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Subject: 
What do other parents do with Lego guns?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general
Date: 
Wed, 21 Jun 2000 01:28:30 GMT
Viewed: 
665 times
  
Following on from the topic of "small action boys" and Lego stereotyping in
loc.au, what do other parents do with the guns in their Lego sets?

Until recently I'd only ever bought one set with guns (Pirate skeleton cave)
and I threw them straight in the rubbish bin. (Yes, I know several people
are aghast at this blatant disregard for the holy ABS).

Nowadays I still remove the guns before my small action boy even gets to
see the sets, but I have kept them.  I'm undecided on whether or not to
reintroduce them once he's (much) older.

I did however overlook a space zapper thingo in an Insectoids set and got
quite a lecture from my 4 year old about this "But Mum, that's a gun, get
rid of it!".

As you can tell from this he's been brought up in a "we don't play with toy
guns because guns are real things that kill people" environment, both at
home and at childcare and Kindergarten (it became an issue outside the home
first and we followed on with it).  This does not however
stop the fascination with imaginary guns and "blowing things up" which
I'm not aware of him being exposed to and so must be an innate 4 year old
small action boy thing.

So what do other parents do with Lego guns or is it not an issue?

Deidre
drb@tasmail.com



Message has 10 Replies:
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
(...) We don't have kids yet, but we've talked about what we will do. We'll not buy sets which blatently have a lot of guns (like the wild west, and many of the pirates sets), and we will remove them from sets that do. (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
Deidre Rushton Brumby <drb@tasmail.com> wrote in message news:FwHDFI.94z@lugnet.com... (...) in (...) cave) (...) toy (...) home (...) I have a 10 year old daughter. She still has her rifles and pistols from her Adventurer sets and her swords and (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
(...) My 8 year old son, who's been playing with LEGO toys since he was 4, knows that guns are not toys and he rarely plays with them, so it's not an issue. We also enforce safety rules about any plaything that launches projectiles not being toward (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
(...) This reminds me of the t-shirt that big bugger (played Jaws in a couple of Bond films with Roger Moore) wore in "Happy Gilmore" which said "Guns don't kill people. I do!" That cracked me up. But on a serious note, I tend to agree with your (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
Let your kids play with toys guns or not, that is up to you. My parents did not let us have toy guns, and my kids will probably not have toy guns either. Will my kids have toy guns in their LEGO sets? Probably. If they like a theme that happens to (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
All right, I'm not a parent, but I'm going to add my $0.02 to the discussion... All righty, I'll say right now that my parents didn't do this whole shielding me from the world thing, but I don't think it was until I was 5 that I got any toy that (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
Whew - what a debate. Not being a parent, I would say as always it is up to the parents concerned to decide, as they know they're children better than anyone (I hope) and are fitting it into a more comprehensive vision of parenting. However, my two (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
What about Space ships and other things with "futuristic guns"? Are those off limits too? Or, what about sets that merely suggest violence? Would you forbid him to own the new Star Wars minifig sets, just because some contain a light sabre? (which (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
Howdy, ....this issue has always been a bit of a conundrum for me at the school. As a matter of policy, there are no references to guns. I also toss all guns/weapons into the trash. I remove all minifigs with gun elements painted on them. I do this (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
  Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
 
(...) I'm not a parent, so I don't really know, but when I was a kid, I was really annoyed that Lego policemen didn't carry guns. It wasn't so much that I wanted to shoot something, it was because police officers carry guns. That's the way things (...) (24 years ago, 22-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)

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