Research shows that there is no evidence that children who play with guns are more aggressive, and some evidence suggests that kids who use aggression in their play are actually better at calming themselves down in real-life situations. Toy guns, such as guns from movies, books, national figures, community helpers, professional sports, and commercial toys, influence young children’s desire to engage in various activities.
War play and war toys combined with children’s play are often associated with boys’ play, but there is no evidence that toy guns make kids more violent. A 2018 study found that the use of war play in therapy is based on the idea that children must be guided and aided to express and release these internalized feelings.
There is relatively little scientific research on the effect that playing with toy guns has upon children. However, some studies suggest that there is no link between playing with toy weapons in childhood and aggression in adulthood. Parents may want to limit kids’ exposure to movies and TV shows that feature guns and prefer for them to play with nonweapon toys.
Playing with toy guns through various gun games, such as cops and robbers, online shooting games, Nerf guns, water pistols, and foam blasters, allows children to interact with the world and think about problem-solving. Researchers have found that just seeing weapons can make people act more aggressively, and this is called the weapons effect, which applies to toy guns.
The conundrum of toy guns is its representation of a genuine American problem: gun violence, which impacts children more than theoretically. However, research has shown that toy weapons can be healthy and beneficial to their development, and pretend gunplay can be a fun way to observe a child’s development and reinforce lessons about awareness. Eliminating play fighting and war toys by parents and educators may have a significant impact on young children’s development.
📹 How Do Toy Guns Impact A Child’s Psyche? A Tough Conversation with Toy Makers
Have you ever wondered what toy makers think about toy guns? In this thought-provoking episode of Making It in The Toy Industry …
What are the negative impacts of toys?
The toy industry is the sector with the highest level of plastic consumption globally, with 40 tons of plastic used for every $1 million in revenues. Ninety percent of toys are manufactured using plastic, which can contain heavy metals such as lead or cadmium or harmful chemicals like dioxins.
Are nerf guns ok for a 5 year old?
The age requirements for most nerf guns are 6 and up, but the Jolt pistol is strong enough for a pistol. For younger kids, the Maverick is a better choice as they are weaker and more kid-friendly. The Jolt is suitable for 8 and up and is used for the Humans VS Zombies club at college. The author, a 20-year-old, purchased two pairs for her family for Christmas but found the Jolt on clearance for $2. 50. The Jolt is smaller and fits her hand better, but it doesn’t have the same power as the Disrupter, making it less painful. The author plans to buy more nerf guns for her family.
What do Nerf guns teach kids?
Parenting plays a crucial role in child development, as it helps children become more accepting and thoughtful about their anger. It is essential to support children’s access to their constructive use of their anger, as it is vital for their growth and development. Debra Kessler, a licensed clinical psychologist, specializes in the care of children and their families, focusing on addressing the emotional needs of children and their families. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt University and a Masters Degree in Pediatrics from UCLA.
Dr. Kessler has worked with the Child Development Institute and Reiss-Davis Child Study center, addressing the needs of school children, adolescents, and their families. She has contributed to Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, and Relationship-Based Therapies: A Neurorelational Framework for Interdisciplinary Practice. She treats a range of developmental and emotional issues, including adoption/attachment difficulties, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, autism/Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, learning challenges, and regulatory difficulties. Good parenting and addressing over-parenting are essential for children to reach their potential.
Are toy guns allowed?
In the United States, federal law mandates that all toy guns must have a blaze orange tip or stripe 1-inch thick on both sides of the barrel. However, this requirement is not required for airsoft and paintball guns. Part 272 of Title 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations on foreign commerce and trade states that no person shall manufacture, enter into commerce, ship, transport, or receive any toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm without approved markings.
New York City, Washington, D. C., Chicago, and parts of Michigan have completely banned airsoft guns, with the sale of replica toy guns punishable with one year’s jail term plus $1, 000. In Chicago, it is considered a crime to wield a look-alike or replica gun in public. However, state laws relating to the regulation of toy, look-alike, or imitation firearms or purporting to ban the sale or manufacture of BB guns, paintball guns, or airsoft guns are preempted by federal law.
There is controversy surrounding the appropriateness of toy guns for children to play with, with some believing they can encourage violence. The British Department for Children, Schools and Families has advised young boys to play with toy guns to foster their development, but the National Union of Teachers in England has criticized this advice, arguing that toy guns symbolize aggression and foster gender stereotypes.
What are 5 benefits of playing with toys?
Playing with toys is crucial for children’s cognitive development, social and emotional skills, and imagination. It helps children develop problem-solving, problem-solving, and social skills. Toys also support fine and gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness. Providing a variety of toys and encouraging play nurtures a child’s growth in various ways. Each toy, from simple building blocks to complex puzzles, provides unique learning opportunities, promoting cognitive, physical, and emotional growth.
What are the benefits of Nerf guns?
The nerf gun game is a physical education tool that enhances hand-eye coordination, physical dexterity, strategic thinking, and teamwork skills. It also helps students understand basic physics principles, such as trajectories, kinetic energy, momentum, force, acceleration, and gravity. To further develop, students can create obstacle courses using household items, introduce challenges like target shooting competitions, and set up themed scenarios.
These activities promote focus, precision, and creativity, fostering both physical and cognitive development. By incorporating these skills into their daily lives, students can enhance their overall physical and cognitive abilities.
Why do boys play with toy guns?
Play is crucial for children’s learning, emotional processing, and handling complex issues. Developmental psychologists argue that aggressive pretend play, such as killing “bad guys” and pretending to shoot guns, helps children process violence and gives them a sense of power. Psychologist Michael Thompson, co-author of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, suggests that parents often only see the negative aspects of aggressive play, but also the positive aspects.
Aggressive play is more common in boys than girls due to cultural expectations surrounding masculinity. Other child psychologists and educators agree that aggressive pretend play is healthy and appropriate, and preventing it could be detrimental. Researchers from the University of Maine and the University of Nevada argue that preventing aggressive play in early childhood programs can hinder the development of social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and communicative abilities in young children.
In conclusion, play is essential for children’s learning, emotional processing, and problem-solving. However, preventing aggressive play can be detrimental, as it can inhibit valuable play and hinder the overall development of children’s social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and communicative abilities.
How do toys impact children’s development?
Toys play a crucial role in children’s cognitive development, stimulating concentration, attention span, and memory. They help children approach language and math skills in a fun way and provide an opportunity to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Whether simple or complex, toys teach children and emphasize the importance of toys in childhood development. Children’s favorite toys promote healthy bonding, and parents’ play helps them bond with people. Toys provide a tool for connection, building positive memories, and interacting with feelings, making them essential for children’s overall development.
What are the benefits of playing with a toy gun?
Playing with toy guns can help children manage strong emotions like anger, fear, or excitement through imaginative play. This emotional release promotes mental well-being and emotional resilience. Despite concerns, toy guns offer numerous benefits for children’s development, including fostering creativity, promoting physical activity, enhancing social skills, and developing problem-solving abilities. Despite concerns, playing with toy guns is a valuable tool for children’s emotional growth and development.
How do toys help brain development?
Toys and play provide children with opportunities to develop a range of cognitive abilities, including imitation, cause and effect, problem-solving, and symbolic thinking. Teachers may also facilitate children’s engagement in activities such as drumming, which allows for imitation and the generation of novel sounds.
Is it okay for kids to have toy guns?
Research has not found a link between pretend weapons and future violence, but children’s survival state can be triggered when they see a child pretending to shoot a gun. To help parents escape this state, Nottleson offers an exercise in her workshops. Parents are instructed to choose their weapon and engage in gunplay, focusing on connecting with others and having a good time. After about 10 minutes, parents dash around the room, pretending to shoot each other, laughing, ducking, and dropping to the floor.
📹 Should Kids Play With Toy Guns? | NBC Left Field
Toy guns such as BB guns and Nerf guns have been showing up on Christmas gift wish lists for decades. But in an era of school …
Funny how I grew up playing with a toy Uzi the size & look of the real thing, with dad’s closet full of rifles, like all my friends…yet school shootings weren’t a thing in my generation. Stop blaming things for societal problems; the fault lies with the over sexed, ultra violent, low attention span, indoctrinated people in society, not the things they use to do damage with. Just like it’s not alcohol or morphine’s fault if someone becomes an addict; it’s the person (whether you follow the addiction as illness theory or not).
My kids, 3 & 5 will be raised on and around guns. BB guns, gun guns, airsoft guns. They will be taught responsible ownership and taught how to use them on multiple levels. This no gun bs is irrelevant. Kids have been playing with toy guns sense world war I. Move on, guns aren’t the issue. The way we tie our parents hands at parenting IS the issue.
Theses parents are weird I’m 13 years old and my parents fully support me playing with you guns. It teaches me how to actually handle one and the responsibility you need to use one. I’ve had them since I was 5 and the all looked real, I remember my first one was a daisy pellet gun and my dad taught me everything about them, the do’s and donts and they stuck with me for all these years and I never forget them, and I know all the rules about guns because I wanted to shoot that daisy gun so bad I listened and remembered the best I could to fire it. Kids are like sponges when their young, if you teach them something they will remember
1:00 I agree with the parents, kids shouldn’t have Nerf Guns. They should play with real rifles, like Springfield M1903s, SLMEs, Karabiner 98ks… Maybe even SMGs, and MGs, like… the Maschinen Pistole 40, the M1A1 Thompson, the Sten Mk. II, PPSH-41, wz, 39 Mors… The Maschinengewehr 34, Maschinengewehr 42, M2 Browning MG, Bren Gun, Lewis Gun, the Vickers Machine gun, Maschinengewehr 08… And so on. They should even have real wars instead of playing in some small hangar, with Nerf guns.
Yes. Especially when you can teach them simple gun safety first so they can use that knowledge for as long as they have a gun. Like trigger discipline and not pointing it at people faces. Maybe not how to clear and check the chamber cause its not gonna randomly go off. And if they are interested let them be. Let them learn about guns.
When I graduated from junior high school, it was right when the Vietnam war was really starting to heat up. Most of the kids in my hometown, as soon as they graduated from high school, got shipped off to fight in Vietnam, and a great many never returned. So, what did my loving mom get me for a junior high graduation present? A new suit, nice new shoes, a trip to Disneyland, an electric guitar, a new bicycle? Nope, a .22 semi-auto pistol. Cuz she wanted me to be an expert shot to increase my chances of getting home safely after the war. As it turned out, through a miracle I got to go to college, and never ended up going into the military. However, I did get to be an expert shot and learn how to defend myself, all thanks to my loving mom. It was one of the greatest gifts she ever gave me.
Quick answer to such a dumb question, Yes! I have 26 nerf guns and counting, and I love them. It does not make me a physcopathic murderer. It makes me into guns. Also, Let kids play with what they want. Also I myself, legaly being a kid, are very good with safety, after accidently shooting someone with a nerf dart once. its like saying, is playing with toy cars and crashing them into one another going to cause Boy Racers and Car Crashes.
Ok anyone who thinks that kids shouldn’t play with toy guns is stupid, this is what kids like. I remember as a younger kid me and my friends would go in my backyard and run around with our cap guns and just shoot away, I still remember the load outs we had, I carrier this musket cap gun, my friend carried these two cap revolvers, and my brothers with a cap gun flint lock. But kids playing with toy guns is a good idea, as a younger child they will use them to shoot at each other and as they grow up they will being to learn about gun safety and begin to better learn the difference between a toy gun and a real gun and to never play with a real gun. Just let kids play with their toy guns if they want to. And let me say all those “the people who were shot with a toy gun and they were people of color” THATS BECAUSE THEY REMOVED THE ORANGE TIP ON THE TOY GUN SO IT SEEMED LIKE A REAL FIREARM TO THE OFFICERS. and here’s another thing, playing with toy guns will set a firm base for things later in life such as sport shooting, hunting, going into the armed forces. And as a somewhat young hunter myself (I am 14) I would say that yes you should for sure let you children play with toy guns and toy guns helping set up a child for hunting is a really good thing because of many reasons 1. It’s a very valuable life lesson 2. If hunting wasn’t allowed or if people stopped hunting than we would all die of starvation because animals would eat all of their food and that would go extinct so they would go to other animals food and than that animal would have to move onto other animals food and it would continue to happen until everything enviable on earth would be extinct
I have no brother, no real father. My sisters and I never played with guns long term. Perhaps water guns in the summer. But my son loves his nerf guns. I does make me feel a bit nervous, as the vast majority of school shooters have been boys and men obsessed with guns and revenge. My son is six and he hangs out with his dad a lot, is allowed to talk openly about his emotions, is never shamed at home for crying or being emotional, and he is overwhelmingly empathetic and sweet in addition to loving nerf guns. He is very considerate and companionable. We were accidentally told by his family’s matriarch that my son is her favorite great grandchild because he is a love who actually talks to the elders and tells them he loves them and has so much compassion. (This caused so much drama as there were other grandchildren present, including my poor daughter and her cousins.:( It was an accident but sort of a jerkish one. But it’s true, he is a people loving sweetheart. It’s just that introverted children can also be as compassionate and sweet and that is the case with several of the cousins, she just doesn’t notice because they aren’t as in her face. But I digress) I couldn’t drain our bird bath because I accidentally said I need to kill the “baby mosquitoes ” and he said “No! They are babies, mom! BABIES!” We had mice in our new house because it was left vacant too long before us, and I had to move to live traps also because of him. When he went up to bat in little league and saw my nervous for him face he just said “Don’t worry.
I live in Canada we can’t even have fully automatics and the ones that are in existence legally can only have 5 bullets semi automatic whilst shotguns can only have 3 at least it’s not our parent country of Britain WHERE YOU CANT EVEN OWN SENI AUTOMATIC PISTOLS WHICH IS WHY THERES SO MUCH KNIFE CRIME with this logic then toy knives in the UK create more crime
This is just pathetic. Wow. I’m 25 years old and I remember the stores had replica toy guns, Machine Guns, Lever Action Rifles and Pistols they had every kind of toy gun it was great! Cap guns were fun too! I had a favorite one that was a M16 with a grenade launcher on it. Played war, cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians with my friends. Played with BB guns too. And guess what…. Im a normal functioning hard working person. I didn’t turn into some gun slinging maniac like they’re saying kids will be if they play with toy guns… TOYS!!!! You go into stores now you will not see any of that I guarantee it. You’ll barley see nerf guns in some stores now. It’s sad just sad.
I know the difference between a plastic piece that shoots foam darts and a metal gun that shoots real bullets. When I was younger, I played Nerf wars with the neighbors, but I know that I would never ever point my air rifle, BB gun, or shotgun at something that I don’t intend on shooting. In fact, I think when I played with toy guns as a kid, it released my energy and aggression and I’m not likely to engage in aggressive behavior later. Helicopter parenting has gotten out of control, and besides, key word is TOY. They aren’t playing with real guns. Starting with nerf guns, I bet that kid is going to get an air soft gun, and the parents will explain the dangers and hazards, and then they could get a BB gun, which comes with more responsibility, and then maybe they even get their own firearm, and by then they know the safety and rules and responsibility that comes with it. Anyways, just saying Nerf wars was a staple activity for me when I got home from school, and they have encouraged me to pursue a career in either law enforcement or military. So yeesh people, calm your tits and let kids be kids!!!
Sticking a ipad, tablet, phone creates isolated kids and boys with ADHD. Then those kids are drugged up with pills. Then they become unstable, don’t have friends and will get bullied. That’s what creates a fragile person or even in some cases mass shooters. Let your children play and stop being a helicopter parent. My children knows more about guns than all these anti-gunners and journalists combine. Teaching a child about guns is the same as teaching them to be polite, share and not fight with others. A child does not know these on their own, they are taught at a young age. Same goes for guns.
These parents are so wrong. Back in the 1950’s and 60’s and even the ’70s kids played with guns and there were much fewer school shootings than there are today. Even though parents are not letting their kids play with toy guns today the school shootings are increasing more and more. Its not the guns its the mind set of the kid holding the gun. Helping the kid deal with his mental issues wil help decrease all the shootings going on nowadays.
Yes kids should be allowed to have any toy gun they want as long as parents can afford it. Kids should have fake military battery operated machine guns but modern style ones cuse I had the Vietnam style weapons and play clothes grenades bazooka and machine guns m16s and fake land mines for those electric jeeps and trucks to drive over and make a pop sound using cap gun caps to make the bang. And kids should be allowed to have realistic cowboy 6 shooter cap guns and bb guns and pellet guns. I was born in 92 and a red Ryder bb gun or the multi pump crossman pumpmaster .177 bb/pellet riffle cuse ut was the first stage of trust between kids and their parents.
We should be teaching them the dangers and safety about firearms. I was taught how to shoot when I was 6 and my 8 year old nephew learned when he was 6. He is scared of them because of what they can do, but he loves shooting them. My nephew can shoot a rifle better than most grown ups now a days. We’re a happy gun owning family down here in Huntsville Alabama. Im 24 years old and personally have about 35 world war 2 rifles and pistols of all kind. Have my special license for automatic weapons. Firearms will always be safe and never hurt you if you know how to store them, operate them, and treat them with respect. You also have to be a little scared of them(to a certain extent, y’all know what I mean.)
Guys it’s true, I played world at war and got drafted into ww2. Jokes aside do they not realize that most people who grew up playing with guns didn’t end up being mass shooters. Hell I grew up playing with toy guns my entire life, I still do ffs, never once have I or anyone I played with been like “this is fun, I’m gonna buy a real gun and take it to school” if anything I see toy guns as a safe way to teach people basic gun safety and how to responsibly handle a firearm to possibly prevent shit like mass shootings. This just reminds me of when vice tried to say that people who go to ww2 reenactments as Germans are real white supremacists.
If your kid killed your cat. Maybe no toy guns. If he or she or ABC-xyz is well adjusted, let them do it if they are well behaved. Controlling kids so strictly can cause issues. My mom locked the Xbox away almost every day when we were kids. Then when we got older my brother would not stop playing. Once he was living alone. Work eat sleep game.
I feel that these people are forgetting that some kids actually like history, some don’t live in areas where re-enactments happen or where no battles happened, so the closest they can come to understanding what it was like for those brave people is toy guns, I knoe this cus I’m like that, all the time I go to a creek near my school and pretend to be part of a ww2 battle
Ive been playing with toy guns since i was 7 or 8 years old, i bought a lever action gun from bi mart when i was little and loved it, i had a collection of nerf guns when i was little and still fo but i dont play with em anymore now that in a teenager. Point is that im not a violent person in fact i tend to avoid confrontations so i think toy guns are a ok
If children love it let them play. If someone gets hurt lesson learned. Toy guns aren’t dangerous. Nerf is just a foam bullet. No harm. What else are young boys suppose to play with? The orange tip makes them safer. Orange stands out. And toy weapons are fun for little kids. If they enjoy there happy. Keep children happy
The difference between a good and bad parent, is that good ones teach thier kids morals and responsibility; and do so without making them feel less than human. If you take everything from a kid to the point they live a dull lifestyle and rely on you for everything, you’re crippling them before they reach adult hood. You people are poison to youth, the fact that you belittle young boys with the term “toxic masculinity” will only make them feel like monsters.
Omg for one toy guns can be a great thing to teach our children how to respect a real gun, and practice the same general rules of a .50 caliber rifle. All the rules still apply no matter what gun you use (except toy guns because THEY CANT HURT YOU) and two, BB GUNS ARE NOT TOYS they can take someone’s eye out and if shot in just the right spot be deadly!
There are some interesting considerations of masculinity in play but that reaches out about swords and the type of games too not just guns. Toy guns dont need the same moral panic that article games, and rock music have had cause it’s likely not very harmful. A connection could probably be made between toy guns and a child’s aggression but its probably because the child’s natural behavior steers them towards toy guns and not the toys guns causing the aggression.
Lmfao I thought this was satire for a bit…. Bruh with this logic hot wheels causes DUI, or Operation teaches malpractice…. Like maybe address the lack of mental health services available, the illegal gun trade or hell if you wanted too lack of licensing or background checks for purchasing real firearms. But Nerf guns? 😂🤡😂
Coming from someone who was brought up around a lot of toy guns, and also replicas and deactivated guns, I understood and still do understand how they work and their effect, never once did I fell I was influenced to preform any act of violence, I think it’s more important to educate kids instead of alienate.
Honestly I don’t get it why can’t we just play with guns with all these people saying oh no guns are bad well I mean children have a brain they know not to shoot around people it’s actually good that they play with him because it shows what they can do to people and they learn not to shoot real guns at people so yeah I think we should let kids play with guns
Is not the object but how it’s used. I played about being a cat and killing birds and you don’t see me doing neither. I played with guns too, Nerf and water guns but I actually want more control on guns. The toys or games don’t make a difference, the difference comes from the education we give, the circle that surrounds the kids and what we show to them.
Just rip the fun out of playing with a nerf gun, and OHH BOO HOO, Little Johnny got shot by a WATER GUN THAT’S RIGHT, YOU MUST THINK THAT KID IS SO VIOLENT, OHH AND POOR SAMMY PLAYS WITH THAT LITTLE CAP GUN, AND THEN HE GETS YELLED AT FOR HAVING FUN, you all have had no fun, Just let go and chill, kids need to have fun, not get criticized for playing with a toy gun.
My friend has a couple of realistic toy guns and so do i. I have a couple revolvers (one black with a brown tip and one blue with an orange tip” and my friend has a green m16,a black m4 with a scope and a double barrel shotgun without an orange tip. I love doom. I don’t have the desire to kill anyone or anything
When the guy said at 1:29, “so that kids don’t play with weapons”, like Jesus, nerf guns are toys and they are made to shoot at each other to play not to kill, it’s like the guy thinks that the nerf gun has fucking gunpowder and a nail at the end of a dart and it’s not like that, like people just take this too seriously god.
nerf guns yeah maybe they hurt but there are litteraly tiny toys that dont even hurt i mean toys guns make kids more active beacsue they get to run with kids make new friends and play with people what would you rather choose kids in little rooms playing more violent games or having fun outside making new friends
This documentary sounds like they are saying that articles games cause violence, I PLAY with toy guns, and, beacuse of that, and articles games, I want to be part of the military, and give people peace, and, if I am comanded to go to the battle field, I will, and I will bring victory for the people of here.
I respectfully disagree if a kid is interested in a gun it’s OK but if he’s interested in guns that kill people or shootings then it’s a problem but hunting or target practising or any other things that you could use a firearm for it’s OK I don’t really understand why it’s OK for a kid to only play for example with the Pokémon cards and not play with other toys but if it wasA toy gun it’s not I am 10 years old and I purchased with my mom are airsoft pistol by RosmanAnd it says intended for use by those 16 or older and I am a decade-year-old if you search up in Google what I call a 10-year-old it will seat 10 to 12 is considered a preteen yes you heard that right a preteen I’m pretty sure if you heard a preteen is using an airsoft gun you would be OK with it I don’t know I’m not you but if you heard a 10-year-old was using it it would be more worrisome than if I were to see a preteen.
Yea really baning toy guns ? It really is part of a healthy play thing for anyone it can be fun and think about how kids are treated are they judged, builied? So it’s not the guns it’s how they are being treated and acting out. Almost every kid in America have a toy gun and a lot of kids find it jun and don’t like the thought of actually killing someone else. Plus I’m a kid only 11 and play with toy guns and haven’t thought about killing