Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Problem with Toy Guns

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I don't let my kids play with guns. Toy guns. But they are boys. Body parts as simple as a hand, a thumb and an index finger can magically be combined into a shooter on the whim of their imagination.

From an old remote car opener, to a stick, to legos, nothing is sacred, and anything can be morphed into a toy replica of violence and destruction.

The other day the boy next door was outside playing with two toy guns. It took Gio less than a minute fraction of a milli second to spot the "shooters," in our young neighbor's hands.

"Can I see your shooter," asks Gio practically foaming at the mouth. Even though Gio doesn't know a shooter's real name, he knows what a shooter does and he got his message across. Our young neighbor obliged and handed Gio the shooter.

Unfortunately, this young lad has many toys Gio froths over, including a better tricycle and several go carts. Yes, cars built with little people in mind. It's hard to compete with cool toys. Departing into the house usually ends with screaming, upon screaming, frosted with more screaming from Gio.

But that isn't why I am writing this blog. As I was scanning headlines the other day, one particular headline caught my eye, "U.S. Collects Toy Guns."

"Hooray!" I thought perhaps I can talk the neighbor into handing over his toy guns. I went on to imagine the U.S. government was making a statement against violence by collecting guns from kids because it now realizes it isn't okay to send a message of "violence is fun," to the young children in our country.

But then I clicked on the article. I was disappointed and woken up from my developed world stupor, all at the same time. The article was about U.S. soldiers in Iraq collecting toy guns from children in Iraq. The toy guns can easily be mistaken as real guns by soldiers and the intent is to prevent innocent children from being shot by soldiers.
 
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