Well, I grew up with guns as a child, and I still have guns. I was never a gun nut as a child, never played the "pew pew" toy gun thing, although I loved any toy that could shoot a projectile, from the toy plastic disc guns to the ping pong ball popper things. Not because they were violent, but because the act of making it work was fascinating. I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the cognitive development issues in projectile play... children in every culture partake of it. Learning to throw a ball, a dart, shoot an arrow, or shoot a gun is something that is very difficult to learn off the cuff.
I am the guy who grew up in a pacifist church, remains a pacifist, owns firearms, and fiercely defends the second amendment. These are complex issues. I think every child should take a course in gun safety and basic marksmanship. Part of the fascination is with the unknown and the forbidden & dangerous. Basic gun safety was drilled into me as a youth and I could no more point a gun at another person casually than I could forget to hold my breath underwater. Also, remember that substance abuse is far more closely associated with violence than guns are... the biggest thing I would say is not to imagine gun play as some looming iceberg of violent thoughts.
When kids play with guns, they are dreaming of some sort of glory, largely sold to them as part of a long-standing implicit cultural need to prepare youth to embrace military service. (that's a whole other issue). Kids never play games around shooting their spouse over who took the last hit of meth, or holding up a liquor store. I think parents who obsess over play guns, yet let their kids push each other around, or fight with their spouse in the home, are completely whacked. I think people should worry more about demonstrating and living out non-violent lives and functional methods of dealing with conflict.
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branchandroot
guns
Date: 2009-02-10 05:49 am (UTC)I am the guy who grew up in a pacifist church, remains a pacifist, owns firearms, and fiercely defends the second amendment. These are complex issues. I think every child should take a course in gun safety and basic marksmanship. Part of the fascination is with the unknown and the forbidden & dangerous. Basic gun safety was drilled into me as a youth and I could no more point a gun at another person casually than I could forget to hold my breath underwater. Also, remember that substance abuse is far more closely associated with violence than guns are... the biggest thing I would say is not to imagine gun play as some looming iceberg of violent thoughts.
When kids play with guns, they are dreaming of some sort of glory, largely sold to them as part of a long-standing implicit cultural need to prepare youth to embrace military service. (that's a whole other issue). Kids never play games around shooting their spouse over who took the last hit of meth, or holding up a liquor store. I think parents who obsess over play guns, yet let their kids push each other around, or fight with their spouse in the home, are completely whacked. I think people should worry more about demonstrating and living out non-violent lives and functional methods of dealing with conflict.
Jay