Toy Hack

Toy Hack

I am currently involved with the Niners vs Zombies, a game where students attack zombies with nerf guns and try not to get infected. This got me thinking, do toy guns possibly have a bad influence on kids?

            My childhood didn’t consist of a lot of shooting video games or even any toy guns. Since I was not introduced to it I didn’t know what I was missing out on until I went over to some friends’ houses that had these things. However I never got an xbox or any guns until I was much older (still don’t have an xbox). Even though I never had an xbox I always wanted to go to my friend’s house in order to play with his. I never wanted my friends to come over to my house only because I didn’t have an xbox. Around 16 I was introduced to paint ball, and I fell in love with it. I got my own paintball gun and equipment. Paintball gave me the impression I could shoot someone without consequences.

            When I was of age to shoot a gun I didn’t actually like it too much at first, mainly because of the recoil of the gun hurt my shoulder. I had this idea in the back of my head that shooting a gun wouldn’t be this bad mainly because of video games and paintball games.

            Toy guns give kids a since of invincibility and do not tell the dangers of real guns. There are countless stories of little kids finding a parents gun and accidently shooting themselves because they didn’t know the danger of this weapon. I know me and my neighbors liked to play a game called cowboys and Indians which is the same as cops and robbers. This game involves the cowboys and Indians constantly shoot at each other. If you really look at this game it has a very violent history.

            “Most kids play with guns as children and few grow up to use guns in an act of violence”. This quote assumes that each parent educates their children of the dangers of a real gun; however this is not the case in real life. There have been many bans on certain toy guns and there are many people who still think that toy guns in general are bad.

            I have come to the conclusion that the dangers of toy guns mainly come down to how the parents educate their kids of the dangers and that they understand the difference between a toy and the real deal.