Parents have to fight their own nerf battles trying to keep them out of their children's hands. Nerf should stick to footballs and gun control policies need serious improvement.
I really appreciate how you convey the complexity of child wanting to play with toy when toy is a pretend thing that only exists for killing. It's tough. Growing up, my parents didn't allow us to have any kind of toy gun with projectile but we definitely had supersoakers. We never had a gun safety conversation about them because I grew up in Canada and you can only own a hand gun if you are registered with a club, which is where the gun is kept because the only time you can use it is at the range. We did get gun safety conversations about rifles and shotguns because we had plenty of family friends who hunt. I do remember though, being told that when it came to our waterguns, we had to stop when someone asked us to stop. There was a real lesson about consent, in that it's fun to squirt each other with water on a hot day AND when someone doesn't want to get wet, you respect their wishes. But no, I never thought about the context that we were "playing" with weapons, which is really wild when you think about it.
Parents have to fight their own nerf battles trying to keep them out of their children's hands. Nerf should stick to footballs and gun control policies need serious improvement.
That would be a great step forward.
I really appreciate how you convey the complexity of child wanting to play with toy when toy is a pretend thing that only exists for killing. It's tough. Growing up, my parents didn't allow us to have any kind of toy gun with projectile but we definitely had supersoakers. We never had a gun safety conversation about them because I grew up in Canada and you can only own a hand gun if you are registered with a club, which is where the gun is kept because the only time you can use it is at the range. We did get gun safety conversations about rifles and shotguns because we had plenty of family friends who hunt. I do remember though, being told that when it came to our waterguns, we had to stop when someone asked us to stop. There was a real lesson about consent, in that it's fun to squirt each other with water on a hot day AND when someone doesn't want to get wet, you respect their wishes. But no, I never thought about the context that we were "playing" with weapons, which is really wild when you think about it.
I wish I felt moved by this. I do not. This does not feel real or tangible to someone close to gun violence. I hurt for you both.