Are toy guns bad for boys?

0:05 [Music] This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Hi, my name's Joshua David Stein. Stein. Hi, my name's Joshua David Stein. Today we're going to talk about toy guns. Toy guns are big business and guns are a big issue. So, I think it's important to have the discussion at Fatherly about whether our sons should play with them or shouldn't. I don't mind kids playing with guns, but I kind of want them to be low-tech. You know, like that feeling of putting together this weapon, of the tactical sight, of the tripod. That is a part that I think is problematic because when it's a toy gun, who cares? That's just part of running around and playing.

0:46 I I think it's so reactionary to say that's bad. As it says on the back, you can and then the arsenal includes a whole bunch of other guns including micro, recoil, reflex, hurricane, max attack, hawk eye, vigilante, which is like a shotgun. And then I don't know if you can see a picture of this kid, but this kid looks like a devil child who's going to grow up to be a devil adult.

1:18 My gut reaction to this is twofold. One, I think it's cool. It looks cool. It's modular, which is fun and big and plastic and bright and I'm a simple man and I enjoy bright colored things. On the other hand, I feel really uncomfortable exposing my kids to this sort of fetishization of gun and gun culture. How much of that is a knee-jerk, snowflake, soy boy reaction and how much of that is grounded in science? There have been some studies that show correlation between first-person shooter games and violence, but there haven't been studies that show a correlation between playing with toy guns as a child and violence as an adult. I think that's an important note to keep as I examine my own reaction to letting my sons play with these guns.

2:00 Obviously, I'm not settled on the issue. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do with this big box. Um I'm going to put it together and see if it's fun to play with. So, I'm kind of relying on you guys. Ooh, titanium. So, basically, if you really want to know what I'm going to do, this is my general approach, real talk, to having guns in the house, is I let my kids play with Nerf and other foam guns, but I never clean up their darts and they don't know where the they go. So, after like half an hour, they're all gone.

2:36 My rifle is my life. I must master it like I master my life. My rifle and I know what counts in war is not the rounds we fire. We know that it is the hits that count. Come on. Is there a safety on this thing? There you go. Everyone loves aiming and like shooting a gun, right? And I don't think that that's actually What's the word? This sort of excessive technology of it that is really mimicking military style weaponry, to me that's what really strikes me as problematic. But like I said, I have no idea what to do. I don't know whether to bring this home or not bring it home. I don't know whether to let my kids play with guns or not, toy guns or not.

3:23 And uh you know, obviously I'm interested to hear what you guys think. So, please do let us know. Come on. Hi, thanks for watching. If you like this video, consider subscribing. Press this button right here.