Disarming The Toy Box

[DaveTec]

I've got kids. We've always had toy guns. Plastic ones, metal ones, battery operated ones, CO2 powered ones, spring loaded ones, green gas operated ones, laser type, paint type, pellet and bb type. Nerf type and rubber band type. There were homemade rocket launchers, those count as toy guns, and who could forget the tinkertoy/rubber band pistol type crossbows? Hells bells we made guns out of LEGOs, Playdough, lincoln logs and erector set rail guns.

As kids our GI Joes were equipped with real live lady fingers. Nothing better than a couple of boys, a big sand box, a couple packs of lady fingers, several GI Joes and a couple of BB guns. We used to spend entire weeks in pitched mock battles!

That freakin toy box gun round up is merely socialist indoctination. Guns are bad kiddies! Will they round up all the tomahawks and bows too? Otherwise prepubescent indians across the nation are going to rise up and smite all the unarmed cowboys!

 

[Tyson C.]

when i was little my mom told me i could not have a motorcycle. i have now owned two sport bikes since i was 20yrs old .

my point is....you take something away or tell a kid no, they will do what they can to get that one thing....have we not. wait till they get older and say man i had this cool looking toy AK-47 i sure like that gun...wonder what the real thing does....hmmmm. to me this whole thing sounds like an irrational thought, that some one had, get rid of the guns- get rid of the guns- the government will protect you kids .

not to step on toes but i bet the story that was told about the 14yr old with an air rifle, didn't include how trigger happy are around and can't control their thoughts/actions when "in the line of duty".

so sad.

 

[redneck1861]

I like this one "Why don't we buy all the kids fake hypodermic needles, so they can bring them to be smashed too? That should solve the drug epidemic in this country! How about having the little nippers smash fake plastic beer cans? No more alcoholism!" or What about plastic replicas of our politicians? Smash them

When I first read that I thought you said somthing else

 

[redneck1861]

not to step on toes but i bet the story that was told about the 14yr old with an air rifle, didn't include how trigger happy are around and can't control their thoughts/actions when "in the line of duty".

Wow really? if someone points a rifle at you, you wouldn't shoot them? most air-rifles out today, you can't tell that they are not real guns from a distance. If someone points a gun at me that looks like a real gun, I sure will shoot them. What if that air rifle was a real rifle and the kid had shot and killed the LEO?

 

[grizzly97]

when i was little my mom told me i could not have a motorcycle. i have now owned two sport bikes since i was 20yrs old .

my point is....you take something away or tell a kid no, they will do what they can to get that one thing....have we not. wait till they get older and say man i had this cool looking toy AK-47 i sure like that gun...wonder what the real thing does....hmmmm. to me this whole thing sounds like an irrational thought, that some one had, get rid of the guns- get rid of the guns- the government will protect you kids .

not to step on toes but i bet the story that was told about the 14yr old with an air rifle, didn't include how trigger happy are around and can't control their thoughts/actions when "in the line of duty".

so sad.

Sad indeed. But as I stated earlier, if the parents taught the kid better, it never would have happened.

 

[cjjtulsa]

Good on ya for telling them to stop. I've done the same, and tried to explain to them why they shouldn't do that. If kids are pointing guns at strangers, then it sounds like the parents have not instilled proper gun handling disiplines in them. A lot of today's problems could be solved by better parenting and the good old paddle in school. (let's see what that stirs up)

Disagree - mostly. Kids need to be taught gun safety for sure, but if having one's ass busted for pointing toy guns at people was the norm, 99.9% of the kids I grew up with (including me) would have been beaten to a pulp. Cops & Robbers, Cowboys & Indians, Yanks vs. Krauts......we did it all. And did lots of toy gun pointin'. I think people have gotten way, way too uptight - and thus breeds the stupid shat like the topic of the original post. I've had kids point toy guns at me before....doesn't bother me. If it isn't obvious that it's a toy, then that's a different story. But most are pretty evident.

Got my kids high-capacity Nerf guns for Christmas; I'll be right in the middle of a firefight, and will be happy to do so. There's a difference between the toys and what's locked up in the safe, and they know it.

 

[DaveTec]

Good point cjjtulsa. It is paramount that children actually know the difference. Toy guns can be dangerous. Real guns are always dangerous. Both of my kids know exactly what happens when they pull the trigger on a real gun. Because they have been extensively taught safety and correct handling. And have actually shot real guns.

 

[lockoutmonkey]

All of the kids need a book called "mini weapons of mass destruction". It shows all kinds of things from how to make trebouchets(sp), catapults, ping-pong ball cannons, mech pencil bb-guns etc. My sons homeschool group made some of these and they enjoyed it so much I had to get him the book. Borders has it and this book is great. I highly recommend it.

 

[DaveTec]

All of the kids need a book called "mini weapons of mass destruction". It shows all kinds of things from how to make trebouchets(sp), catapults, ping-pong ball cannons, mech pencil bb-guns etc. My sons homeschool group made some of these and they enjoyed it so much I had to get him the book. Borders has it and this book is great. I highly recommend it.

Looks like me and mine have a trip to Borders tonite!

 

[inactive]

Dominic Johnson, a 10-year-old fourth-grader with a fledgling Mohawk, brandished his black, long-nosed toy gun and caressed the muzzle appreciatively.

“It’s like a shotgun mixed with a rifle’’

I am laughing out loud at this, for about 18 different reasons!

First, the journalism that is sensationalizing this "punk" kid's lust for the toy gun (he has a Mohawk, therefore he is a punk. He is caressing, therefore he is lustful).

Secondly, The idea of a "shotgun mixed with a rifle" reminds me of:

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Third, I just KNOW that is how my son will act when he is 10



PS I want this shirt:

http://www.someguytshirt.com/productpages/wacky/mens/wackyshootsmen.htm

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