Gunplay Good
For boys. It’s official, from the Brit government to nursery schools. Daily Mail, h/t The City Square: Â
Playing with toy weapons helps the development of young boys, according to new Government advice to nurseries and playgroups.
Staff have been told they must resist their “natural instinct” to stop boys using pretend weapons such as guns or light sabres in games with other toddlers.
Fantasy play involving weapons and superheroes allows healthy and safe risk-taking and can also make learning more appealing, says the guidance.
It conflicts with years of “political correctness” in nurseries and playgroups which has led to the banning of toy guns, action hero games and children pretending to fire “guns” using their fingers or Lego bricks.
Well, I could have told you all that.Â
I’m raising my kids in suburban Massachusetts. Gunplay, frowned upon.
One day, I told my boy John Eade’s story. He had met John, seen his eyepatch, and I told him a little about what John Eade done at the Ia Drang, how he fought on, about his friends, how he misses them even to this day. How he lost his eye. John Eade is one of the best people I know, for what he’s like today as much as what he did then. If I had to leave a million bucks or my family somewhere in bad times, I wouldn’t hesitate to leave them with him. I want my boy to know about people like John Eade.
Half an hour later, out the window, I hear Ian telling his cousin Mikey the story of John Eade at the Ia Drang, and they are using sticks as rifles to re-enact it by the clump of oaks out front.Â
Around here, the moms prefer their kids don’t play with toy guns. But it’s generally accepted that kids will play guns with anything, so sticks are OK.Â
I watched these kids playing Army with sticks, thought about that for a few minutes, and went into the garage. Sticks are made of wood. I like to work with wood.
First, I knocked out a couple of sticks that looked like Thompson submachineguns. That was pretty easy. Then, I knocked out a stick that looks like an M-14.  A magnificent infantryman’s weapon, old infantrymen tell me. Heavy, but reliable. It was John Eade’s favorite, anyway. Â
Some weeks have passed. I’m on a roll. Slightly fancier woodwork to produce the sticks that look like an AK and an M16. My wife thinks I’m in full PTSD mode, but the kids don’t. They’re running around out there, stalking each other and shooting up everything in sight. Their friends come over, and there’s plenty of sticks for everyone. Then they start placing orders. They see “King Kong,” and I have to make another stick that looks like a Thompson, this one with a drum magazine. Then Ian gets interested in snipers, and I have to make a stick that looks like a sniper rifle. Drilling out the wooden dowel for the scope and embedding those crosshair wires wasn’t easy. Every thunderstick is rubbed with linseed oil, because you know the kids are going to leave them lying around out there. Moms come over, look at these sticks a little funny. But you know what? They’re just sticks.Â
The kids play John Eade at the Ia Drang, when John Eade told his friend to run, but his friend wouldn’t leave him and died, and John had to fight on alone. They play Jason and Hamid in Afghanistan, when they stood their ground to save a town that had tossed out the Taliban. They play at King Kong, and I don’t know what else. Whatever stories I’ve told them or things they’ve seen on TV or books they’ve read or things they make up. I make sure they know about the great men who’ve done great things in history, and I know they play some of that. I hear them. Maybe they play cops and robbers, because Mikey’s dad is a cop. They play, and they learn.
One afternoon, getting ready to grill, I heard the boys tell the girls they had to stay in the tree fort. The boys were going to sneak through the trees and attack them. Fun game, for the boys. Didn’t sound like much fun for the girls, but they said OK, and the boys ran around the other side of the house to plan their assault.Â
That’s when I called little Devon and little Erin over and explained quick: “No rules in war, girls. Erin, you take up a position on this side of the house. Devon, you’re behind the shed. When those boys come around, you jump out and blast ‘em!”
The boys came around the house. I could hear them: “I don’t see them in the tree fort. You see them? Where are they?”
Little Devon and Little Erin jumped out.
 BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!
“Hey, no fair!” squawked the boys. “You’re supposed to be in the tree fort!”
Little Erin, who is a peanut, her stick that looks like a Thompson propped jauntily on her hip, all triumphant attitude: “No rules in war!”Â
Good girl, Erin! You teach those boys.Â
Back to the Daily Mail:
It conflicts with years of “political correctness” in nurseries and playgroups which has led to the banning of toy guns, action hero games and children pretending to fire “guns” using their fingers or Lego bricks.
But teachers’ leaders insisted last night that guns “symbolise aggression” and said many nurseries and playgroups would ignore the change.
Precisely. Guns symbolize aggression, of which there is no shortage in this world. This is why it is important to tell kids about great men and moments, past and the present, and maybe a thing or to about life and war, how you live it and how you fight it. So when our kids play at violence, which they will, maybe it isn’t something sordid and hidden but a chance to learn how to carry themselves in a world that isn’t ready to let us live out non-violent fantasies yet.Â
The guidance, called Confident, Capable and Creative: Supporting Boys’ Achievements, is issued by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
It says some members of staff “find the chosen play of boys more difficult to understand and value than that of girls.” This is mainly because they tend to choose activities with more action, often based outdoors.
“Images and ideas gleaned from the media are common starting points in boys’ play and may involve characters with special powers or weapons.
“Adults can find this particularly challenging and have a natural instinct to stop it.”
Huh?  Â
“This is not necessary as long as practitioners help the boys to understand and respect the rights of other children and to take responsibility for the resources and environment.”
Here you go. Tell them about Pvt. Michell Norris, Cpl. Bryan Budd and Cpl. Mark Wright. Their stories say a lot about respecting the rights of others and taking responsibility.
Wait a minute. Look at this part. Why’d they leave this for last? Not letting kids play guns may be damaging to young minds:
Research by Penny Holland, academic leader for early childhood at London Metropolitan University, has also concluded that boys should be allowed to play gun games.
She found boys became dispirited and withdrawn when they are told such play-fighting is wrong.
Topics: guns, moms and dads
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:52 am on Friday, January 4, 2008
7 Responses to “Gunplay Good”
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January 4th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Jules, the Left has wanted to convince us that
“This is why it is important to tell kids about great men and moments, past and the present, and maybe a thing or to about life and war, how you live it and how you fight it.”
is wrong for a long time.
Rudyard Kipling wrote Memories in 1930:
The Socialist Government speaks:
THOUGH all the Dead were all forgot
And razed were every tomb,
The Worm-the Worm that dieth not
Compels Us to our doom.
Though all which once was England stands
Subservient to Our will,
The Dead of whom we washed Our hands,
They have observance still.
We laid no finger to Their load.
We multiplied Their woes.
We used Their dearly-opened road
To traffic with Their foes:
And yet to Them men turn their eyes,
To Them are vows renewed
Of Faith, Obedience, Sacrifice,
Honour and Fortitude!
Which things must perish. But Our hour
Comes not by staves or swords
So much as, subtly, through the power
Of small corroding words.
No need to make the plot more plain
By any open thrust;
But-see Their memory is slain
Long ere Their bones are dust!
Wisely, but yearly, filch some wreath-
Lay some proud rite aside-
And daily tarnish with Our breath
The ends for which They died.
Distract, deride, decry, confuse-
(Or-if it serves Us-pray!)
So presently We break the use
And meaning of Their day!
January 4th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Web Reconnaissance for 01/04/2008
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
January 4th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
That’s when I called little Devon and little Erin over and explained quick: “No rules in war, girls.
Good for you, Jules! Don’t forget the girls. Most of my cousins were boys, and when I was a child, I played at war and weapons, cops and robbers, and cowboys and Indians, with the boys because that was more fun that pretending to be a *shudder* princess, or having tea parties with my dolls (alas, my dolls, my mother despaired when I set them up to be enemy targets).
The stick guns are an excellent idea, not least because that will save the kids from being shot by someone who thinks he’s being threatened by a real weapon (thanks a heap, toy manufacturers).
January 4th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
When we were kids, we had BB guns (we had toy guns to shoot at each other). I got my first .22 rifle when I was 12.
I wasn’t raised in Massachusetts.
January 5th, 2008 at 3:12 am
My prized possession, at age seven, was a wooden rifle that a relative made for me. My brothers and I had more fun than you could shake a stick at.
The next to youngest brother was fam’ firing a 30.06 under controlled circumstances, at about the same age, and every time he pulled the trigger he would slide off the flat boulder that he was lying on. We would pick him up put him back on the rock and he would do it all over again. He had a great time. We roared and so did he.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Our baby sister is an unrepentant princess. I was a tomboy through and through. We played cops and robbers, cowboy and indians, and most especially, we played war. Our war was distinctly unPC, seeing as how we lived in Japan, and the Japanese were the enemy.
My sister was determined that her boy wouldn’t have any toy guns. This lasted until the evening when, driving down the highway, three-year-old CharlieO picked up the umbrella sitting next to him in the back seat and proceeded to fire on every car that passed us, with the requisite sound effects. I laughed and laughed! She gave up and CharlieO has a GI Joe themed birthday party for number 4. Her second son had soldiers, sailors, and Marines to play with, with guns galore. CharlieO was a career Seal. Baby brother is now a Navy corpman doing his bit in the war, and is as mild as milk when not angered. Unlike his big brother, he doesn’t want a military career.
It takes more than just toy guns to make a warrior. Or an aggressive person.
January 6th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Good girl, Erin! You teach those boys.
Yep! That’s the way to do it!! LOL!
Us kids were the terror of the neighborhood; I was raised on a beach, with lots of pasture, and that meant lots and lots of playground. Amongst us kids, we had enough toy guns, plastic helmets, and military surplus gear to look like an WWII infantry platoon. More than one resident was surprised to see a “fire fight” (sometimes with fire crackers and bottle rockets thrown in for sound effects) adjacent to his property.
My favorite toy gun was a plastic Thompson, complete with a spring driven ratchet that made an ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!! sound when the trigger was pulled.
But I have to agree with Rebecca….the wooden guys are a better bet these days, given how realistic the manufactured toys look (alas!). Indeed, wooden guns inspire the imagination to be used……and last a whole lot longer.