Gun control continues to be one of the hottest and most controversial topics floating around. There are countless articles debating the pros and cons of it, citing different statistics and specific stories for evidence, and people tend to have strong opinions on the matter. That's why I'm not going to talk about gun control today, but rather, toy gun control.
I was held at toy gunpoint by a 4-year-old boy this morning. While I chuckle looking at that sentence, in all honestly, I was shocked and thoroughly petrified. The boy I was babysitting held a camo-painted plastic gun to the side of my head and said, "I'm going to shoot you, Lindsey!" before proceeding to make machine gun noises. He was obviously using his imagination and playing, but the sheer fact that he found enjoyment in pretending to shoot someone stuck with me.
It's a little scary. It's extremely scary.
Guns are fun to little kids. Four-year-olds find guns and weapons and fighting amusing and see it as entertaining. Teenagers find guns fun and like to play paintball and shoot BB guns. Adults find guns fun, and they end up shooting people.
There's a fundamental issue with allowing children to play with toy guns. If we give a plastic gun to a three or four-year-old, how are they going to know that the gun they find in their house isn't a toy gun? Not only are they viewing the real gun as something fun to play with, but honestly, how could they possibly know that it is real and can actually hurt someone?
According to The Washington Post, between the dates of January 1st and May 1st, 2016, there were 23 incidents involving a toddler (ages one through three) shooting either themselves or someone else. This is a 78 percent increase compared to the same date range in 2015. Between the two years, no toy gun control was created and the number went up.
Getting gun control and toy gun control laws passed is seemingly impossible, and will take many years of fighting and convincing before anything will change. What we need to do is change the view on guns, and be able to have a clear understanding of the purpose of guns, which is definitely not entertainment. If people are taught from an early age that guns are not to be used and seen as toys, they will not misuse guns nearly as much later in life. If we choose to focus on teaching our children that guns are not the answer by eliminating the use of toy guns, we will, consequently, need to focus less on actual gun control.
