Toy Guns: to Play or Not to Play Essay Example

great way to keep companies in business and children loved playing with the little toy guns that resembled their father’s real guns; however, in the present day it has become more and more dangerous for children to play with these controversial toys. There have been many incidents, in which children have been expelled and suspended from school for using and carrying toy guns with them. In 2008, in Southaven Mississippi, five elementary school students were suspended for bringing two realistic looking toy guns to school.

They had painted the orange tips of the guns, which are used to ensure they are toys, black. (Dadsetan, 2008) In 2002 a seven year old boy from Michigan faced three counts of felony assault charges for pointing a toy gun at three other children and threatening to shoot them in school. ( Dadsetan, 2008) Events like these have been happening all over the world. Toy guns can be so realistic that they are often mistaken for real guns. The children getting in trouble are effected psychologically because they are getting in trouble for playing with a toy that they are normally allowed to play with.

They do not understand the punishment being inflicted for simply playing with their toys. Children also don’t understand the repercussions of their actions when they shoot a real gun if they are used to playing with toy guns because they shoot the pretend guns at their friends when playing, and their friends don’t die. Children mistaking toy guns for real ones have caused several accidental tragedies; such as, Isaac Alvarez from California who was shot and killed by his own gun when

his four year old neighbor, who thought the gun was a toy, picked it up and shot him (Dadsetan, 2008).

Also, a nine year old girl from California found a gun mounted under a desk at an office and shot her six year old sister in the head and killed her (Dadsetan, 2008). According to Heather Whaley, a mother of an eight year old girl and a ten year old boy, ''If a child has grown up comfortable around guns, and has experienced picking up a gun and shooting it, then they will have that muscle memory. And it will be easier for them to shoot a real gun, if they find one'' (Whaley, 2013). Based on the tragedies that have occurred, Heather Whaley’s statement is factual.

If children play with toy guns then they will know how to use one and the possibility of them shooting one if they find one is increased. They will be able to point the gun at someone, and pull the trigger because that is what they learned while playing. It seems that many parents are starting to feel the same way as Whaley, and are not allowing their children to play with toy guns. According to a study done in 2003, seven out of every ten parents were not allowing their children to play with toy guns( Nagourney, 2003).

Since then, groups such as the Alliance for Survival have been working to phase out toy guns. In order to reach their goal Alliance for Survival and other similar groups hold “toy gun exchanges” (Turley, 2011) where children are presented with toys like a hula hoop

or puzzle in exchange for their toy guns. Jerry Rubin, a peace activist and coordinator of the Alliance for Survival, said ''No one is saying that if you play with a toy gun, you're going to grow up to be a violent killer, but the game is still the same: pretend to kill your friends, pretend to kill your classmates” (Rubin,p. ,2013). It is true that many children have grown up with toy guns and haven’t become violent killers. Some parents are arguing that toy guns are safe and natural, and the alternatives being offered aren’t sufficient. Jonathon Turley a father of four recalls in his article, “Kids and Toy Guns: They Know its Just a Game,” a time when he was publically ridiculed for allowing his children to play with toy guns. He was in a parade with his children and had toy guns along board their covered wagon they had created to ride in.

During the ride, a parent stopped him “mid-parade” and told him how she felt he was “instilling violent values” in his boys. A different parent sent him an e-mail stating that their toy guns were “no innocent fantasy” (Turley, 2011). Some parents are having a hard time conforming to the changing norms of children not being allowed to play with toy guns and feel that their children should be allowed to continue to play with them. Toy guns have begun to cause rifts at play dates and other social settings; however, some parents are standing behind them and claiming they are natural and harmless.

According to Turley, he is on the “nature side of the debate;” which,

based on the content of his article, means that he believes boys are naturally predisposed to play more violently, and those male or female tendencies are so pronounced that even chimpanzees show the same gender specific behaviors. Boys will naturally play with and create boy toys, and girls will play with and create girl toys. A study of chimpanzees in Uganda from a “Biology Magazine” revealed that even chimpanzees have “biological predilections” and tend to gravitate towards more gender specific toys.

The girl chimps would make dolls out of sticks and the male chimpanzees were more likely to create a weapon out of a stick. This proved that boys are more likely to gravitate towards toys that are weapons than girls. Boys also play more aggressively. According to Jess P. Shatkin, vice chairman for education at the New York University Child Study Center, ''boys are in some real way engineered for physical activity and aggression. Just watch kids in the playground,'' he stated. ''The boys are very often chasing, jumping, wrestling, pushing, etc”(Shatkin, 2011).

Boys like to battle and play rough; whereas girls are more likely to play feed a doll, or pretend to cook. Some think that toy guns are a necessity for male children. Glen David Skoler, who is a psychologist and author, has claimed that boys play with toy guns during a transitional phase after leaving the “amoral, self-centered, and unsocialized,” world of being a toddler. Skoler claims that during this phase boys experiment with “games of good guys vs. bad guys and epic struggles between good and evil. Penny Holland, a child psychologist, also reached the same conclusion that

playing with toy guns is often “part of … timeless themes of the struggle between good and evil” (Holland, 2011). In the book, "Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence,” Gerard Jones claims that boys especially should play with toy guns as ways to act out power, victory and triumph (Jones,2011). Toy guns teach boys to be victorious and not only helps their self esteem, but teach them to be “the good guy,” or to kill “the bad guy,” which sets a moral standard for them to follow.

Toy guns have other uses as well. Lenore Terr, a child psychiatrist in San Francisco who specializes in childhood trauma, claimed in Jones book, that she kept toy guns in her office and let the children use them to act of aggression. Terr says, "It's one of the best tools they have for dealing with their aggressions, and taking that away from them only complicates the problems that the people who want to get rid of toy guns are concerned about"(Terr, 2011). Children using weapons like this in a controlled environment may prevent them from taking out their aggressions later when it is unexpected.

They can pretend to shot the person they are unhappy or mad at and it helps them release that aggression so that they won’t act out irrationally later on. Toy guns are used frequently in play therapy. There are a few ways that they can be therapeutic to children, not only by helping them release aggression. One example is that of an experienced play therapist, (C. Connely), who was working with a 3 ? year old boy who

was dealing with his mother being very ill.

For a few therapy sessions, the boy and the therapist shot at pretend monsters until finally the boy put his gun down and said, “all done” (Vanfleet, Sywulak, 2011). The boy became less fearful and less anxious, so it seems that shooting monsters, which may have been a representative of his mother’s illness, helped him feel that he had control over an uncontrollable situation. In her article “Toy guns can be good for Kids,” Petula Dvorak, brings up the point that children are being suspended from school for pretending to use guns, and their real issues aren’t being addressed. Joshua Weiner, a child sychiatrist, stated that about twice a year he would be brought a child who had been suspended from school for using a toy gun at school or pretending to use one and not once had a child been brought to him that was suspended from school for showing “real signs of trouble. ” Many schools have been following a trend of suspending anybody for associating with toy guns because of tragic events involving guns that have happened in schools. These schools are missing the children that have the real issues and need attention by focusing all of their energy on ridding the schools of weapons and toy guns.

With all of the controversy surrounding them, toy guns have made headlines all over the world. Many parents are trying to get rid of toy guns all together, and many are trying to fight for the rights of their children to play with toy guns. So what is the right answer? Should children be

allowed to play with toy guns? If activist groups succeed in phasing out toy guns then many businesses may go down, who base their income on these toys. If they don’t succeed children may continue to be expelled from school and more accidental shootings may occur. It seems that there is no clear solution to this problem.

One proposed solution may be to hold gun safety classes for children planning to play with toy guns, so that they know the difference if they ever encounter one. Another solution may be for toy companies to revamp their toys and create different, less violent toys for children to play with. Whether these two sides to come together and devise a solution is not yet foreseeable. However, almost everyone can agree that parents are the ones who are best equipped to make decisions for their own children; and their decisions should be respected, whether or not they decide to allow their children to play with toy guns.