Guns at School

I'm not personally offended by toy guns, but my experience has been that schools do not welcome any form of gun. When I taught middle school theater, and tried to use toy guns and refer to drugs in my play (there was a context, okay?), I was informed that I couldn't do either. Oh. Yeah, right.

Like you, most parents aren't happy with gun-like objects at schools. Can't speak for private schools, though. Maybe public schools ARE better in some ways. :)

Our schools don't allow any type or guns, real or play on the school grounds. It is posted at all of the buildings. I would have been bothered had I been in your shoes. The things that really caught my attention was actually in your follow-up comment. The parents keep the toy guns in their vehicles and give them to the kids after they get out of class. Because so many toy guns are made to look like real ones it would be easy for people to become complacent and when they see those parents with a "gun" they will just assume that it is a toy. What if one time it isn't a toy? How far into the school could a person get before anyone would even question it? Just a thought, but it might be worth mentioning when you talk to the teacher or someone else from the school. Many kids have taken guns into school that someone thought were toys until it was too late.
Good luck.
*** Felt like I should add that I also own guns and enjoy shooting targets,( and as the child of a former deputy sheriff, I have a healty respect and appreciation for guns. I just don't think school is the place for them. Outside of school is a different story in my opinion. :)

Guns on campus, of any kind, is a no-no, period.

I would be appalled if someone were to let their child play with a toy gun after school, on school grounds. For so many reasons. My husband and I are former veterans and know what guns can do. We do not allow our son to play with pretend guns. He's four, and when it comes time to get a 'squirt gun', it will be an animal shape. If he picks up a stick and makes a 'gun' out of it, this is still different than sanctioning this play in a public area with a prop that actually looks like a gun. (Oh, and you know I would stop him from playing that way in a heartbeat amongst other children. In one's backyard is one's choice; imposing that sort of play on other children is quite another.)

I think the other piece of this is, there's nothing other to play with guns than "killing" games. This imposes a game on other children that they may not want to play, or that their family is morally opposed to. (Yep, that would be me.) These aren't welcome. I'd address this with the teacher, the principal, and hope that some strongly worded newsletters made it home. Teachers should have to be 'policing' the schoolgrounds afterward for it to be a safe place.

These parents should also have enough backbone to tell their kids "these toys are for home". Who's in charge, anyway? It is NOT okay for kids to play guns in public. Just my opinion.

I am going to add, in response to those who ask "who are you to tell me what toys I can give my kids?" this reminder:

Gun play is designed to make one person a victim. You are welcome to give your kids weapons to play with if you do it in your own house, on your own property, where *your* kids who like to play with guns are the only ones affected. Just like my son likes to dig up my yard with shovels, but I don't let him do it everywhere else. Context.

Also a short heartbreaking story: when I was in my 20s, I dated a police officer for a short time. He was on duty when a person was brandishing a weapon and didn't put it down after several warnings were given. He fatally shot this person and yes, they had a toy gun.

NO you are not nuts. "Play" guns should not be allowed at a school setting, I completely agree with you. In fact, our school forbids bringing any toy from home to school at all.

When my daughter was in kindergarden, she drew a sword since she liked the movie Aladin. She attended a private charter school. I was called by the principle who said they have a ZERO tollerance for violence, including drawing anything about weapons, etc. Although she did not get suspended for this, I was told she could have. I would pursue this thru the school board. Good luck.

I don't believe you are nuts at all. In this day and age everything has changed. 120 years ago people had to hunt in order to feed their families. People also had to keep guns to be ready to fight for our freedom at a moments notice. But now we have active and organized military and police. We have grocery stores on every corner. People that are not military or police keep guns that often get used in wrong ways and of course criminals do nothing good with them. As a society we are long past the days of cops and robbers being a noble game for kids to play. When I was a child everyone would want to be the cop or the good guy. Now people romanticize the criminals.

The definitely do NOT need to be playing guns in school, even if afterwards. There was just that case of the 1st grader bringing the gun to school and it being fired and hurting 3 kids. Yes, it was just a play gun but what if next time its not. I have toy guns for my son (I never bought them for him but MIL did). He rarely plays with them, basically only when his older cousin is around, but I instill in my children (as my mother did) you DO NOT point the gun at people. A lot of parents do not do this. I just don't want to take the chance that one day it might not be a toy gun, even a bb gun. The reason I'm really big into this is because even though it's a toy gun my son has, when he was 2! my dog did something to him and he (my son) ran into his room and grabbed a toy gun and went after the dog clicking it saying I'm going to shoot you. I have no idea where he got this as he didn't and doesn't watch shows with that kind of stuff in it, but it must be instinctual. But it scared me and I got onto him. I think that as parents we have a responsibility to have children "respect" a gun. Teach them that it's not a toy and that it can take a persons life. We need to teach them gun safety and how to hold it and make sure that the safety is on, etc. We have a bb gun now for my daugther who is almost 7, and have taught her to hold it down to the ground while holding it and also to ALWAYS have saftey on until right before she is going to shoot at the target. Immediately after shooting the safety goes back on.

I don't think you are nuts at all. I am a big believer in our right to have guns, go hunting etc but I do not think toy guns are appropriate for children unless they shoot water, nerf darts or those nerf balls. If parents are going to give their kids toy cap guns or others that go bang or click, they need to teach their kids to not to point them at anyone and they certainly should not be used in public.

Pointing a gun (even toy) at someone is highly offensive and it tells me that their parents don't have the first clue about guns. Anyone who has been around guns knows they are to be respected and never pointed at people. I think you should stand up on this one.

You are not nuts! That is crazy and good for you for realizing it! It sounds like you need to champion this cause and push for the no guns on school property.

Allowing children to play with pretend guns is so stupid. How will a child know the difference if they should (God forbid) come across a real one? I have three very young children... Just this past week I started talking to them about what to do if they ever see a gun. I'm not paranoid but I think it is important to educate kids....

Recently I was running near our house.... Pushing my two oldest in the jogging stroller... We were headed to the playground. Another Mom was walking to the playground from the opposite direction. She was pushing a toddler in a stroller and had an older boy with her... Maybe 7 or 8 ? Everything looked normal but out of the blue a police car sped through the park... Right up onto the path... Lights and siren on! The police car pulled up sideways across the path between the Mom and the older boy and the officer started yelling (from the loudspeaker) "drop the gun!". It took me a second to figure out what was happening but when I looked closer you could see the kid had a pretty big pretend automatic gun! The kid was stunned and the officer had to yell at him a few more times before he dropped it. I tried not to stare but let's just say that nobody was joking around! The kid had to step away from the weapon and everything. In retrospect since the kid was walking ahead of his Mom it probably really did look like some kid walking alone through the park with a gun!

At first I felt sorry for the kid and the Mom but quickly realized how much I appreciated the way that was handled. I mean is it really OK to bring an automatic rifle to a playground? Sure, I get that it's pretend but how am I supposed to know?

Guns, as others have mentioned, have a place. That place is not with children. We should not be encouraging our children to feel comfortable with guns. Instead, we should be teaching them that guns are not for kids. If you see a gun, don't touch it... Tell an adult. If people want to teach their kids to hunt or shoot at a range, great. Those kids will likely grow ip respecting guns. But the casual attitude towards weapons is really ignorant, IMO.

There are no toy guns of any kind permitted on my sons school grounds. So nope I don't think they should have them after school.

I do not think play guns should be allowed at school. However, do you NOT let your kids play cops and robbers? Play guns never killed anyone and it does NOT teach children to shoot other people. Boys will be boys.

you're not nuts. I worked in a public school and we took toy guns, even guns made out of folded paper seriously. They were not allowed in school. If they're in your backpack, then they're in school. If you're taking them on the bus with you, they're in school. If you're waiting for the school bus and terrorizing little kids with them, then it is something the school should address.

Not all kids know what real guns vs fake guns look like. If a kid pointed a real-looking gun at my child, and I felt _genuine fear_ for the life of myself or my child, I could shoot that child dead with a real gun. How awful would that be - all b/c a kid was playing around. So toy guns in public are a big deal. They should not be brought to school by any means. NO toys really need to be at school unless it's part of a class project or something.

So for me, with this situation, it might make me a lot more upset if the gun actually looked real. A purple squirt gun, not such a big deal for me. A dart gun not a big deal either, imo. But a real looking silver or black gun or a cap gun I would have issues with. Even a paper gun pointed at my child seems threatening. It'd maybe depend on the facial expressions of the child with the 'gun.' Lots of variables to consider.

sorry so long....

just read your update. i still haven't read what others wrote. Sounds like they wrote a lot of hateful stuff. Weird that the parents hand the toys to their kids when they go to pick them up. Aren't there any other kind of toys? Maybe they should have a playdate together after school at one kid's back yard. School's just not the place for it. imo.

Even toy guns are not allowed on public school property. A child who brings one will be suspended. I suggest you contact your schools upper management. Does it have a school board? This should not be tolerated in today's world.

Toy guns can be dangerous especially when they look like real guns. Toy guns look like real guns to both those experienced with guns and those who haven't had experience.

Guns, toy or otherwise, are intimidating to many people. They cause fear which can result in violence. I also believe that they detract from learning safe gun habits. One can be angry and point a gun when they are older because nothing happened when they pointed their toy gun as a child. Having made a gun feel familiar takes away from it's seriousness.

Guns are not toys and should not be treated as toys. Guns are lethal!

In regards the capitol letters at the end of your message: Using caps on the Internet usually means extreme anger. If you're this angry, I urge you to calm down before trying to do anything more. You will be most effective when trying to convince people when you use a calm and rational voice.

There are a lot of different opinions on toy gun play in the United States, in both public and private schools. (My friends tell me it's different in Canada). Respecting this is just like respecting different ideas on clothes, make-up, climbing trees, etc. I explain to my kids that different families have different rules and all kids need to follow the rules of their own families.

However, when someone points a gun at me or my kids(even a toy), it becomes a violation of my personal space. I can set a boundary about that just like I can set any other kind of personal boundary. If a child points a toy gun at me, I say calmly but firmly: "I have had real guns pointed at me. I do not want guns pointed at me or my kids. Point them somewhere else." If this does not work I confiscate the gun and/or speak to the children's parents, depending on the level of familiarity I have with the kids in question. Kids almost always respect the firm request, however. And parents *always* respect it.

You could certainly ask for rules to be set on what is acceptable behavior on school grounds. However, asking a school to overrule what parents can do with their own kids is a fairly strong step. I'm not a big fan of institutions (or other parents) overruling parents except in the most extreme circumstances.

It would probably be more useful to start a conversation at the school and among parents on ways to respect personal boundaries and support each other in our parenting decisions. Include guns as an example, but not the sole topic. Remember that if you can overrule another parent based on your strongly held convictions, any other parent can also do the same to you on another topic. Set the precedent for respectful conversation and find a solution that works for everyone.

Yep!

Your nuts!

~I liked the all caps story at the end...but I still do not understand what all the fuss is about? It was a T-O-Y gun...NOT a R-E-A-L gun! You were in NO danger and neither were your kids!