Subject:
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Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general
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Date:
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Wed, 21 Jun 2000 02:31:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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871 times
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In lugnet.loc.au, Deidre Rushton Brumby writes:
> 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?
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 approach (but not the
throwing away bit, that's just going _too_ far! ;-)
We don't have kids, but my sister has two young ones and she is dead against
(no pun intended) guns of any sort in her house. I think this is a great
policy as there are heaps of other things for my nephews to play and develop
with without wiring their brains with the gun mentality. Until they're older
and are a little more responsible she will be keeping them away from toy guns.
I think this is a great idea.
We recently went to one of the nephews birthday parties (and yes, I bought him
Duplo). My sister invited all the other families on her street (big social
club they run in Leichhardt). I saw one kid who would've been about 20 months
dressed in cammo, sporting a plastic GI helmet, a plastic utility belt and
waving a plastic (but very lifelike) 45 automatic around. My sister hit the
roof when she saw him.
This also reminds me of another very pointed scene from Terminator 2 when
Laura watches the little kids running around (were they in New Mexico or
somewhere deserty like that?) "shooting" at each other with toy guns. She says
something like "There's no hope for us, is there?" or something like that. It
doesn't matter that the next couple of scenes involve her turning that guys
house into Swiss cheese with a M-16 ;-)
As adults, I think we all have a responsibility to teach kids to "play nice".
There's plenty of time for the hard facts of life to contaminate young brains
later on, by then we hope they are responsible enough to not be so utterly
desensitised to violence. There was a 6 year old girl in kindergarden in
America who I'm sure would agree with us if she were still alive.
Pete Callaway
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
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| (...) I understand your point, but to nitpick, it's Sarah's son who observes that "there's no hope," and in fact when she's confronted with the horror of her own violence (a la Swiss cheesing), she breaks down and finds that she can't murder an (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | What do other parents do with Lego guns?
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| 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 (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
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