Do you let your children play with guns?
Saturday 6th of July 2013 | Category: Opinion | Written by: Iona BurchellThis is my current dilemma. Recently we went on holiday and my daughter was given some spending money by my mum. We both said she could spend it how she wanted to. She's almost 7 and I agreed that it would be nice to give her some independence. I never bargained on a toy gun being one of the preferred buying options however!
We were in the supermarket and I was hunting round for food in an unfamiliar place. I wandered off and left eldest daughter browsing the toy aisle whilst I popped to the next aisle. When I came back, there she was and there was this huge 'cowboy' style shot gun. Not only that, but it fired pellets too! They're soft pellets, but the toy was unusually realistic looking for my liking. I don't know if it made a difference because we were abroad, but I don't recall seeing one so 'realistic' over here. Don't get me wrong, it's bright red at the end and not life size obviously, but it's still a gun...
This threw me off balance to say the least. Guns have never been on our play agenda. We are getting her some of those Nerf guns for her birthday soon but they are clearly toys and the foam 'bullets' obviously not meant for anything other than play in my view. Generally though, I've never been pestered about buying a gun. We've let her have cowboy 'pistols' but none of them have ever looked remotely realistic and are very obviously toys.
I suppose that's the issue for me, it's more that the gun she had in her hands was not as 'toy like' as the others. Plus, I reasoned, she has so many varieties of toy swords lying around at home that I really can't have issues with the gun she was holding. To be honest, it's this particular gun that I have problems with. But this all happened in the middle of the supermarket in another country and I had to make a quick decision.
Having promised not to interfere in her toy buying, I couldn't very well say no to the gun. I told her I'd rather she didn't buy it, but obviously that was totally ignored and back it came with us. Sigh.
We have rules for playing with this gun. No pointing it at any living thing and definitely no firing of any pellets ever. I'm hoping the novelty wears off soon. I remember as a child only ever being able to play with toy guns that were not realistic looking and becoming slightly obsessed about playing with the more 'real' looking ones every time I went to a friends house who was allowed them. If I give in, hopefully they won't become a thing. That's my reasoning anyway.
I'm not at all comfortable with it, but only time will tell if I've made the right decision. What are your thoughts and experiences about this?
