Boys Will Be Boys...

Going back to my Sunday post I received several comments about whether you let your children play with toy guns or not.

For us, it wasn't even a question of not letting them play with guns. My husband hunts (although, hasn't for several years) and I grew up playing with the typical toy guns and swords. It didn't make me violent or want to play with a real gun. I didn't grow up in a household that had real guns, either.

We do have guns in the house now. They are kept locked away from the children and the ammo is stored in a completely different area of the house. The kids have seen the guns, have been with their dad when he has gone target practicing, and know that guns are not toys and are not to be played with or handled. At some point the kids will be allowed to handle the guns but at this early age they are already learning gun safety.

I get the point of parents who don't allow toy guns, toy soldiers, or any toy weapon in the household but for me I don't see the correlation between playing with a toy and becoming violent or shooting someone with a real gun. If the toys are banned, children typically make something into a weapon anyway, such as Jacob who constantly is finding "weapons" in the yard:

As for real guns, I am all for everyone to have the right to bare arms (except criminals, of course). While there are many irresponsible gun owners (seriously, guns need to be treated as a tool and kept out of reach of children), guns themselves are not the problem. If someone is wanting to harm someone else, they are going to find a way to do it with or without a gun. It's sad but it's true.

Now, I do have issues with violent video games, but that's another topic entirely!