Curious - Toy Guns in Your Home

An interesting thing that I realized being a "boy mom" is they will turn anything into a gun if they have an interest - fingers, legos, carrots, a strategically eaten sandwhich - I swear it is hardwired. LOL!
Yes, my husband is a hunter and I don't have any issues with toy and play guns. But we have strict rules about pointing at people and anything they do point at people, we have never refered to as "a gun." May be semantics to some, but it allows us to stick to our "never" rule and mean it!
Water squirters and bubble blowers, water soakers, etc. is what we call the items they CAN point.
We also reiterate when guns are used, who uses guns, etc.

6 moms found this helpful

I'm not going to go so far as to call myself anti-gun, I grew up around guns, my dad hunted and was a police officer, so there were guns around all my life. We have guns in our home, locked and unloaded, as my husband also enjoys hunting. I do believe they have a place, but I don't allow toy guns for my three year-old son. Guns are not toys and I don't believe that at his age he can grasp how very different a toy gun would be from the real thing, or the severity and permanence of the consequences associated with misusing a real gun.

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We do have a hand gun, but I wouldn't consider myself "pro gun" at all. My husband has a permit to carry a handgun. At home it is kept in a locked box, unloaded and the ammo is stored in another location (on another floor of the house). My son has never, on his own, shown any interest in "playing guns" so it's not an issue. He is now 7. He has a Nerf gun but he's never really played with it. He does like to simulate ships and airplane bombings in the tub with his Mario Toys and Dixie cups.
I don't think kids will "naturally" play "guns" if they never see it being done. It's not just a "boy thing."
My son also knows (for sure & for real) that if he is ever in the position where he sees a real gun, he is not to touch it and he is to tell an adult immediately. I think at age 7, he knows the difference between a real gun and a toy gun.

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No, I do not allow any type of gun in my home. We use water ballons and other squirt toys instead. I personally do not like the message that guns send. I consider myself completely anti-gun

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With my oldest girl I was a little bit uptight. There was a "we don't play with guns. Guns are not toys" rule. But as I've gotten older and now have a little boy, I don't care what he plays as long as he isn't hurting anyone or breaking anything! Boys are a lot of work! I don't let him aim directly at his sister or me, but if he and dad want to play guns and tanks and army airplanes I don't see anything wrong with it. I see now, with a boy, it would be like turning back the tide. It's natural to him. He wouldn't begin to understand why he can't play guns. I will just wait until he's older to explain my anti-gun values and not try to police his play. :)

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I guess we would be a Pro-Gun house...

My boys have had every type of toy gun...bubble, squirt, Star Wars Blasters, Cowboy Pistols, Nerf Everything, play riffles, play shot guns....etc,etc....when they get older they have progressed to BB guns, paint ball guns...and eventually real rifles, 3 oldest boys (ages 19, 16, 15) go target shooting with Dad.

Hubby and I occasionally hit the Target Sharp Shooters places and practice.

Hubby is Ex-Military and has taught the boys proper safety and the difference between real and toy guns...we have/will take safety courses with all the kids.

Dad and hubby both Ex-Military...I am comfortable around weapons.

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My boys were raised with guns and toy guns. They were taught not to point them at anyone tho.... with the exception being a water gun fight and still there was the rule that you couldnt be too close..... some water guns can practically put your eye out and not good to squirt into ears either.
It's all about educating your kids on the proper, safe use. Guns are part of our culture and will never go away, so education is the best remedy. One should not leave a child ignorant just in case they find a loaded weapon somewhere some day. They need to be respected just like you teach them to respect swimming pools and other large bodies of water.

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I have 2 boys and we are very pro gun. The boys have always had all different kinds of toy guns. We do make sure that all the toy guns do not look like real guns. We also make sure they know that they are not to shoot at anyone who doesn't want to be shot (water guns and Nerf guns). And no animals. My oldest hunts with dad and my youngest will start this year with BB guns. They know the difference between real guns - including BB guns - and toy guns. They know they are not to EVER touch any gun without mom or dad's permission. As far as the question by another poster about being forthcoming about guns in the house - yes we are. Most of our friends hunt and have guns in their homes but anyone new coming over I make sure the mom or dad knows we have guns but they are secured and are not loaded at any time. I would want that information with my kids.

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I am anti-gun but my hubby hunts (I am not supportive at all...I hate it!). I allowed toy guns but tried to stay away from anything that looked real. This is because I have heard of kids being shot because of look-alike guns. My rule for my son was "it does not get aimed at a person under any circumstances" unless it is a water gun that actually has water in it. If it is empty, it is just a toy gun.

A friend of mine told me her kids and husband would have just laughed at her and aimed anyway. For me, they would have lost the toy guns at that point but her boys ALL hunt.

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No real guns in our house ever. But I see no reason not to let my boys play with any manner of pretend guns, They have nerf, squirt, western, etc.

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Yes, we allow toy guns. Kids will make guns out of toast, so you can't really irradicate them totally. We don't have an issue with it though. We do not allow actions with guns that we wouldn't encourage in real life. No shooting people unless they are protecting others or themselves from harm or are engaged in war. We also don't have video games with criminal violence. Actually, we don't really do video games at all. ;)

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no i don't buy them and if grandma does they disappear. but i would say if we were at friends house i would let them use a bubble gun but nothing realistic or nothing that gets pointed at others like a nerf gun.

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We call ours a "squirter" and "bubbler."

Very anti-gun here.

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I think that squirt guns are ok..mainly because toy guns are everywhere for boys and as long as they learn the difference between pretend and reality then their playing with such toys is fine with me.

73% of women on the SkinnyScoop stated that they do not like their children playing with toy guns...you could check out their further comments and opinions in the link below:

http://www.theskinnyscoop.com/question/q/234?utm_campaign...

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We allow toy guns in our home. I don't care for hand guns because they are small. I prefer a shot gun. I grew up with guns in the house. I was also taught how, when and why we would use a gun. 1 - to hunt with for food (deer and elk) 2 - self defense for an intruder. I also grew up on a farm. I believe we should have the right to bear arms. It's not the gun that kills it's the person behind the gun who does. Maybe as time goes by - I may re-think about having a gun in the house, but as for now - I see there is no reason to have one.

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I am anti-gun and no, no type of guns in my house. I have a girl and our pre-school discourages any kind of violent play (guns, knifes, swords...) so it really hasn't come up.
She has a trigger style squirty toy, but it looks like a squid, so I let it slide... it was questionable in my eyes though.
My husband is also anti-gun, so it really is a non issue in our house, we don't own them, we don't want them, we don't want anyone to enter our house with one... that's our take on it.
What I would be curious about is if pro-gun moms disclose that they have firearms in the home, either voluntarily or if you would feel weird if asked... we are not into unsupervised playdates yet, but it's coming on pretty soon and we definitely would not let a play in a house that he know has a gun in it... I am always wondering how to breach that subject without being rude. It's not against the gun owners, just a personal safety preference...

I think most people would say squirt guns are ok, especially in the summer. I am not sure what the point of a bubble gun is, I mean, the bubbles just float around, what is the point of making it into a gun. As far as all other toy guns go...no way. Guns are not toys and there are way better ways to play and imagine than with guns.

these days its almost impossible to keep kids away from playing or acting out guns....even my sons favorite show bible man is extremly violent....so i let him play his way and tell him its only allowed at home not at school or malls ect...