Toy Guns Promoting Violence

A large amount of parents in the United States conclude that toy guns make their kids too aggressive. In my opinion, this notion is to agree with completely. Researchers speculate that when a child acts violent in pretend play, it decreases self-control. Keeping toy guns from children will teach them that guns are extremely dangerous. If a child plays with a toy gun and there’s a real gun in front of them, they might be curious about what it would actually feel like to hold a real gun, and end up shooting someone or someone else accidentally.
Overall, 60 to 80 percent of boys and 30 percent of girls enjoy aggressive play, which leads to violent behavior. A child’s obsession with guns could promote violence and could make a child have self-control than a person who doesn’t enjoy aggressive play. Dean Abusalah, an 8th grader at Unis Middle School, confirms that, “Yes, I think toy guns make kids more violent, but I don’t think children shouldn’t play with them at all, only to a certain limit.” Researchers have proven that children who are less aggressive during playtime learn to control themselves in more violent situations.

Keeping toy guns away from children will teach them that guns are very dangerous and are not toys. Handing a toy gun to a kid will make him think that guns are to be played with. Omar Mawry, a Journalist from Unis Middle School, clarified, “I think toy guns are part of the reason of shootings being the second leading cause of death in the United States. Toy guns teach kids that firing a gun for no reason at all is okay.” Scientists say that if a person isn’t able to control himself, then they most likely enjoy aggressive play.

The Washington Post has an article about how many kids have accidentally shot themselves or someone else. In 2015, this happened a total of 265 times. There was a total of 83 deaths, 41 by minors accidentally killing themselves with a gun they found and accidentally killing someone else 42 times. This happens because children often think it’s a toy and it won’t hurt anybody. Hadi Saad, an 8th grader at Unis Middle School, said, “Parents should be more careful where they leave their guns, and they should keep the gun unloaded so nobody will get hurt even if the gun is locked away and somehow discovered by a child.”

In conclusion, gun violence is a major issue in the U.S and toy guns aren’t helping prevent it, instead, they’re promoting it. Aggressive behavior with children is just the start, when those children grow up they get angrier and sooner or later they start firing their guns at people for the most irrelevant reasons. Gun violence in the U.S needs to stop and we need to start by keeping toy guns away from children.

Alirida Noureddine

Unis Middle School Journalist

8 Comments

  1. Fake guns can lead to serious things. Like this article mentioned parents need to be more careful with their guns and where they leave them. Kids might not know the difference between a real and a fake gun. When kids are young and they play with toy guns when they grow up they grow up they could commit violence.

  2. I think that all parents should not let their kids play with guns because they might lead them to kill them selves in the future if they see a real gun in front of them. They also might soot them selves or a part of a family member or even someone else or a friend. I think that all parents should buy their kids a toy but not a fake gun or any kind of gun.

  3. I think that toy guns are promoting violence. They are promoting violence by teaching kids about guns. If a kid fids a real gun, he/she will think it is a fake gun and play with it like a toy and maybe even shoot someone and kill them. I like this story because it has a lot of detail and evidence like,” In 2015, this happened a total of about 265 times.” Children have dies because they thought that a real gun was a fake gun.

    Wala Alsabkha 3rd Hour

  4. I have leaned that toy guns can teach little kids vilence and kids would think that it’s not bad while growing up when they get to 6,7,8,9 years old they might pick up a real gun and think it’s a toy gun and accidentally shoot themselves which could kill them I have also learned that kids will think that it’s okay to shoot people when picking up a real gun just like they shoot someone with a toy gun thinking that they won’t die in my opinion don’t give kids toy guns.

    2nd hour

  5. This article was very well written and it was really interesting. I too, think that toy guns promote gun violence. I think that because, the article stated that the more kids play with toy guns, the more they get aggressive. And I a 100% agree. There are so much gun accidents around the world caused by innocent children who think a real gun is fake. I’ve seen many kids playing aggressive games including toy guns. Games that can potentiality harm someone. There are many kids who have killed their parents with real guns. I can not imagine living and knowing the fact that I’ve killed my parents. The thought itself is horrifying. Therefore, I agree with the statement that is, that toy guns, are promoting gun violence.
    1st hour

  6. a hardly disagree young children should not be able to play with guns because they will get into they weird that can change their life so my point is young kids should not be able to play with them when they are young maybe when they are 13/14 you did have a good point when you said that kids may think its a thing to be played with.

    Alex Alburkat 1rst hour

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