nitrogen wrote:I hate toy guns, mostly because I think they give kids the idea that GUN == TOY, which in my eyes is quite dangerous.
I'd rather give them the real thing; teach them the safety rules, etc. When I know my kids know how to safely handle REAL guns, maybe THEN i'd let them have the fun water gun, etc.
I fully respect your feelings of course, but will say that, at least in our family, as a child I was clearly shown and knew the difference between a REAL gun and a toy gun at a very early age. When I was old enough for a cap gun (3 maybe??), I also knew that "Daddy's gun was a real gun (just like on the cowboy shows!
), made a BIG bang, and with it he could REALLY blow stuff up or kill with it," and could be extremely dangerous if not properly handled.
We may have been in the minority, but neither I nor my four other brothers and sisters were confused in the slightest between the differences. My Dad made sure of that by showing us all at about that age what his pistol, a Colt .44-40, could do (
"See that old clay pot sitting on that log out there? BOOM! [as fragments and dirt settled, leaving only the pot's bottom on the log.] Now don't ever let that happen to you! A bullet can't tell the difference between you, one of your brothers or sisters, or that old pot, only you can."), how loud it was (even with our fingers pressed tight into our ears), and that it was NOT a toy and wasn't to be even touched without him around.
He would unload it and let us "check it out" to see how heavy it was (too heavy to lug around at that age, for sure!), and asked that should we ever be curious and want to look at it again, all we need do is tell him so he can unload it first. And, if we ever wanted to shoot it, to do the same and he would take us out and let us shoot it. But, it was years before any of us felt that want (at least until were 10 or so). By that time we already had plenty of training in safe gun handling and experience shooting .22's and .410's.
With the exception of that one pistol, which was kept behind his bedside dresser and inaccessible to a crawler/toddler, he kept all his guns locked up. But, since we all knew where he "hid" the key (and he knew we knew), I'm glad that he stressed that keeping the gun cabinet locked didn't mean that we couldn't handle his guns, but he just didn't want us to handle them without him overseeing our safety habits until we were old enough. There were plenty of times when we took him up on his offer to look at them, especially when we had friends over (who all had parents that were gun-savvy and hunters or target shooters alike, thank goodness). This also gave him the chance to explain proper gun safety not only to us, but also to them, too.
Anyway, that's my opinion. Teach them what a real gun is and can do at a very early age, squelch their curiosity by letting them handle an empty gun and explain what the various parts do and how to safely handle and care for it before their "sneakiness" gets the better of them, and take common-sense security measures to keep your family safe.
