No play guns allowed in my home...

[catabryna]

If the kid wants it back, he can go and dig it out of the bushes... that is if he remembers that he actually had it!

;-)

[DonP]

1. Good for you! I'm sure there's a point here?

Pick up your toys when you're told to? Take care of your things because we won't replace what you lose from carelessness?

If your kid is 8 or 9 you have a good point. If they are 19, that's another story.

[catabryna]

6. No... there's no real point. The story is true.

I just needed to vent. :hi:

[AtheistCrusader]

43. Littering is good?

[spin]

10. Self delete. replied to wrong poster. (n/t)

[petronius]

2. Speaking as one who used to be a male-type kid, "the bushes" is absolutely

the worst place to hide anything you don't want him to have. Put it under the soap, or in the laundry hamper... ;)

[catabryna]

7. lol!

He forgot about it. :-)

[virginia mountainman]

3. What about the finger gun???

You going to cut it off and toss it in the bushes too??

[catabryna]

8. Fine, so long as it isn't pointed at my kid's face.

:)

[Blown330]

4. Darwin's School of Parenting.

I guess you didn't think of what would happen if cop drove by and saw your kid or one of his friends pick that toy gun up from around the bushes did you? Another parent who blames objects for their own irresponsible child-rearing.

[catabryna]

9. My son knows better...

the other child is younger.

Good point. Thanks, I'll go and throw it in the dumpster. This is a generally safe neighborhood, however.

[Blown330]

14. Yeah sure he does...

...which is why you'd rather confiscate than teach him responsibility. Funny when a parent talks about how smart their child is yet their treatment is completely the opposite.

[catabryna]

15. Uh, you are confused...

it's not my kid who had the play gun. This owner of the play gun, is my child's friend. He has to be taught by his parents. It is not my responsibility, other than to say "no" in my home. (And toss the play gun into the bushes)

:)

[cleanhippie]

18. Just what is it he is supposed to be "taught"?

And what do you think you are teaching him by taking his property and throwing it away?

[catabryna]

20. He is to be taught that toy guns are not acceptable in my home...

and since he's not my kid, that is all I can teach him.

We can argue all night, but there's really nothing to argue about.

[cleanhippie]

23. You are 100% wrong. Its NOT ok to take whats not yours.

Ever. Period.

[NewMoonTherian]

36. I think we're arguing about your theft and vandalism. n/t

[AtheistCrusader]

44. And littering.

[We_Have_A_Problem]

41. So then...

...to teach him, you dont say anything to him or his parents, you simply steal and destroy his property.

Maybe we should teach you not to speed by stealing and destroying your car and never telling you why....

[Blown330]

25. Oh so you steal toys from children...

...throw them away simply because you lack the sensibility or willpower to talk to the their parents. If I was the parent of that child you'd be doing a little dumpster diving about now.

[catabryna]

26. His parents and I have a language barrier...

Perhaps, I will translate a letter and send it downstairs as I have done in the past.

Thanks.

[S_B_Jackson]

39. If I were that other child's parents....

that would be the last time my child was allowed to play with yours. Better friends can be had elsewhere who's parents aren't thieves.

[rl6214]

34. That's a pretty juvenile response

and to throw his friends gun into the bushes?

How old are you?

[cleanhippie]

17. Wait. Just downthread, you posted that your son was autistic...

Now he DOES have the ability to know right from wrong?

[catabryna]

19. Yes, he knows about right and wrong...

and he's a sweet kid, but he is impulsive and I have to work with the personality he has. For him, it's better not to have that kind of play around our home.

:hi:

[cleanhippie]

22. I can understand that, but you also just showed him its ok to take anothers property.

Is that the kind of play that is allowed in your home?

[gejohnston]

31. Did you explain to the kid

that toy guns are not allowed, or was this his first offense? If so, it is totally unreasonable on your part. Did you talk to his parents?
Sorry, based on what you said, I honesty think you handled it in an inappropriate manner.

[catabryna]

33. Yes, I discussed it with the child...

and asked him to take it home. It did not happen.

[ileus]

5. my son never had a play gun until he was 3 or 4...

now he has more play guns than george bush told lies, along with 3 real guns. Of course his real ones are in the safe...

[spin]

11. When my daughter was 8 or 9 she was shooting a .22 bolt action rifle at the range ...

when she was ten, she was shooting a revolver, a .22 S&W Kit gun with a 4" barrel and adjustable sights at bulls eye targets 25 yards away.



When she was fourteen she had moved up to a S&W Model 15-2 .45 acp revolver. This weapon is the same size as Dirty Harry's .44 magnum. This became her favorite handgun. She loved all the attention she got when she walked up to the firing line, loaded her revolver and started shooting at the target. She was less that 5 foot tall and probably was a little well less 90 pounds. (Today she is 39 years old and 5' 2" and weighs 100 pounds.)



She used that firearm one night when she was 18 to stop an intruder breaking into our home by forcing the sliding glass door in the kitchen open. He was halfway in when she pointed the big revolver at him. He ran.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[YllwFvr]

13. I may have already said this

Since I think I've seen you post that before, but your daughter is awesome. Glad she kept a level head and was safe

[spin]

40. My daughter also had taken judo and jujitsu ...

and I attribute the fact that she did indeed react calmly in the situation to that training.

She did suffer the aftereffects of adrenaline after the incident was over. When the police arrived, she still had the handgun in her hand and couldn't release it. She told the police of the problem as she stood at the closed front door.

One of the officers told her to point the revolver at the floor with her finger off the trigger and open the door. He walked her to the living room couch and gently pried her fingers off the weapon.

The intruder was never caught although the police searched the neighborhood. We had a hurricane canal in back of the house that was overgrown and poorly maintained. He probably used it to make his escape.

[cleanhippie]

16. So littering is beter?

That is SOME logic you have there.


Any particular REASON you threw his toy in the bushes?

[catabryna]

27. Oh gawd...

I'll let the grumpy old man downstairs find it... get over yourself.

[burrfoot]

21. Related to SD or gun policy how, again? Maybe wrong forum? n/t

[catabryna]

24. Now, you must realize

that if I had posted this is GD, it would have been moved here. Right?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

28. or maybe the Lounge

:shrug:

The mods rearrange the furniture as it suits.

[catabryna]

29. lol! nt

[burrfoot]

30. All due respect what I think was a legitimate parenting decision, and a post worthy of discussion,

I don't actually think they would have.

[catabryna]

32. Then I suppose GD missed out on an

interesting discussion. :)

[SteveM]

45. Yeah, that is usually the fate of such postings...

I'm of two minds of this. Gun controller/banners sometimes post in GD so they can, I believe, coalesce a small group of straw man arguments; looks like they have a big thing going, you know? Then the mods post in "Guns," either on their own initiative or at the request of a poster. Frankly, I don't care where it is. But it is a little perplexing when some controller/banners express their desire to eliminate the Guns Forum, or to hide it within a group, and some others just blat it out in GD. I think their motivation is to denigrate the subject and those progressives who support 2A in hopes that some kind of DU "groundswell" will result in Guns being curtailed/eliminated, and they'll use whatever it takes. Incidentally, of the named forums, note that "Guns" is the second most posted in DU, behind Elections.

I've always believed that one shouldn't play with guns. That means REAL ones. When kids are using clearly identified toys, that's okay by me, but other parents have a different take. I remember during the final years of playing with toy guns, my Mom and Dad admonished us not to point the toys at each other, not because there was any danger in the act itself, but in preparation for training with real firearms. From that moment on I have never pointed a firearm, or toy gun, at anyone, though I've taken my share of deer and other game animals!

[NewMoonTherian]

35. Pretty lousy thing to do,

taking your ideological grudges out on the toys of someone else's kid. And if they have a "language barrier" that legitimately prevents you from communicating effectively with them, how much disposable income can they possibly have to buy more toys? No, great job though. Even classier to come here and brag about it.

It might be more effective, if you can't actually talk with them, to knock on their door and smash their child's toy on the ground in front of them.

(Sorry in advance for the intemperate comments, but this one really got my dander up, for a host of reasons.)

[Union Scribe]

37. I feel like I walked in at the end of a story.

But I don't mind, 'cause it didn't sound that interesting.

[pipoman]

38. We get these 'toy guns are bad' threads around here occasionally

and find it interesting that many on the DU likely agree, yet will squall when the religious right wants to rail on the dangerousness of video games like Mortal Combat and Grand Theft Auto. Toy guns do not cause crime, if they did the crime rate in the 40's and 50's would have been off the charts.

[spin]

42. While this has little to do with the story or with toy guns ...

the OP just reminded me of the time one of my grandson's eleven year old friends borrowed a Harry Potter film to watch.

When his grandmother noticed what he was watching, she confiscated the DVD and threw it out. She said it was evil and the work of the devil.

She never bothered to talk to us and also didn't offer to compensate us for the DVD. It's not my job to judge, but I feel it would have been more Christian of her to bring the DVD back to us and explain her feelings. We would have politely listened to her. Of course we never gave her grandson another DVD to watch at home unless it was a Disney cartoon.

Strangely she allowed her grandson to continue to visit our home where he watched anything we were watching.

Note: this post is not intended to offend or criticize. It's merely a side note.

[Glassunion]

46. I understand that it is your house and it is your rules.

And it is your prerogative to do as you see fit. My question is simply: What is wrong with toy guns?

[guardian]

47. Do you also ban

Tom & Jerry, or Roadrunner cartoons too?

C.A.U.T.I.O.N
picture of verrrrry threatening toy gun below

[badtoworse]

48. What about the Three Stooges? Babysitters for a generation (mine)

My kid brother and I watched them all the time, but somehow, I never hit him in the head with a shovel or extracted his tooth with a firecracker

[oneshooter]

50. But more importantly

Did you ever try the two finger eye poke?

Oneshooter
Armed and Livin in Texas

[badtoworse]

52. Yeah, but my brother always countered with the hand in front of the nose.

[oneshooter]

49. So real guns, properly carried, are allowed? n/t

[Atypical Liberal]

51. You are right to decide what things are allowed in your home.

But not to throw away another child's toy.

If you do not want toy guns in your home, then the adult thing to do would be to tell the child that he is not allowed to bring his toy gun into your home, so that he can take it back to his own house. This would teach boundaries and the responsibility to consider the feelings of others to the child.

To take things that don't belong to you is stealing.

If the child finds out what you have done, what lesson will you have taught him?

[DissedByBush]

53. I'm wary of play guns too

I have a feeling they may chip away at my enforcement of safe gun handling rules.

So my eight year old doesn't get to shoot a fake pistol, but she does get to shoot a real one.