relationships

Another in the long line of daily articles published by the StarTribune designed to demonize guns. Yesterday it was some guy from NH writing about how scary it was that they actually raffle off guns for fundraisers. This article is from NYC, where they tell you how much pop you can drink. Maybe tomorrow's article will come out of Chicago, telling us how to control guns because it's working so well there. Bill G.

Why have gangs become a priviledged class? Why are police and politicians unwilling to acknowledge that gangs are the source of the vast majority of gun crimes? Why aren't we finding modern day versions of Melvin Purvis, and spending the resources wo war on the gangs that are poisoning the communities? We need gang busters!

Most of my generation grew up with toy guns of all shapes and sizes. They were a fundamental part of childhood and along with firearm safety classes gave us both an understanding of what guns are and how they should be respected. We weren't all transformed into the crazed killers that gun control advocates are warning us about. Expanding firearm safety programs would be a good idea now, just as it was then. Knowledge is power.

When young children interact with other young children, they act out "morality plays", learning and testing good and bad, "good" groups and "bad" groups, concepts such as death and consequences of actions, and proper interaction. Play is learning, after all... Boys not allowed to have a toy gun will use sticks and fingers as guns, and borrow a friends to play. An imaginary gun is an equalizer and an empowerer... Children are not adults, young children will never have those skills and they are not going to sit around and intellectualize morality and ethics - their play has clear winners and losers... Most men I know own guns - nearly every man whom I consider "over fascinated" with weapons was not allowed to have a gun as a kid. Anecdotal of course, but enough to think about a relationship existing... Come to think of it, they are also pretty rigid in their views of society...

My children had several toy guns available when they were young, and it was a conscious decision on our part. My daughter was never that interested, and my son and his friends played many kinds of games, of their choice, but only a few that used toy guns - often instigated by the two boys whose parents didn't let them have a toy gun. (Kids' play was almost always observed and monitored from a distance.). One rule for the kids and toy guns - know where the barrel is pointing at all times.. When they were old enough - around 11 or so, I took them to a gun range and let them fire pistols- so they would have some grounding in reality to offset the fantasy of movie and TV shooting (unlike in the movies, it is hard for most people to actually hit a 3 foot square with a pistol from over ten feet away). Neither kid has any interest in guns one way or the other, they are passionate about certain sports they played, and they are moderate and tolerant in their views... Felt it was better to familiarize them with potentially dangerous things than deny them and let them take their chances unsupervised later.

My son has never used a piece of cheese as a gun. It's absurd to say that a boy will play guns with whatever is available, if toy guns aren't made available. Not only is this blatantly sexist, it's outdated and completely incorrect. If a child is told that guns are not toys and that message is made clear, they will get it. In fact, it is very confusing to a child who is allowed to play with guns at home to then be told at school or in other settings that playing with guns is NOT okay. We used to let our son play with toy guns (and my husband hunts) but once we decided to take away that type of play, he didn't really care. Out of sight, out of mind.

Good grief. They are toys. The key here is communication. I have a couple Nerf guns and Star Wars blasters in my house. They have been the opening for conversations with my kids (1 boy, 2 girls) about guns, gun safety, how to respect any gun - whether toy or real, and what the difference is in the rules for real versus toy guns, etc. Having a toy gun or not isn't the issue. It's the conversations or lack thereof between adults and the kids that makes the difference. Just banning all guns means that your kids never get the benefit of the conversations and education about guns and gun safety. It's a way for parents to avoid an unpleasant topic for them.