Just Child's Play? Parents re-thinking letting kids play war games

Fox News ^ | Thursday, August 21, 2003 | Amy C. Sims

[Skooz]

NEW YORK

[Caipirabob]

Hi, we have one of those army/navy surplus stores. We found the guns at a dollar-store of all places! I couldn't believe it myself.The fatigues were expensive, but they use them a lot.

Here's some good toy gun sites:

Hobbytron

www.kitestailstoys.com

[ladylib]

Hey, a NJ school already banned fingers and a stupid judge upheld it.

[John Will]

Oh God this is bringing back memories of my toys.
Let's see
Gi Joes
Militarly Micro Machines.
Toy, Swords, Guns.
Many sticks.
Of course I "matured".
The toys are better.

[mlmr]

Thank you for the links

[Dan from Michigan]

Let. If my parent's didn't let me, I would have done it anyway.

[rageaholic]

Funny thing is, you can give a boy only the most peaceful toys, and he'll still figure out a way to play war with them. Its just in a normal boy's nature.

[Newbomb Turk]

If mom had only taken away my little green Army men. I would most likely be hanging curtains for a living instead of the Army.

[Uncle Miltie]

Every seven year old should receive a Daisy Red Ryder, and instruction on how to use it.

[John Frum]

I had those little green army men and also the 12" size GI Joes. If only my folks hadn't tossed all that stuff out, today it might be worth a tidy little sum....

[Freedom4US]

Yup, every kid should be able to grow up free of the weenified "experts" who really don't know their head from their third point of contact.

That's not to say kids shouldn't enjoy educational stuff - fireworks, chemistry sets, electronics (Boys book of..) etc. Building forts, climbing trees, magnifying glass, microscopes, telescopes, BB-Guns, later real firearms once they show and understand responsibility..

Litigation, pole smokers and other subversives have pretty much taken all the fun out of being a kid in a lot of ways. I doubt they even sell chemistry sets anymore. Considering just about every invention worth a damn was crufted together in somebody's garage, it's scary.

Don't forget Johnny Horton on 45 RPM, good books (pre 70's Scholastic Book Services were pretty good) etc.

"Runaway Robot" by Lester Del Ray was my favorite as a kid.

[Terriergal]

LOL great pic!

[Terriergal]

I have plenty of stuff my kids can start out on.

Recently I decided myself to turn blood back on. It's much more satisfying (In addition you can be more certain you hit the bad guy when you see that puff of red/pink.)

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Waiting for Raven Shield: Athena Sword now...

(tap tap tapping my fingers on the desk impatiently...)

Ghost Recon is WAYY too easy now that I finished RVS on Elite (without losing anyone.)

[Terriergal]

I think ... aren't they talking about 3D games? Much more realistic.

[Terriergal]

OMG they're NOT! LOL I thought they HAD to be talking about stuff like SOF and MOH and Navy Seals.

Sheesh.

If games are war-specific, it's evidence children are paying too much attention to the news

Nuts.

All kids during wars have done this. It's natural and healthy to act out this stuff in play while your mind sorts it out.

They are as bad as some of the Christian Ghetto that wants to shelter everyone from every evil reality that's out there. Granted you don't expose kids to more than they can handle if at all possible but they have to learn to deal with an evil world.

[Terriergal]

All kids during wars have done this

And even in peace time.

[Terriergal]

Awesome plan dude. My girls (10 and 7.5) are going up to the shooting range for a kids' conservation day... I'm pretty sure they get to shoot.

But if not there's no shortage of that around our house for them to enjoy. And the 4 yr old boy will get started as soon as possible too.

[eyespysomething]

Good grief. Out in my minivan are 3 cap guns, very real looking except for the orange tip on the end. The orange tips will be gone by next week (the guns are only 1 week old). My sons use them to get idiots out of my way when I'm driving. I'm sure some have been shocked to see a 3 yr old "shooting" at them at an intersection, but most laugh.

We must have 30 toy guns, 15 toy swords of all types, 3 big ol' Star Wars guns with sound effects, and other various "violent" accessories (camo, helmets, flak jackets, "night vision" goggles, etc). Sometimes its the cowboy look, sometimes its US Army, sometimes its Batman. We have a fort, and woods with trails in them.

In our neighborhood, our house is the one to go to.

Especially for the boys.

And my kids always get tons of praise from their babysitters/teachers/adults taking care of them, because they are so damn polite and sweet and smart and caring (to the extent little boys are). Hmmm, imagine that.

[BlueLancer]

"They make guns out of everything and sticks will easily turn into swords..."

When my brothers and I were young, we didn't have store-bought toy guns so we turned to the best thing to use instead .. baseball bats.

Held under the arm, it was a submachine gun.

Held up to the shoulder, it was a sniper rifle.

Held in two hands, it was a rifle with a bayonet on it.

Held on the shoulder, it was a bazooka.

Try that with your sissy plastic guns.

[Terriergal]

 The sight of a child holding a toy gun can strike fear in a parent's heart

Here's what Cyrano and a friend of ours came up with for our production of the Sound of Music (had three Nazi guards during the concert scene.). Originally they were using these silly flat wooden guns with the stock regular stained wood, and the rest of it painted white. It looked so ridiculous. So we took our K98 and had our friend cut out a model from some 2X10 pine, added a dowel for the barrel and the bolt, then Cyrano added the ball on the end of the bolt and painted and stained it. (That's us, yes - and no Cyrano isn't graying yet - it's baby powder and gel.)

Had a couple of cops in the audience ask tongue-in-cheek if they were real... what since we were in the High School auditorium.

One lady said to Jason while looking at me in costume holding the gun... "There's something wrong with this picture."

His response "Yeah... and it ain't the gun!"

[Terriergal]

Very creative. I played with sticks for guns and mostly trucks too. But sometimes we just had to break out the artillery and start heaving rocks... much to our parents' chagrin...