When children play, they are creating an alternate reality for themselves. When children play with guns, they are usually creating an environment where there is a "good guy" and a "bad guy" and the bad guy MUST DIE or feel pain.

 

A common response when playing with guns is questioned is often that you've played with guns or your older child played with guns and "turned out fine." But... did you? Did... they? The mindset of our society is not "fine." The way that we need ultimate proof that someone murdered by police officers has never had a transgression in order to accept that their life was/'is valuable, is not...fine.

The aggression in our schools and the number of school shootings is not..fine.

The unhealthy obsession that so many Americans have with guns is not...fine.

No one is fine.

Toy guns are a gateway form of play. Let's talk about it.