Whether we like it or not, kids will always love toy guns. When I was a kid, I had a toy machine gun that squirted water. Although it got me into a lot of trouble, I absolutely adored it. My dad actually bought it for me when my mom was out of town. You see, she was never a big fan of toy guns. She wanted to teach us to be nonviolent, and she thought that playing war games was a bad way to do this. Although she meant well, her approach didn’t work. Kids all love playing war games. Whether it is cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, or some kind of battle between armies, kids can’t get enough of it.
My grandfather was an antique gun collector, And he actually bought my first toy gun. It was a cap gun, modeled after the old cowboy six shooters. I absolutely loved that thing. It would make a lot of noise, and smoke would come out of the barrel when I would shoot it. How much better can it get? All of my other friends got toy guns like mine, and we would always have shootouts. It would get pretty rowdy at times, but the games usually stayed friendly. Afterwards, we would all go in to watch G.I. Joe and drink lemonade. Can you think of a better way to spend the afternoon?
In some ways, toy guns have gotten safer rather than more dangerous. Back when I was a kid, a lot of the kids had BB guns. Although we were supposed to only use these to shoot targets, in reality we would do other things with them as well. Sometimes, kids would hunt squirrels or birds with them. Occasionally, they would even hunt each other. Although nothing serious ever happened, any one of us could have lost an eye to one of these air rifles.
Nowadays, kids like to play with air soft guns. Although they fire projectiles, they are much safer than BB guns. The kids chase each other around with them and have shootouts, but no one can get hurt. The only problem is that some of these toy guns are a little too realistic. Every parent has heard the stories about police officers mistaking a child’s toy gun for a real one and shooting before thinking. Although it probably won’t happen, I always make sure that my kids toy weapons are not too realistic. After all, better safe than sorry.
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