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 04:43:45 GMT
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Reply-To:
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CMASI@CMASI.CHEM.spamcakeTULANE.EDU
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Viewed:
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737 times
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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 have guns that will
probably be fine. It all depends on how far LEGO goes.
LEGO's first weapons were swords, spears, lances, long bows, and battle axes.
Weapons that were made for dismembering people.
However, the time period has be romanticized so swords and axes (think about
that...axes) seem OK to us. Next came cannon, muskets, and black powder
pistols. The first guns. Once again, the guns come from a swahbuckling romantic
time period. Seems OK, but I can
feel the ground getting slippery. Next comes revolvers and rifles. Uh, not so
good. The whole ugly cowboys and Indians thing. But LEGO
always shows the sheriff catching a bad guy, we never see the cavalry chasing
the indians, or visa versa. So, LEGO seems to have
packaged that time period in a relatively inoffensive way. What is too far? I
do not know, but when I saw a Mega Blocks(?) ship with
figures carrying M-16's it seemed very creepy. LEGO minifigs have a cuteness to
them. Guns and weapons that fit into a romanticized
time period seem OK, but M-16's with cute minifigs, that just seems weird.
I did a quick check, and, apparently, LEGO doesn't think kids under 6 should
play with guns either (Oops, I just noticed that set 5918,
which is a 5-12adventures set, has a rifle in it) because I could only find one
set with an age limit lower than six with a gun in it
(obviously, I did not do an exhaustive search).
But playing with toy guns is not the real issue, is it? The real issue it
that real guns are not toys. There are many many children that play with toy
guns and don't shoot people on purpose or by accident.
Chris
Deidre Rushton Brumby wrote:
> 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
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: What do other parents do with Lego guns?
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| In lugnet.loc.au, Christopher Masi writes: <snip on interesting analogy on LEGO and weapons> (...) Interesting research. I wonder if TLC has an official stand on this issue. (...) True. However I think there are several issues here. Just remember (...) (24 years ago, 21-Jun-00, to lugnet.loc.au, lugnet.general)
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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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