Toy guns?

Brawn · Post by **Brawn** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 9:06 pm

Why is that almost every kind of toy directed towards males have to carry either guns or some kind weapon? GIJOE, Transformers, Gundam..ETC

I undertstand the need to blow up your favorite badguy, or goodguy to bits, but what does this tell us about ourselves?

Here is something that people think maybe harmless because they don't even look like weapons because of US and other international laws...

The Super Soaker!
I have seen people put ammonia and bleach in these things and do some serious damage to those who get hit.

Are we a society who still encourages guns? Although banned in some countries, still have toys packing a weapon that could look like a planet buster?

I know they look cool, and give our favorite heros some spunk, and badguys an edge against the goodguys because their guns always look so much cooler..

Is this a method by people to get kids flamiluar(sp) with guns?

I joined the US Navy so that I wouldn't have to use weapons,
but I didn't think I'd have to qualify with a 9MM, and a M16,
know how to fieldstrip them and put them back together in less than 15 sec.

When I was a kid we used to play cowboys and indians..
We and the cowboy would always had a gun...
but on one almost fatal day in 1987 a family friend's daughter at 7yrs old was shot in the back, almost severing her spine
and lost use of her lower body..

Thank god she recovered.

But I have lost many friends in the name of gun violence, and although it may start with the simple toy with the play gun, but soon may end up one day with a real one and shoot one of your loved ones...

I know the saying "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"
True!, but it's usually the gun that does it.

Or there is the saying that, " If it he didn't have a gun he would of used a knife"
Well, yeah but you can also get hit by a bolt of lightning while walking outside on a clear day.

This is a topic that I have been wanting to post for a long time now, but didn't have the emotional strength to put it up...

I personally think the public is brainwashing and softening our children to think guns are the way to solve a problem.

I want to hear your opinions...

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[This message has been edited by Brawn (edited 12-14-2001).]

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 9:11 pm

Basically, I think the reason it's seen as more acceptable and harmless over here in the UK is because gun use has always been discouraged (and is now banned), therefore the link isn't made between kids' games and actual firearms.

In America, it's always been the case that a kid with a toy gun might be mistaken for the real thing; it's getting like that in the UK too.

Guns in cartoons are only an issue when guns are relatively freely available.

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Brawn · Post by **Brawn** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 9:14 pm

Hey who made you a MOD!!!

Congrads Denyer!

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You can find me located in the TFArchive's Elevator Shaft
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General Roadbuster · Post by **General Roadbuster** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 9:40 pm

I collest soft air guns. Exact replicas to the actual thing. In fact, ur not allowed by law to have them outside of the house, for a police officer would have no ability to tell the difference.

The weapons themselves only shoot plastic B'bs but they use the EXACT molds of the real gun.

But darnit is it fun to play.

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Capt · Post by **Capt** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 10:08 pm

Airsoft ownz!
I plan to buy myself an M16A2 when I get my tax rebate.
The law with Airsoft is not quite as you said though...you CAN take them outside (how else would you have a woodland skirmish), it's just that any local constabulary and community should and must be warned that people are going to be deeking about the trees with what look like realistic weapons.

some decent links: http://www.tea-and-medals.co.uk/main.htm http://www.airsoftdynamics.com/ http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/main/main.htm

airsoft can still be dangerous though...not fatally, but still dangerous
one of my friends decided to point a loaded and cocked Smith & Wesson airsoft pistol at my face from a metre away. he didn't realise it had a hair trigger.
Needless to say, if he hadn't ran, his own face would have been put through a plate glass window.
I still have the mark on my cheek bone.

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Shrapnel Clone · Post by **Shrapnel Clone** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 10:15 pm

No problems with guns here either. I think Denyer is right about the availability of guns being the main problem.

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Brawn · Post by **Brawn** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 10:20 pm

Ah the M16A1 and the M16A2 fullmetal jacket.
I know them like the very back of my own hand..

I'd wish I could forget...
Good topic to discuss though...

I still believe it's brainwashing...

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You can find me located in the TFArchive's Elevator Shaft
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"Dedicated to a friend who taught me not to take myself so seriously"

[This message has been edited by Brawn (edited 12-14-2001).]

Unicron · Post by **Unicron** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 10:30 pm

Violence is part of Human nature. There is nothing we can do to change that. All the laws in the world won't stop people from hurting or killing others.

I'll add on more later, right now, I have other things to do

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Post by **Denyer** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 10:32 pm

Originally posted by Unicron:
Violence is part of Human nature.

Conflict, maybe... but in any case, it's not the only part.

Brawn · Post by **Brawn** » Fri Dec 14, 2001 10:59 pm

I believe as Human beings, we are still feral and young.

We still feel the thurst to punch that guy in the jaw just because he looked at your Girl Friend...

Guns and Violence are almost the same, sometimes used to protect..
Ya know seeing a Policeman carrying a gun or several guns has a deterant effect..

I know some Texans, and some hardcore military types that believe that guns should be allowed to anyone who wants one..

Hell when I was in Texas I saw many trucks with gunracks with 2 or 3 types of weapons.

My like to solve my issues with my mouth, instead of my hands. There will always be gun sports to some degree, but we as a species are to violent a race and have a long way to go...

It's time we start teaching our children the true nature of guns, through education..

Because if we do not, history will repeat it's self over and over again..

Seeing children dieing no matter who's it is, always makes me sad. To see the paranoia in US schools, with the metal detectors, and when ever someone mentiones anything vaguely violent...Even if they were just being a kid, like saying, "I'm gonna kill you". People immediately thinks it's a death threat even if it's from a 6 year old.

They expel the child from school, put them in counseling, maybe the parents as well..

I thinks it's high time we begin a change in our way of thinking...
Instead of the here and now, think about the big picture...

Edit: I don't think laws will solve our issues, we as Human Beings should see past our own need for anger, and destruction.

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You can find me located in the TFArchive's Elevator Shaft
Coming to a nutward near you!

"Dedicated to a friend who taught me not to take myself so seriously"

[This message has been edited by Brawn (edited 12-14-2001).]

Brawn · Post by **Brawn** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 7:04 am

Hey what's up with the non posting...?

I thought I brought up a pretty decent topic..?

*Brawn now runs away and takes his 9mm and points it to his head and blows his head off*

BOOM!

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You can find me located in the TFArchive's Elevator Shaft
Coming to a nutward near you!

"Dedicated to a friend who taught me not to take myself so seriously"

[This message has been edited by Brawn (edited 12-15-2001).]

Redstreak · Post by **Redstreak** » Sun Dec 16, 2001 5:35 am

There's no question this is a good topic for discussion, but it's also a sensitive one for a lot of people, so you might not get the kind of response you'd think you would.
Me, I prefer to keep myself away from a topic like this at the risk of saying something that might be misconstrued.
Every hero has a gun in the movies(except Highlander but I'm ahead of myself). It's a fact of life, like it or not, I'm afraid. Young boys wanna blow stuff up, and are not coherent enough to think aobut reasoning with opponents. They also aren't generally smart enough to turn toys into weapons, a la your super soaker example.

In conclusion, society's f***ed up. No question. But that's just how it is, I'm afraid. We encourage boys to blow stuff up while we encourage girls to do kitchen stuff and whatnot; the very stereotypes fought against every day.
Sad thing is there ain't much we can do about it.

R.

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Starscreamsghost · Post by **Starscreamsghost** » Mon Dec 17, 2001 4:29 pm

Interesting topic. Here's what it comes down to for me: for the most part, all children are exposed to similar types of social stimuli: television, movies, toys, what have you. It's the ways in which parents teach their kids to deal with such stimuli that is important. Guns don't kill people, and neither do kids; bad parents do.

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Starscreamsghost - Better Than You Since 1981

Ah, for the days of innocence...

Pun-3X · Post by **Pun-3X** » Mon Dec 17, 2001 6:19 pm

Hell yes.

It's interesting all these groups that push and shove as hard as they can to get guns off the streets. Saying you could get rid of them completely, the knowledge of their existance is going to remain--you tell me that if the black market doesn't succeed after they're banned (especially in the states) that there won't be ones fashioned at home using house-hold products, that are just as effective as cop-killers. Someone'll get creative enough.

The toys have the orange caps on them by law. ONE THING my parents taught me when I was a kid (the orange tip was just starting up) was that no matter what, never take the guns to play with outside. Told me stories of kids pointing toy guns at cops and getting shot, and that was enough for me to play with them indoors or in the back yard.

So why aren't other parents following in suit?

dai-atlas2000 · Post by **dai-atlas2000** » Mon Dec 17, 2001 7:18 pm

Ok, this has perhaps maybe drifted off topic slightly, but I think it is worth raising.

Reading through the posts here, a couple of people here have stated that children using guns or indeed people who grow to be violent is due to bad parenting.

I think that this is a gross simplification/ generalistaion, which although maybe true in some cases cannot be applied to all.
Although it is a parents responsibility to raise a child in the best way possible - to bring them up to respect life and other people - giving a child a toy with a gun is not going to make them suddenly turn violent. Children, by the friends they make and the social environment they enter shape the person they are...instead of solely blaming parents - i think you want to first look at the effects of PEER PRESSURE as an underlying influence.

What does anyone else think???

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Weirdwolf and Monzo · Post by **Weirdwolf and Monzo** » Mon Dec 17, 2001 7:29 pm

Well said, Dai-Atlas2K!

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Brawn · Post by **Brawn** » Mon Dec 17, 2001 7:33 pm

Originally posted by Starscreamsghost:
Guns don't kill people, and neither do kids; bad parents do.

I totally agree with you on that one S-Ghost..

Originally posted by dai-atlas2000:
I think that this is a gross simplification/ generalization, which although maybe true in some cases cannot be applied to all.
Although it is a parents responsibility to raise a child in the best way possible - to bring them up to respect life and other people - giving a child a toy with a gun is not going to make them suddenly turn violent. Children, by the friends they make and the social environment they enter shape the person they are...instead of solely blaming parents - i think you want to first look at the effects of PEER PRESSURE as an underlying influence.

right on the money man..

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[This message has been edited by Brawn (edited 12-17-2001).]

Optimus' · Post by **Optimus'** » Mon Dec 17, 2001 9:25 pm

I agree with Pun S-ghost and Dai.

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Quick Switch · Post by **Quick Switch** » Mon Dec 17, 2001 11:23 pm

Worthy topic, to be sure.

Resoultion of the problem of guns? Well, here in America, probably never, due to the Constitution. (Aside from banning of assualt weapons, "cop killers," etc.) Regular handgun or sports gun ownership is a fact of life here, for those who want to have them.

Brawn mentions "brainwashing" as a cause of acceptance of guns. I don't know about that, but I DO know it is seen (rightly or not) as masculine, purposeful, what have you. Groups such as the NRA have made weapon ownership seem like a God-given right (at least in the West).

Pun mentions bad parenting. That, of course, is a whole different issue, and something no democracy/repubic can mandate. A fascist or communist regime, maybe, but no democratic one.

At the end of the day, what do you have? More questions but few answers. How I wished for one.

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" A confused enemy is a defeated enemy. "

Starscreamsghost · Post by **Starscreamsghost** » Mon Dec 17, 2001 11:27 pm

Originally posted by dai-atlas2000:
Children, by the friends they make and the social environment they enter shape the person they are...instead of solely blaming parents - i think you want to first look at the effects of PEER PRESSURE as an underlying influence.

So who raised THOSE kids?

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Starscreamsghost - Better Than You Since 1981

Ah, for the days of innocence...