thought to take a real one to school and kill classmates.
  We are incredibly strict about how the boys are allowed to play guns. My eldest (5 years old) got his rights revoked, so to speak, after pretending to shoot the family dog. We only tolerate the highest level of respect for all life (don’t read into that, as I am not anti-hunting).
  The point is, if there is one in this tired rambling, that all the cliches about gun ownership are actually true. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” “If we outlaw guns, only criminals will own them.” “Criminals will always find a way to get a gun, just like they do now.”

• Peter
  May 17, 2007 at 11:03 pm

  Gosh, I was invited to comment on this subject and when I did the author of this very website personally abuses me using profanity and highly resentful language. My comments were never aimed at anyone personally; this is an evocative subject - there’s no denying it, but I think we can all agree that your crude and foul abuse is uncalled for. It unfortunately does you little to no credit and serves only to disencourage a balanced conversation which if I’m not grossly mistaken was what you were originally hoping for. In any case, some follow ups….

  Is a butcher more resourceful with his ‘kill’ than a hunter? Does a hunter eat every scrap of meat I ask (yes, even the lips and ears!)? Doubtful… This is not the strongest of arguments. Bluntly it seems, hunting is fun (I’m sure even an alledged liberal like me might enjoy it!) and that’s that. There’s no other meaningful justification, not even herd management… Come on. Seriously no ones fooled by that.

  Cars as weapons. A large proprotion of deaths from car accidents are actually a result of one driver being drunk. In the hands of a sober rational driver, a car is no more a weapon than the meagre cigarrette (an even larger killer than cars, you’ll agree). Is mankind’s free will the real culprit (rhetorical)?

  The real discussion is not to ban guns but to ensure they don’t get into the wrong hands. Everyone has a right to own a gun, I accept that, but that doesn’t neccesairly mean that I need to make that decision for my child. When she grows up she can decide for herself. Encouraging her to play with a gun creates a bias. This isn’t a liberal stab at gun laws, it’s just my personal opinion.

  More alarming though is this concept of arming students at school and in particualr how armed students at Virginia Tech would have resulted in fewer deaths. Perhaps fewer students would have died, yes, I can see that. But seriously now, kids with loaded weapons? Ask yourself, is there at least a 1% chance students could shoot oneanother over trivial matters such as a disagrement or lover’s tiff? Sure, absolutely, no one can disagree with that. Is that 1% a low enough price? Surely not.

  Are teenagers more or less emotionally balanced than adults? Bluntly (excuse me here teenagers, wait a dozen years and return to this site and perhaps your view will change); they’re less balanced. Do adults trust them 100% of the time? Of course not, and again, not to disparage teenagers but in all honesty we all remember what it was like to be a teenager - you’re still growing up, trying to figure out life, death, rebellion and not least love. Certainly personally, my teenage years and well into my early twenties for that matter were amongst the least rationale and perhaps that’s true for others. Giving a teenager a gun and the power to end his life or that of another makes no sense whatsoever.

  And finally, would total deaths at the school exceed 32? Quite probably…

• Jacob Rodgers
  Jun 1, 2007 at 7:38 pm

  I’m 14 year old boy who owns a .22 rifle,20 ga. shot gun,paintball stuff,toy gun,swords,knifes,and airsoft guns.you may find me unqualified or inexperienced but I would like to state my
  view!
  Experience with a gun is a thing I think
  all young men should experience!
  It is like a car, what would you do with a car
  if you have never touched one! for me, (I’ve never
  used one) I would not mess with it!
  If a weapon is cast in the same light,
  what happens when the time comes that
  you need to know how to use one?!
  With power comes responsibility!
  I have not and will never not, (unless it is the last
  resort,) ever train my gun at anything or anyone
  I do not mean to!

• Al Frank
  Sep 22, 2007 at 5:53 pm

  I think you’re all missing the crux of the thing; if your kid is stable he can play with toy guns and grow up fine, if he’s unstable you can give him a pencil and he will eventually try to stab someone with it. Nobody wants to admit that their child is abnormal, but ignoring the problem just leads to problems for everyone else.

• Bad Dad
  Sep 23, 2007 at 5:36 pm

  I played pretty much by myself as a kid. No siblings, no friends. I played with cap guns and wooden swords I made. I watched way too much TV than I should’ve. My parents weren’t home much. Now, I’m nearly forty and haven’t gone postal yet.

  I’ve got four sons under eight. They’ve all played with toy swords, light sabers and water pistols for years. They know what they’re for because they’ve watched countless shows with dueling, police chases, space battles.

  Good versus evil. Superheroes against supervillians. When Star Wars ends, the kids run around playing Jedi or Clone Troopers. When Superman ends, they run around punching me. It allows them to express and burn off some of that aggressive instinct.

  My wife and I take time to explain fantasy versus reality to them after watching a movie. We have many times instructed them about certain rules of conduct. Don’t point at face or try to hit someone’s head. Stop playing if the other person says ’stop.’

  They get a little crazy at times, but under supervision they have fun adventures. If my wife and I continue to be vigilant this way, I believe the kids will grow up with an understanding of the real dangers.

• Guy
  Nov 6, 2007 at 10:48 am

  I am a hunter who is also a college student. As i go to a school that is very open to the ideas of huning and shooting for fun. I ask Peter if he has ever hunted in his life before. I am in the midwest and as anyone who lives in this area can tell you, it can get cold. I love to hunt deer. Going out at 4:30-5 in the morning in November is far from fun. I hunt becuse I do no want to eat meat that has been filled with different posions and whatever else they add to meat these days. As we also have a large organic garden, killing the deer helps to keep our garden alive and well. Do we waste any part of the animal? That depends on what you mean by waste. I admit that we do no use he guts and the bones, but we do donate the hides and use all the meat.
  I also shoot for fun and for compettition. I have two pistols and i worked very hard to get as well as rifles and shotguns that i either bought myself or was given as gifts.
  When i was a young kid i played with guns swords and knives almost daily. I grew up being outside most of my life. I was not shut up inside of the house playing video games. My dad was almost never home and having a garden and small scale farm animals, my mother did not have alot of time to spend with my brother and I. We had to make due with what we had. We loved the stories of Robin Hood and other such stories. We would make swords, bows, staves, daggers,axes, maces, you name i we made it. When we got to about 6 years old we “found” the world of cowboys. We got cap guns and then spent hours playing good cowboy bad cowboy. As my family is very involved in the Native American community we never played cowboys and indians. In our stories the indians were the “good guys”.
  In short (because i need to get to class) playing with toy guns and swords has helped me in life. It helped me from becoming bored and for becoming too overweight. As a hunter i get the saifaction of being able to provide for myself and my family. I know that if and when i have kids, if they want to play with fake guns and swords, i will be more than willing to help them make their own.

• Peter
  Nov 6, 2007 at 7:31 pm

  Guy, interesting, thanks!

  Not clear on what follow up you expected but to answer your question, no, I have never hunted. Presumably you don’t have children.

  Organic meat btw, might be something you’d like to look into, next time you’re not keen on the 4:30am wake-up…..

• Guy
  Nov 22, 2007 at 3:56 pm

  deer are organic meat…..as are all the animals that we raise and shoot to eat as well…

• John, London UK
  Jan 30, 2008 at 12:08 pm

  Just over 3000 died in 911 and you went to war.
  I Just find is amazing that since 911 over a quarter of a million Americans have died by the gun in America, just seems crazy.
  here in the UK we have a couple of hundred a year for a population of about 60 million
  the US has about 30,000 a year for a population of about 300 million.
  So if you agree with the pro gun lobby who say its not the gun, but the person, then Americans must have a lower regard for human life.
  I was always told as a kid don’t carry a knife or a gun because one day you will use it, and experience has taught me this is true.
  I only hope that your next president declares a war on the murder that is happening in the towns and cities of the US, but I suspect profit will intervene.
  Stay safe.

  John UK

• Misha
  Jan 31, 2008 at 10:57 pm

  I think you should be abel to play with them as a game!

• Jerome
  Feb 3, 2008 at 2:26 am

  Peter,

  Let’s ban STAR WARS - its about WAR…Lets ban Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, Batman, Harry Potter (magic, guns, wands, evil)….they all are violent and bad for all of our children!

  Let’s continue to not teach our children the difference between right and wrong….TV can do a better job….especially those in Hollywood…they have the best values!

  Your daughter is probably allowed to play with Barbie Dolls, right? If so, I guess she will end up pregnant and overly obsessed with her looks in her early teens…I’m probably wrong though because having her play with Barbie Dolls is too gender biased, right?

  Let’s ban Cars, they end up in more deaths than guns!…Let’s ban Cigarettes, they Kill too.

  Let’s tell people what they can and can’t do…the Left knows better right (let’s tell them to “Be Green”…however, we will fly in our corporate jets and do what ever we want…do as we say..not as we do..)..

  Let’s ban all weapons and ensure that we only focus on discourse with our enemies, as the terrorist would prefer to talk with us…..they would never harm us if we just got rid of our weapons…right?

  How many billions of men around the globe have played with toy guns (or imitation guns / sticks) when they were young boys. Boys instinctively gravitate toward improvised weaponry. I guess you were the exception, right? I guess statistics show that this is a bad thing, right?

  How far is the Left willing to go to control our lives?

  How many of our daily decisions do they want to control?

  How will our parental rights not be lost, if the political correctors of America get their way?

  Give me a break!

  If you don’t like it…why don’t you go live in another country with your Socialist, or I dare say Communist leanings?

• 123456789
  Apr 22, 2008 at 9:14 pm

  I think everybody’s overreacting a little bit.
  I owned a shotgun. I hunted some stuff.
  I got over it.
  Big Deal?

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