wants a gun for christmas

my son is 3 and really wants a gun for christmas and i'm not sure whether to ignore this (i've been ignoring it for weeks now...) or to get him some type of toy gun - not sure which... any help on this much appreciated so I can tell santa how to approach this?

id say guns kill and santa doesnt want to do that.

I know what you mean but if I don't get him one am I making a bigger deal of it....(I've no idea where he has this idea from I only watch medical dramas and hoped he'd ask for a nice doctor outfit!)

id refuse, but then i disagree with guns and so what if hes disappointed hell get over it!

could you maybe compromise with a brightly coloured water gun and avoid ones that actually look real in colour and shape if you are concerned

My son has an old toy gun of mine that we found in mums loft. It makes machine gun type noises which he likes. He doesn't play with it much and when he does it usually only for the noise.

He'd rather be playing with his toy wrestlers anyway!

I agree with the water gun suggestion though. Good compromise and more fun in the summer lol

Mikey has a little gun that makes shooting noises, it looks like a shotgun, we live in the countryside so we shoot alot of birds for the pot, so all the children are around guns quite abit, so Mikey brings his gun out and tries to shoot geese and such.

I don't agree with guns and like the first suggestion

we dont buy guns for our son but he still runs around with other things pretending they are guns

we did get him water pistols and we keep them in the bathroom with his bath toys, he gets to squirt the tiles at bath times

No offense to anyone here. Not trying to start an argument. I don't agree with guns at all. Glad to hear your taking a concern to it, though. Unless hunting is normal practice in your family life, there is no need for tots to get exposed to guns it can lead to accidents.

read. 3 year old shoots family relative...
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_/ai_n16351214

Do NOT get a realistic looking toy gun. Even if it's a water gun. Those red tips can break off and, in some places, cops may shoot anyone of any age that holds a real or realistic fake gun.
12 year old is shot by police over realistic toy gun...

www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=63207

I'm not trying to scare anyone here or push my views. I posted these articles for extra info and my sources!

Ok i think personally its up to you if your child has a gun or not.Just because he might like to play with it now doesnt mean he is going to grow up wanting a real one or to shoot anything/anyone.
I am passionate about my sport which is shooting,my children will be raised and taught about gun saftey and there sole purpose in our home which is sport!! (im a big animal lover and dont kill anything living)i do combat shoots only on targets and have won many awards etc.
My child loved his toy guns but has little intrest in them now he is getting older and he also hates coming down to the range as he dislikes the noise.
Sorry i just had to defend decent gun owners like myself that take care in saftey issues we are not all careless phsyco people.
rant over

I have an army background bringing up and my Dad refused for us to have guns as they kill. He let us have a cowboy outfit but took the gun away so we used our fingers instead. Although my sister broke her finger by jamming it in my back as I fell backwards so just goes to show accidents can happen any time. My cousin with her son got him to write a wish list to santa and pointed out that not everything was bought of it. That seems to work. Good Luck whatever you decide

I was thinking more along the lines of a Super Soaker rather than a small water pistol. I hardly think the police are going to mistake something that size and that luminous for a real gun!

As to small children kikking relatives. It's usually found out afterwards that their parents/grandparents had a gun lying about the home and not locked away. If you make things like that easy for kids to access then of course they are going to be curious about them.

I personally don't like guns, but I would never make a fuss if George was playing with one.

Hi,

I see the point about real looking guns as I am from Belfast and I never had a real looking gun when I was growing up as unfortunately a wee boy was shot here accidently by a soldier during the troubles - i see this as a really sad thing that happened here and i'm not making a political point when i say this... hopefully those days are behind us here.....so I'm edging towards something that goes bamp,bamp but it not real looking but will still let will role play...as wee boys do.

What about one of the ones that fires ping pong balls. That way he gets to bam bam sound as well as getting to fire something around the room.

Wkdblue said:
What about one of the ones that fires ping pong balls. That way he gets to bam bam sound as well as getting to fire something around the room.

My DS has one of them the balls are quite soft so its perfect for indoors.

Interesting discussion. When I was young we all had guns - girls and boys - and we played cowboys and indians or battles. Not much was thought about it in those days and we didn't grow up to be a bunch of gun toting killers.

If I had a little boy, I wouldn't be concerned if he had a cowboy outfit and the holster and guns. Having said that, I wouldn't let him outside of our enclosed garden with them just for fear of extreme reactions to the guns as was pointed out earlier, ie. police thinking they were real, etc.

I think the water pistol or ping-pong ball gun sounds like a good idea if you want a compromise.

I would also suggest a list of presents from Santa and say not everything you want you get

It's a shame the world is such a harsh place where imagination can't be let run riot for fear of reprisal.

I hope you find a nice compromise for him hun

Ping Pong sounds good - I was a bit worried about the furniture....

as you know i dont like guns, I recently found one in toms room, someone gave him a BB gun.

I dont like it and i took it away from him, my husband works in a toy shop and he cannot sell play guns, BB guns even water pistols to anyone under 18.

This BB gun looked very realistic and i was shocked, i could see it wasnt realy, but i had to give it a real close look. He wasnt that bothered when i took it from him, but im of the opinion whether its cap guns or shoots BB pellets or ping pong balls guns are guns.

Thats just my opinion and its up to you what you feel is right for your child.