Why do we allow kids to play with toy guns?

We have enough kids killing kids and crimes like this, so why do they make toy guns for kids?|||As another post said toy guns do not kill people! Nor do they encourage children to kill as millions of children play with them and do not go on to commit murder. You cannot blame toy guns as the reason a few kill, it is like saying playing with dolls and playing mommy at a young age encourages teen pregnancy, it is placing blame when we do not have an answer! I think parenting is a factor behind a lot of the problems we see in today's society, or rather lack thereof. Parents play a key role in child development, social skills, problem solving, morals and self esteem (just to name a few) and when we as parents fail in any of these area's we get children that are unprepared for real life and more often then not do not make the right choices in life. We as parents need to take some responsibility in our children's errors rather then blame the behavior on a toy. The biggest problem with real guns is how assessable they are to children not that when they were 7 they played with a toy gun! If your theory were correct then we should ban children from watching t.v , movies and the radio as it portrays violence and sex!|||Toy guns don't kill people.


Real guns don't kill people.





PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!





Teach your children to be responsible, mature human beings and there wouldn't be so many problems.





***No one will ever say, "Oh that Johnny is such a good boy, but that's only because he never had a toy gun."***|||Because they're fun! Guns don't kill people, people kill people. If we didn't have weapons we wouldn't have meat. Those kids that kill their parents and teachers weren't persuaded to kill them just because they played with guns as a child. Guns are not bad toys. I played with guns when I was a kid and I have no intention of ever hurting anyone.|||'Cause it's fun!|||I agree with the first answer!!|||If you have a problem with it then don't buy it. That's where good parenting come in at. I buy my son toy guns and hes 1. He got a toy riffle too..But he has good parents that will teach him right from wrong as he grows and understands. Its called GOOD PARENTING.





Give me thumbs down i dont give a ****.|||I have news for kids will create weapon out of anything. I have two cousins who did not have any guns when they were young yet they still created weapons. Another thing kids killing kids is a recent thing. For many years children especially young boys were allowed to play with guns. Go on ask your father, uncles, grandfather, I just bet they had guns. However there were no killing of kids. Why??? Because parent taught responsibility. They were told not aim or shoot at people.|||It's not toy guns that are the problem, it's real guns. Thankfully I live in a country where it's illegal for people to own one (except in rare cases where the person has a special gun licence).





Kids have played with toy guns, swords, knives etc for years and years. If you didn't give these kind of toys to your kids, they'd still play the same kind of make believe games, only using things they find outside, such as bits of wood, branches, bits of old metal etc (which could actually be dangerous, unlike the toys).





I don't believe in violence at all, and that's how I've brought up my son. Yet he still plays violent video games, watches violent movies etc, and played with toy weapons when he was younger.





I believe that inflicting violence on a child (even by raising your hand and smacking them), can teach them it's ok, but most intelligent children can differentiate between what's real and what's fantasy.|||The only toy guns my daughter can use is water guns :P|||The problem isn't toy guns, or real guns. It's people like you telling children guns are bad, and not educating them about gun safety. Your attitude creates an enormous amount of curiosity. That curiosity is what gets kids killed. Well, that and the ignorance.





I grew up in a pro-gun household, my parents both went hunting. My first hunting trip consisted of me carrying a bb gun for a walk around the pond "hunting rabbits" at age 4. I learned from an early age, I didn't have to sneak around. If I had a question, my father was more than happy to answer it. As a result, I never touched a gun behind his back.





My best friend, grew up in an anti-gun household. As a result, anytime we were left alone at my house, she pestered me to show her my dad's guns. Thankfully, thanks to my gun education I had enough common sense not to do so.





And even if there weren't toy guns, as others have said, kids would still create pretend guns out of other things. Building blocks, sticks, etc.





Face it, humans are a naturally violent species. It's society that eventually drums that out of us... or not.|||Because kids will make anything they find into a gun. The solution to gun crime is not pretending guns don't exist, the solution is teaching our kids morals and values.





People seem so surprised when they raise their kids with a 'no boundaries' mindset and they grow up to be felons.|||If you had a brain, you'd realize that guns don't shoot by themselves or load themselves on their own or even point at people on their own. It's the people behind the guns.





Teach your kids how to properly handle a gun (when they come of age to handle a real gun) and practice gun safety with the toy guns. And more importantly, teach your children violence doesn't solve a thing. Guns are used for more than just crimes. Hunting and sport are two of my favorite uses for them.





Plus, toy guns are fun :) My son plays cowboys all the time.|||I, personally, will not allow my son to play with violent toys (guns, swords, knifes, grenades, etc) when he's older. The reason they make those things goes back to our society and the fact that boys are "supposed" to be rough, tough masculine warriors and girls are "supposed" to be prim, proper little mommies and housewives--- so the same reason they make toy vacuum cleaners and baby dolls, to teach traditional gender roles to young children.|||better then them hitting each other with sticks|||I agree. Because they are fun. Teach your kid not to shoot people. If a child understands that the death of one person affects a hundred, then they'll be less inclined to 'snap' like you hear about on the news.|||Toy guns don't cause violence. People cause violence.





I am a female and I play GTA sometimes. I watch any and all movies. I am a police explorer. I have seen violence to the worst extent but I am not a violent person.





My mom didn't let me or my brother even play with water guns when we were little.


Now, my brother has airsoft, paintball, water guns.





There has been no negative effect.|||I don't know, but I can tell you this- MY son will never own a toy gun and that's for sure.





FYI. I don't blame toy guns for homicides or think that kids that play with them grow up to kill people, lmao, I just wouldn't like to see my son play with one, so he won't.|||because this is America and even babies have the right to bear arms. idk really could be because there fun toys. i guess you wouldn't get it though because your a girl. and for the record all the shooting kids did not play with toy guns when they were little. so i guess you theory is stupid. sorry|||You're really a Conservative, right?|||I can't stand toy guns, and do not allow them in my home. I don't allow video games that use guns in them either. We don't even have a water pistol.





I think that toy guns desensitize children to the damage that real guns can do.





Guns don't kill people, people don't kill people. People with guns kill people.





And for the person who said if we didn't have guns, we wouldn't have meat, please explain what all the slaughterhouses are for if we are hunting our own meat.|||Why do people go to war? Why do moms spray tan their 3 year olds and force them into beauty pageants? Why are animals brutally tortured and killed by the millions for food? Why do men abuse their wives? Why do millions of people love watching action movies which consist of nothing but people being blown up? Why do parents allow their children to have ACTUAL guns?





Because we live in a corrupt, violent society. Demonstrated clearly by all the answers on here supporting the use of toy guns. So many people think that guns are cool and manly. Then they teach these kinds of values to their children and most of them don't grow up to break the cycle. This is why so many people in the US voted for Bush and supported the war in Iraq.


I mean, people give kids actual guns thinking that they just need to be "responsible"... but HOW exactly do they think their kid is going to BENEFIT from a gun????? what exactly is a gun teaching your child??





The kind and peaceful people in our world are unfortunately a very small minority :( It's sad but reality :(





I wish that only people who were fit to be parents were allowed to have children. This reminds me of a line in the movie parenthood: "you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car - hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father."





:/ ughhhh... what a sad world :(





p.s I just would like to add, that I am a kindergarten teacher and I do not interrupt the children when they are fantasy playing and shooting people. I think it is important for children to play this out because it is their way of better understanding the violence that's happening in real life. However, I do have a conversation with the children after and I make sure that in their play, there was a happy ending. Also, there are no toy guns provided- obviously. And I wish that these things were not a reality so that the children did not have violence to imitate in free play.