Toy gun, viewed innocently or not !

Calistemon

^We don't allow candy cigarettes anymore now either.^
I used to love those too, Gagajo
Hence lots of fillings!

They're called candy sticks now, my granddaughter has them.
Exactly the same but without the red end ?

Toothpaste is better these days, V3ra, we'd never heard of fluoride
?

I've never allowed my children to have toy replica guns, playing at killing people just doesn't sit right with me

From my own experience, they will improvise with whatever is to hand anyway - a stick, a wooden spoon, etc. How else do you explain a child who hasn't been exposed to anything like watching guns on tv or similar picking up a stick and immediately pretending it's a gun? My son was obsessed with the idea of becoming a soldier from almost as soon as he could walk and talk - we don't come from a military family, there was nothing like that around - but he insisted that's what he was going to be, and indeed, that's exactly what he did.

Calistemon

Toothpaste is better these days, V3ra, we'd never heard of fluoride
?

We lived in Coventry when fluoride in the city's water system was introduced.
"Best thing ever," according to our dentist at the time.
There was a local woman who mounted a very vociferous campaign against it as a matter of principle: she didn't have a tooth in her mouth ?

there's so little going on re new threads that when one starts up it gets spoiled by people not reading the title op and running away with allsorts of unrelated subjects!
TOOTHPASTE for goodness sake.!

Blondiescot

From my own experience, they will improvise with whatever is to hand anyway - a stick, a wooden spoon, etc. How else do you explain a child who hasn't been exposed to anything like watching guns on tv or similar picking up a stick and immediately pretending it's a gun? My son was obsessed with the idea of becoming a soldier from almost as soon as he could walk and talk - we don't come from a military family, there was nothing like that around - but he insisted that's what he was going to be, and indeed, that's exactly what he did.

This is true, a child ( usually a boy) will pretend that a stick is a weapon.We allowed our young son to have a silver coloured Western style gun, he also had a grey plastic dagger and a grey plastic sword and shield and had great fun in the garden chasing his siblings around ( they fought over turns with the gun.)However, these antics were confined to the garden or, when on a wet day, in the house and I didn’t allow him to take it out to shops/ walks etc.
He soon grew out of being interested in guns as he grew up.

It's just children playing make believe, I bought my Grandson a Nerf gun. He played in the garden with it, with the men children who seemed to like it more than he did.
I bought my son a gun water pistol, he promptly had it taken away from him when he went under the table to take aim at the cats. My fault with that one.
I did not let him go on the streets with it though. OP was correct taking it away from himin the supermarket. I have mixed feelings on this, and lots of children do enjoy playing make believe.

Grannynannywanny

Hahahahahahahahaha.

Thats funny.

The English Heritage Castle near me sold wooden swords and shields the last time I visited ,we stopped our GD looking at them in Richmond castle shop the last time we were there. They obviously see nothing wrong in wooden ones yet we have more and more stabbings. maybe we all need to change our ideas.
My GD who lived abroad practised weekly what to do if a gunman came into the building. She lived in a country where the gun laws are very slack and School massacres often happen.

lemsip

there's so little going on re new threads that when one starts up it gets spoiled by people not reading the title op and running away with allsorts of unrelated subjects!
TOOTHPASTE for goodness sake.!

???

I answered the OP and this was just an aside.
Reminiscing about all the dangerous toys and sweets we had as young children.

Thank goodness we don't have the gun culture they have in the States, Yammy.

A friend of mine was adamant that her son shouldn't even see a toy gun.

Didn't do much good. He's grown up and is now a soldier. Similar to a story earlier on in this thread.

Banning something can have an opposite effect. As we know, computer games are filled with guns and weapons. Children play these things. The marvel comic films, Spiderman and the like have guns in them.

If a ban is implemented all it will do is make them appear more appealing.

My grandsons aren't interested in playing with real guns, but they do play Fortnite and the like. Very interesting article posted earlier in the thread.

I agree that after all that waffling, it's probably best not to wander round a supermarket with a toy gun that looks like a real gun.

Didn't someone get arrested at an airport because his 4 year old was carrying a plastic water pistol that had come free with a magazine bought at the airport shop?

GS, aged 5, asked for Woody costume for Christmas and was given a cowboy hat, waistcoat, gingham neckerchief and chaps. But no gun. GS was dismayed but, being a born problem solver, he constructed his own out of the Lego set that he also got for Christmas. We spent a large part of Christmas Day lying down "deaded"; which was a bonus.

buffyfly9

My two grandsons each had an air rifle with telescopic sight (£400 each apparently) for Xmas from their parents. I could hardly lift the guns, they were so heavy. The 11 year old goes clay pigeon shooting and the 13 year old does target practice. They are both real animal lovers and lovely boys so I have no fears there but I was appalled to find that my now ex son-in-law had taken them "beating" with him. I'm afraid I didn't hold back, I said you mean you have been helping specially reared birds to fly up in the air so that some brainless idiot can get a big gun and shoot them out of the sky. I said what's next? smearing Fox blood on their innocent faces ??. It didn't go down well with the parents and I told the boys I was disappointed that they had taken part in it. We live in a rural area of Norfolk where it's common practice; I don't like it, I never have. The boys play Fortnite all the time, it's impossible to monitor it as all their friends are on it and they would feel excluded. I think it's in the DNA of boys as they would, as other GP,s have noted, pick up sticks and use them instead. I confess to buying them both a small Nerf with foam bullets some years ago and they play with them still !! I just hope the novelty of these air rifles wears off but they are not my children so I just have to bite my lip.

Interesting buffyfly
This from the Norfolk Police website
Firearms and Young People
The Firearms License law lays down age limits, which vary for different types of firearms and ammunition.
Air guns
18 years of age is the minimum age for the possession of an air weapon
Exceptions
People under the age of 18 may possess an air weapon so long as they are supervised by a person over the age of 21. Where the air weapon is being fired under supervision on premises, this exemption will only apply so long as no missile is fired which goes beyond the boundary of those premises
People under the age of 18 may also possess an air weapon whilst engaged in activities connected with target practice as a member of an approved rifle club or miniature rifle club or whilst using the air weapon at a shooting gallery.
People between 14 and 18 years of age may possess an air weapon on private premises where they have the consent of the occupier to have an air weapon with them. This will only apply so long as no missile is fired which goes beyond the boundary of those private premises.

Frankly I'd be mighty peed off if a total stranger took anything from my child. It is not your place to do so unless they may be danger to someone.
Let's take away anything that in this society today is seen by some as antisocial. Surely education is the key not restriction.

Apologies, I mis read the post and did not realise it was you GS that was involved.

However, if that is the case why did he have the gun with him in the first place?

He had the gun with him in the first place because he brought that and 2 other toys with him, it wasnt until we were actually up and down the isles that i homed in on the whole situation and absorbed it all which prompted me to start this thread.

When our son was born, we decided we wouldn't have toy weapons in the house. At age 3 he merrily shot us and any one else visiting the house, with his toy trumpet.
I don't know where he got the idea from as he only ever watched children's TV at the time. ?
He later had several toy guns which he played with occasionally at home and grew up to be a peace loving gentle soul.

I was raised in a gun owning family. My father, an ex soldier, hunted, as did my uncle and grandfather. My mother could also handle a gun and was a good shot.
My brother and I were taught how to use a gun safely by dad though I was not very good as my eyesight is poor.
It was part of life at the time in rural Worcestershire but attitudes change over time with stricter gun laws and better education. Plus the fact that you no longer needed to augment the family diet with the odd pheasant or rabbit!
Dad gave up his guns in the 1970s.

I refused to allow my DS to have toy guns and he simply made them out of Lego.

Doesn't matter whether child has a toy gun or not, they will just use something else, whether you are there to stop them or not.

I remember Alexei Sayle (I think) saying that his arents banned all guns so he used a potato (or was it a bread roll) as a gun instead.

I was one of those noble-minded mothers who would not buy guns, so my lovely gentle, loving, thoughtful son, made one from lego.

It is not the guns and the use of them that shapes children's attitude to arms and violence, it is the atmosphere and attitudes in the home.

This Christmas I bought DGS (11) a nerf gun. He used it for target shooting, no aggression, no tlk of killing people, just aiming and shooting at targets. I am completely happy with that.

I would be more concerned about the violent video games young people play these days

Tom Paxton said this way back in the 60's and still makes sense.

youtu.be/WphNO24h9nA