The War on Toy Guns: Boy, Girls, and the Games They Play

[m24]

Source: Say Uncle to Jonathan Turley

Four years ago, I wrote a column on the controversy over boys and toy guns. In my column today in USA Today I return to the issue to discuss some recent research in the area.

Four years ago, I was publicly identified as a danger to children. As the doting father of four, it was a bit of a surprise, but my “outing” occurred after my boys and I built an authentic Conestoga wagon to ride in our Northern Virginia neighborhood’s “Wheel Day.” Mid-parade, an irate mother confronted me after spotting toy guns in the covered wagon — objecting to my instilling violent values in my boys. I later received an e-mail from another parent that this covered wagon was no “innocent fantasy” since I must be aware “what guns were used for in the Old West?” It turns out that my kids were apparently rehearsing the genocidal massacre of Native Americans.

Truth be known, I actually did not view the wagon as a tribute to ethnic cleansing. But the real issue was not Western fantasies or phobias. It was guns.

I let my boys play with toy guns and swords. With many parents and schools enforcing a zero-tolerance policies toward toy guns, such toys are producing an increasing divide on playgrounds and play dates.
Early this year, a 7-year-old in Oklahoma City was suspended from school for pointing his finger like a gun and shooting at a wall. He is not the first “finger-gun” suspension — part of zero-tolerance policy in schools that recently have led to the suspension of kids for everything from drawing stick figures with guns to wearing a hat with an image of an armed soldier on it. In December, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch organized an annual “bashing” of toy guns at which parents bring their children to destroy toy guns in exchange for non-violent toys such as puzzles. In January, Hawaii legislators sought, but ultimately failed, to make it a crime to sell a toy gun to anyone younger than 18. While the crackdown on toy guns has continued to grow, this debate has been remarkably detached from developmental studies and seems to be more about parents than their kids.

Toys and gender
As someone on the nature side of this debate, a new study in Current Biology magazine caught my eye. After 14 years of observing young chimpanzees in Uganda, leading researchers found that they shared the same innate preferences in toys and games as human children. Males and females were found to gravitate toward what are called “biological predilections” in toys. The researchers found that females tended to treat sticks like dolls to mimic their mothers while males used sticks as weapons. Most interesting, when Richard Wrangham of Harvard University and co-author Sonya Kahlenberg of Bates College gave juvenile monkeys sex-stereotyped human toys, the females tended to play with the dolls while the males are more apt to play with “boys’ toys,” such as trucks.

Joyce Benenson, associate professor of psychology at Emmanuel College, told Discovery News that this study reinforces her own research that “biological mechanisms (underlie) children’s toy preferences” and “suggests … a biological basis for human sex differences.”

Of course, who needs a Uganda chimp research center? I had Madie. Surrounded by brothers (now 12, 10 and 8 ), Madie (now 5) grew up in a house overflowing with boys and boy toys. Madie is certainly competent with every model of Nerf weapon. However, she primarily maintains a legion of dolls with enough clothes to outfit an Army division.

Psychologist and author Glen David Skoler has argued that games involving toy guns and swords most often occur as boys are transitioning from the “amoral, self-centered, and unsocialized” world of toddlers. He calls this an “intermediary level of moral functioning,” where boys experiment with “games of good guys vs. bad guys and epic struggles between good and evil.” Child psychologist Penny Holland reached the same conclusion in her book We Don’t Play with Guns Here, saying that toy gun play is often “part of … timeless themes of the struggle between good and evil.”

Potsdam vs. pirates
In truth, my kids are not obsessed with guns and show no signs of being nascent Hannibal Lecters graduating to higher and higher forms of carnage. Ironically, I grew up in a zero-tolerance household, where my mother destroyed any toy guns that she found. We became obsessed with secretly hiding squirt guns around the house like adolescent drug users.

What is astonishing to me is how detached the zero-tolerance movement is not just from research but also from reality. One Mothering magazine article advised mothers on how to respond to their boys found playing with guns or swords. The writer suggested that parents take their boys aside and “emphasize healing” and show their boys how to make “magical medicines.” The magazine also advised that parents could also “transform guns into magical wands” and “channel energy into other games.” My personal favorite, however, was that parents should stop such games and have the kids play “peacemaking” by creating “a roundtable with a mediator and write a peace accord.”

Perhaps Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could pull off the peace accord game, but I doubt that most kids would find re-enacting the Potsdam Conference of World War II to be a good substitute for a pirate war.

Toy guns are no more the cause of violence than toy kitchen sets are the cause of obesity. Hundreds of millions of men grew up with toy guns and never turned to a life of spasmodic violence. On this issue, kids seem a lot more sophisticated than their parents. They know it’s just a game.

Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, is a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors.

Regards

[Priyan]

I think airsoft isn't a huge issue in most part of USA. Their sales are unregulated in all the 50 states, even air guns are unregulated in USA. The main reason school authorities hate guns (even airgun, airsoft, starter or the "finger gun) is that they are afraid of students shooting up school after Columbine and V Tech but they do nothing to stop bullying or other type of harassment. I don't think there's much gender difference in case of guns. I acknowledge boys like guns a little bit more but girls like guns too. Just right before coming to this forum I was talking to a girl from Texas on chatroulette who showed me her nice collection of guns (Bigger than all Indians as we can just have 4 )

[mundaire]

My son (age 7) already lectures kids his age on gun safety norms, even toy guns pointed in the "wrong direction" - by his friends/ cousins - elicit an immediate "no can do" from him. Why? Because he has had early exposure to safe & responsible gun handling.

[captrakshitsharma]

My son (age 7) already lectures kids his age on gun safety norms, even toy guns pointed in the "wrong direction" - by his friends/ cousins - elicit an immediate "no can do" from him. Why? Because he has had early exposure to safe & responsible gun handling.

I absolutely agree. Growing up in an army household guns were always present and like all boys my toys were also toy guns of all shapes and sizes. My mom says my favorite was a Toy Revolver Keychain that could fire caps and a plastic replica of Thompson sub machine gun. She had to have 4-5 of Keychain Revolvers at all times because the were easy to misplace/not find and if i slept and woke up or remembered about it after playing around the house and it could not be located i would throw a fit. I admit i was a pampered kid being the firstborn.
However i was made clear the rules and basics of gun handling even as a 5 yr old. At that age n time they were 1.Never touch papa's guns and if you want to see them ask papa.2.Never point the barrel of your toy guns towards anyone. 3.Consider all guns loaded.
As i grew up a bit i was handed an Air pistol followed by an Air rifle and then the Rules of gun handling were more elaborately emphasized and I was quoted a few tales of someone loosing an eye or how much damage an airgun may also cause.I was actively and passively monitored when shooting cans and empty shoe polish tins. My mother would throw a fit if we ever pointed the air gun at a crow or sparrow the airgun was then confiscated for a few days.
Later on at about 16 or 17 i was introduced to shooting with my father's guns but before i was allowed my first shot i was taught the basic operational mechanism and safe loading unloading practices not to forget the cleaning of guns.Cleaning of guns was now officially my job and my father has never cleaned them to this day. I was however again firmly told i could clean them all i wanted but the ammo was not accessible and was also told never ever try to shoot it unsupervised or try sneaking them out of the house or else 'Daddy Gets Into Big Trouble' with cops.That was the biggest deterent and kept me from doing stupid things with guns.I reckon my father thought that it will give me enough exposure and time with the guns to quench my curiosity .While also ensuring that i will not sneak the guns out or try to handle em in his absence & i would not do something stupid with them.
My time in US on the local rifle/pistol ranges also taught me a lot and have made me a responsible gun owner when i bought my first .22 Marlin rifle.

I am not saying that my gun education was perfect but the basics of safety as well as the dangers/legality issues and the trouble and consequences of being irresponsible with firearms were taught at a very young age which i feel have gone a long way. However i am still learning and trying to improve myself and sharing what i know with friends and family...
Keep em safe and let boys be boys and make girls strong and firearm trained..Make responsible gunowners of our future generations..As far as toys are concerned we should let kids keep the toy guns..It is being a little too paranoid to take toys guns away.