The Wussification of America

[Ken]

A short list of things I taught my kids to do, in chronological order:

1. Hold a sippy cup.

2. Hold a spoon.

3. Swim.

4. Throw a baseball.

5. Use a potty.

6. Throw a football.

7. Use a fishing pole.

8. Use a knife.

9. Dial 911

10. Tell Time.

11. Respect a firearm.

12. Cross the street.

13. Ride a bike without training wheels.

14. Use a firearm.

15. Drive a car - a 5-speed.


AND NOW, quoting yet another progressive moron..... "Strobridge’s principal, Charles Hill, said the Castro Valley school held the exchange because he thinks playing with toy guns increases the chance of children using real ones when they grow up."


California School Holds Toy Gun Exchange

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/09/california-school-holds-toy-gun-exchange/

[GreatUsername]

I agree that toy guns aren't the best idea, but for different reasons. I feel that having toy guns puts a double-standard in place that makes kids less likely to respect a real firearm. A kid that played with toy guns is (in my experience as a coach) way more likely to violate trigger safety than a kid who never had toy guns.

I also think that with very young children who have trouble telling the difference, playing with toy guns increases the likelihood of playing with real guns if they are stumbled across. You may say "yeah, but I always keep my guns safe from the little ones."

Good. But what about their friends' parents? It's tragic that so many kids die or are injured each year because they don't respect the lethality of firearms. I don't think that they should be taught guns are bad, or kept from knowing about them, but I believe that until they are well into late adolescence, children need to think of guns as weapons, and weapons only. That way, they will know to use them with respect, and to not play with them or let their friends play with them either. If guns are toys sometimes, and dangerous other times, it just increases the risk of a tragedy. I'll gladly start my kids (when I have kids, that is) with shooting at a young age, perhaps as young as eight, or even younger if it makes sense. But I will never let them play with toy guns until they are in their late teens and have fully ingrained the idea that real firearms have real consequences and must be handled and used mindfully at all times.

So, I dislike this Kalifornia "guns are scary" business, but I fully support keeping toy guns away from children.

[Ken]

I'll gladly start my kids (when I have kids, that is) with shooting at a young age, perhaps as young as eight, or even younger if it makes sense. But I will never let them play with toy guns until they are in their late teens and have fully ingrained the idea that real firearms have real consequences and must be handled and used mindfully at all times.

Seriously? Late teens? At that age, you should buy them a kindle.

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[crashdive123]

Now, now.......let's not let it get personal.

[randyt]

kids must have changed radically, I've just never seen a problem with a toy gun, really I haven't.

My generation a lot of kids had a 22 lr rifle or shoygun they kept in their room. I used mine for hunting and plinking before I was a teenager. Times have changed I guess.

[crashdive123]

Nor do I. Had them as a small child. Graduated to cap guns by 4 or 5. Had epic wars with our stick guns and "dirt bombs" while "playing army". By the time I was in my mid to late teens toy guns held no sway over me. Fast cars, girls and parties were of much greater interest.

[BENESSE]

The wussification goes way beyond. It has to do with not taking responsibility for oneself and ones actions.

[ClayPick]

My kids used a 22 from the time they could pull the trigger. Hunting was the game and they never got interested in much else. Most of the time they where to busy trying to drowned themselves. Interesting quote from Maurice Sendak, “Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.”

[Winnie]

Good lord, what is the world coming to when a gun amnesty takes place in primary school. Children will play cops and robbers, cowboys and injuns(my personal favourite) or maybe the 21st century equivalents; Ben10, Nerf, Star Wars. If they don't have a plastic gun, any enterprising child will use their imagination to conjur the latest firearm of choice from thin air and a stick. THAT'S WHAT KIDS DO! It strikes me as going back to this whole emasculation of boys thing again. I don't believe in that either.

[Wildthang]

I agree that toy guns aren't the best idea, but for different reasons. I feel that having toy guns puts a double-standard in place that makes kids less likely to respect a real firearm. A kid that played with toy guns is (in my experience as a coach) way more likely to violate trigger safety than a kid who never had toy guns.

I also think that with very young children who have trouble telling the difference, playing with toy guns increases the likelihood of playing with real guns if they are stumbled across. You may say "yeah, but I always keep my guns safe from the little ones."

Good. But what about their friends' parents? It's tragic that so many kids die or are injured each year because they don't respect the lethality of firearms. I don't think that they should be taught guns are bad, or kept from knowing about them, but I believe that until they are well into late adolescence, children need to think of guns as weapons, and weapons only. That way, they will know to use them with respect, and to not play with them or let their friends play with them either. If guns are toys sometimes, and dangerous other times, it just increases the risk of a tragedy. I'll gladly start my kids (when I have kids, that is) with shooting at a young age, perhaps as young as eight, or even younger if it makes sense. But I will never let them play with toy guns until they are in their late teens and have fully ingrained the idea that real firearms have real consequences and must be handled and used mindfully at all times.

So, I dislike this Kalifornia "guns are scary" business, but I fully support keeping toy guns away from children.

In their late teens, most of them are playing XBox games whick allow them to rob banks, kill cops, steal cars, and any number of other fantasy crimes you can imagine. I am just waiting for them to come out with a pervert game for xBox, what's next

[finallyME]

My 3 year old will take just about any object and pretend it is either a gun or a sword.

[welderguy]

The wussification goes way beyond. It has to do with not taking responsibility for oneself and ones actions.

How so ? Do you mean not being a sheep and worrying about being PC?

[Winnie]

My 3 year old will take just about any object and pretend it is either a gun or a sword.

Wait til he gets good with Lego... Winnie jnr made a pretty good copy of a sniper rifle, tommy gun, and several generic handuns. He was the 'go-to' guy for lego stuff at school. I've no doubt if he did that at school now, he'd be in counselling quicker than you could say open fire! And no he didn't turn into a raging homicidal maniac with a firearms obsession, or a gun dealer.

Folks should try and remember what it's like to be a child, not try and make the poor Bu$$ers small adults before they've grown.

[welderguy]

My son ( he is 7 ) has little interest in "toy" Guns, seeing as how he has a BB gun hanging on his wall, a 22 and a 410 in the gun locker. He dosent play WAR because he wont point even a toy gun at a person. he will play cops and robber because he gets to tackle and handcuff the perp!! He also has a 1911 airsoft that he currently practices with so he can get good with a pistol and get one like Dads

[Rick]

I played with guns the whole time I was growing up. Folks like Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Paladin, Chuck Connors in The Rifleman, Steve McQueen in Wanted Dead or Alive and of course John Wayne in any picture were all my heroes. Books, comics, magazines and TV were filled with guns. I guess I should be concerned about trigger safety then. I'll keep a closer eye on my kids and grandkids because they all played with toy guns.

As FinallyMe said if I didn't have a toy gun then a stick became one. It's not what they play with that's the concern. It's what you teach them.

[hunter63]

Every teen age young man or young lady should know how to shoot, throw a tomahawk and knife....Clean and cook what you shoot.....
Makes for better hunters later.

I close to my BS upper limit.

[ecotime47]

Good for you Ken. The liberal agenda is to make you dependant on the govt for everything, from protection to food. The only way to reverse the way this country is headed is for more dads to lead their families like you have chosen to do. And of course I think we could really benefit from a move of God

[crashdive123]

And just a reminder to all.....

The two topics that we do not discuss at WSF are politics and religion.

[Winter]

I agree that toy guns aren't the best idea, but for different reasons. I feel that having toy guns puts a double-standard in place that makes kids less likely to respect a real firearm. A kid that played with toy guns is (in my experience as a coach) way more likely to violate trigger safety than a kid who never had toy guns.

I also think that with very young children who have trouble telling the difference, playing with toy guns increases the likelihood of playing with real guns if they are stumbled across. You may say "yeah, but I always keep my guns safe from the little ones."

Good. But what about their friends' parents? It's tragic that so many kids die or are injured each year because they don't respect the lethality of firearms. I don't think that they should be taught guns are bad, or kept from knowing about them, but I believe that until they are well into late adolescence, children need to think of guns as weapons, and weapons only. That way, they will know to use them with respect, and to not play with them or let their friends play with them either. If guns are toys sometimes, and dangerous other times, it just increases the risk of a tragedy. I'll gladly start my kids (when I have kids, that is) with shooting at a young age, perhaps as young as eight, or even younger if it makes sense. But I will never let them play with toy guns until they are in their late teens and have fully ingrained the idea that real firearms have real consequences and must be handled and used mindfully at all times.

So, I dislike this Kalifornia "guns are scary" business, but I fully support keeping toy guns away from children.

Without toy guns, my childhood would have been empty. I killed so many Nazi's and Jap's in back yards from Upper Darby, to the hills of NC, it would make your head spin. Of course, I knew they weren't real as I knew my toy gun wasn't.

I wholeheartedly disagree with your post Sir.

[GreatUsername]

Without toy guns, my childhood would have been empty. I killed so many Nazi's and Jap's in back yards from Upper Darby, to the hills of NC, it would make your head spin. Of course, I knew they weren't real as I knew my toy gun wasn't.

I wholeheartedly disagree with your post Sir.

And with toy guns, my childhood would been empty. I would have spent all my time in wargames and other pursuits rather than reading or experimenting with tinkering in my garage. I'm not saying toy guns are dangerous for all kids to have, but having coached young shooters for years now, the lack of respect the new ones have for firearms can be astounding, and the biggest offenders in my experience are the ones who played with toy guns and violent videogames at too young an age. For the amount of benefit playing with toy guns gives, I don't think it's worth the risk of kids not respecting real firearms. It's been proven that the Eddie Eagle program from the NRA doesn't work on kids who have been exposed to toy guns and virtual violence. There was a study in WA about whether or not it worked, and they found that a shocking number of the kids (6 and younger), when in a room with a (firing pin removed) firearm would not only touch and handle it in spite of just having recieved safety instruction, they would put their fingers on the triggers, point the muzzle at their faces or bodies, and do things that might have gotten them killed if the gun was operable and loaded.

It's not wussification to make a kid's play less violent, it's like wearing seatbelts. You wouldn't let your kids be blazé about wearing those, so I personally don't want my kids to someday have any chance of treating real guns like toys. It's exactly the "they're boys, they need to have wargames" argument that let the boy who killed my cousin with an accidental discharge forget his healthy aversion to pointing gun-shaped objects at people. He thought it was a cap-gun. He was wrong. My cousin died because of it, and he was 7.

Let them shoot guns. That makes sense. Let them read books. That makes sense. Let them never point a gun, real or imaginary, at another human being unless they truly intend to kill that human being in self-defense. That makes sense. You CAN keep a kid from making toy guns with legos, and keep them from playing violent games or watching violent movies, until such time as they are developmentally ready to tell the difference 100% of the time. Guns aren't kid's toys, in my opinion.

To each their own of course, but just my $0.02