I'm the least violent person I know. I had waterguns as a kid. My friends on summer days sometimes had such a blast running all over and trying to squirt each other with water. That's what it was too, we wanted to squirt with water, we weren't even pretending that we were killing. I was really surprised to hear that now even water guns are frowned upon as promoting violence.
I also had one of those little hand-made wooden "gun" with a cork in the end on a string and you pulled the handle back and pushed it in fast to make the cork pop out and make a "POP" sound. I got it at Silver Dollar City (hand crafted) and I loved that little thing.
I really have to agree with some of the others that a child playing with a toy gun of some type has little to do with whether they are of a violent nature and I do not think it is desensitizing to violence at all, because shooting with a squirt gun does nothing other than make someone else wet. I do think there are lines that should be drawn but that is really up to each parent with what they feel is best. The two "guns" I mentioned above were the only ones I had. We did play cops and robbers and those common childhood games but if we used "guns" we used our hands (index finger pointed out with the bottom three fingers folded in) as pretend ones. I guess it just comes down to what each parent feels is appropriate.
I DO feel that some video/computer games and violent movies on TV can desensitize to death and violence but that's another subject.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by K9soul
Bookmarks