People around the world are outraged this week by a photos of Prince George playing with a toy gun. The four-year-old was simply outside with a plastic gun in play with his sister Princess Charlotte and friends. However, many people were appalled by the pseudo-violent scene. I have written about the desire of children, particularly boys, to play with toy weapons (here and here). I faced the same type of anger for my columns on why I let my children play with such toys as well as other fantasy items. (Two are shown above from one of my columns).
One self-identified American named Daisy Torme wrote “This isn’t okay anymore… My American side here, biased maybe b/c of everyday #gunviolence in USA, but my British side agrees. No child in this day and age should look at any gun as a fun toy. This looks far too real.”
Daisy Torme@daisytormeThis isn’t okay anymore… My American side here, biased maybe b/c of everyday #gunviolence in USA,but my British side agrees. No child in this day and age should look at any gun as a fun toy. This looks far too real. .(And I LOVE Prince George, don’t get me wrong!) @teamtrace
We have previously followed the suspensions and discipline of students under zero tolerance policies that are used by teachers to justify zero judgment or responsibility. I have long criticized zero tolerance policies that have led to suspensions and arrests of children (here and here and here and here). Here is a prior column on the subject (and here).
Children have been suspended or expelled for drawing stick figures or wearing military hats or bringing Legos shaped like guns or playing with a stick gun or even having Danish in the shape of a gun or using menacing Level 2 finger guns. Despite the public outcry over the completely irrational and abusive application of zero tolerance rules, administrators and teachers continue to apply them blindly. If you do not have to exercise judgment, you can never be blamed for any failure. Conversely, even when the public outcry results in a reversals, teachers and administrators never seem punished with the same vigor for showing no judgment or logic in punishing a child.
As I have previously argued, toy guns are no more the cause of violence than toy kitchen sets are the cause of obesity. Hundreds of millions of men grew up with toy guns and never turned to a life of spasmodic violence. On this issue, kids seem a lot more sophisticated than their parents. They know it’s just a game.
Agree with Paul C Schulte!! He’s a little boy!! Let him play with little boy toys and leave him alone!!
Just too bad people don’t get this upset about our valiant military using REAL guns to kill children all around the Middle East.
They don’t get upset because they’re not attitudinizing functional pacifists. You fancy they should be upset because you’re silly.
its great to see the young lad has healthy instincts
you may not like this old poem but it has the ring of truth
Might was Right when Caesar bled upon the stones of Rome,
Might was Right when Genghis led his hordes over Danube’s foam,
And Might was Right when German troops poured down through Paris way,
It’s the Gospel of the Ancient World and the Logic of Today.
Behind all Kings and Presidents – all government and law,
Are army-corps and canoneers to hold the world in awe.
And sword-strong races own the earth and ride the Conqueror’s Car —
And liberty has never been won except by deeds of war.
The British monarchy like every other was built on the dead bodies of their enemies, long ago. The boy will learn to shoot with more than fake guns too you can be assured. As will any strong lad who wants to be free.
Any boy from the 1950s had a cap gun. Cowboys and Indian was the favorite game. Many cowboys and indians were brutally shot. Some even tied to trees and shot. How awful… Cops and Robbers was fun too. Bang bang, you are dead. Well, everyone turned out just fine, one went to Harvard, the kid whose dad gave him .22 rifle when he turned 12…one went to Yale and studied Art History. Such violence.
Acromion – on my block we also shot people using BB guns. It was all very controlled though, everyone was very padded.
My children were brought up in association with the Quakers. Somehow there were no play guns although pretend light sabers did appear at one point.
CV Brown – I would have to believe that Jesus was God for me to take his name in vain. If it makes you feel any better, I do believe in a historical Jesus. BTW, you seem to have missed the joke there. 😉
Maybe little boys should be taught that guns are so ubiquitous in the US that children are always in danger of being shot by someone who enters their school, who shoots from a hotel window, who is mentally dysfunctional and that using a gun reflects mental dysfunction.
Good grief, your solution is going to give kids a complex. How about teaching them to stand up straight with their shoulders back, clean their rooms, and to behave responsibly. Not doing so breeds dysfunction.
And, it is the malicious use of any tool that is dysfunctional, not the use of a tool at all. See the knife and car attacks that are plaguing Britain.
Yes, and maybe little boys should be taught that street violence is so ubiquitous in the UK that children are always in danger of being gutted like a trout by a knife-wielding madman, blown up or shredded by shrapnel from a terrorist bomb, having their younger sisters raped at rates higher than in the US, and that anyone rash enough to report phenomena such as “grooming” young girls to be statutorily raped risks being slapped into a maximum-security prison after a one-day trial by a judge who can forbid press coverage of the trial.
I bet your never had a gun.
Seems like there is plenty of gun violence in the UK right now, despite the ban on firearms. You lefty types confuse government with omnipotent supernatural authoritarians. Religious–or at least agnostic folk understand this. See “Late4Dinner” who frequently thinks government is some sort of omnipotent supernatural, but made from man, construct.
Wish, wish everything away you will…
Certainly, guns are not toys, and before they’re allowed to touch a real gun, children should have reached an age where they can understand that, and be taught to use them with proper care and respect. But that hardly means they can’t use toy guns as toys. This is not a difficult principle. Surely she would not suggest that living human infants should be looked upon as a ‘fun toy’? Yet children play with baby dolls all the time. Children also play with toy stoves, toy cars, even toy rocket ships. All of these have real counterparts that are quite dangerous if not operated with proper care and maturity, but the sane among us can understand that the toy is not the real thing, and that children’s role-playing with them is perfectly normal and healthy.
Some day this kid will probably do a stint in the British military. Get over it.
Where is the NRA when you need them. Isn’t it there somewhere in the second amendment that every American kid has the right to play with guns, toy or real? Water pistols don’t squirt people, people squirt people.
Reblogged this on What i found intersting today….
I don’t usually disagree strongly with this author, but I do now. The truth is that boys are taught to play with toy guns and girls are taught to play with dolls and both are taught for the same reason: to condition them to play defined rolls in society when they get older. The boys will be soldiers and the girls will be housewives. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing for a society to do, but other societies don’t. Every parent will do what s/he thinks best, and I am not interested in telling people how they should raise their children, but at least see it for what it is. As the most violent society on earth, or at least in the top 3, the early childhood conditioning contributes to that violence. Relook the opening scenes in “Born on the Fourth of July” in which the director chose to demonstrate this principle of this society.
“As the most violent society on earth, or at least in the top 3 ….”
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Wrong. We’re not even in the top 10.
The most violent are:
1. Syria
2. Iraq
3. Afghanistan
4. South Sudan
5. Central African Republic
6. Somalia
7. Sudan
8. DR Congo
9. Pakistan
10. North Korea
Why make up facts to support silly arguments?
https://www.indy100.com/article/these-are-the-10-most-violent-countries-in-the-world–bJeHFgPXKbx
Which governments supplied the weapons, funding, mercenaries, “trainers”, and air support for that violence?
“Which governments supplied the weapons, funding, mercenaries, “trainers”, and air support for that violence?”
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All of them that could while acting in their perceived self-interest. Welcome to the human condition, Don Quixote! Rail against it all you want.
It doesn’t occur to Chris P. Bacon that the capacity to engage in war is not a function of contemporary technology. Because stupid.
The factions in various parts of Africa could be using materlel supplied 30 years ago when those countries were troubled and poor but not yet failed states. And, of course, there’s robbery and the black market as sources. It’s highly unlikely Boko Harem has any foreign patrons. Same deal with Somali warlords.
If they didn’t have Claymores, they’d use coconuts. War is extension of policy not abundance of war making tools.
I’m remembering an account (published in The New Republic IIRC) by a woman who (with her husband) was preparing for a visit to Guatemala. At that time, she had to sit through some sort of mandatory counseling session with a U.S. Consular Service functionary on security problems in Guatemala, which included a recitation of recent incidents. She said the woman’s voice dissolved into static while she was trying to listen to her, and all she heard repeated over and over again was “machete…machete…machete”.
credit von Clausewitz
I’ve seen photographs of Boko Haram’s hardware. Suffice it to say, their patrons are domestic.
The violence is internally generated.
mespo727272 most if not all those countries are at war within their own borders (North Korea is debatable, but you can’t leave the country without getting shot as a resident). I think the criticism of George and the Royals for this is hypocritical, particularly coming from people that probably grew up playing the bb guns, played paint ball, had super soakers or squirt guns, played shoot em ups at the arcade, and probably have young family members heavily invested in halo, fortnight, call of duty, gta etc.
That being said we shouldn’t have to twist statistics to refute that America has a problem. We’re not in a civil war. Even though our leader wants to build a great wall, we haven’t been at war with Mexico in over 100 years, and Canada never burned down the White House. There are dozens of countries which have violence in movies, video games, and as seen here, toys, without replicating the type of violence seen in America, without war. They shouldn’t be the scapegoats. The fact that the NRA thinks the Second Amendment is without exception besides perhaps personal rights to a Rocket or Grenade launcher is a problem. It’s not a mistake to label us the most violent society on earth when we’re this violent during our times of peace. If there was a real Civil War going on, a war with Mexico etc. this would be the Wild west x1000 aka Westworld.
It’s not a mistake to label us the most violent society on earth when we’re this violent during our times of peace. I
Yes it is a mistake for reasons already stated. Numeracy. IT’s not universal.
The fact remains we aren’t the world’s most violent or even nearly so. That was my point.
As the most violent society on earth, or at least in the top 3, t
You don’t know much, do you? The homicide rate in the United States (currently running at 5.3 per 100,000) is less than a third of the Latin American norm. In fact, Chile, Canada, Aruba, and Martinique are the only portions of the Western Hemisphere which have a lower homicide rate than the U.S. Data for Tropical and Southern Africa is pretty sketchy, but what the UN has collated puts the mean homicide rate there at more than 3x what it is in the United States. N.B., reports of violent deaths are going to be poorly collated in countries suffering political violence, insurrection, or breakdown of central authority (i.e. in Nigeria, the Congo, the Central African Republic, Southern Sudan, and Somalia). In the Near East and North Africa, it’s not difficult to locate more insecure areas due to political violence (Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen) or a mix of political violence and general disorder (Pakistan). Other parts of the globe have outlier countries with high homicide rates (exceeding the United States) – e.g. the Philippines and Russia.
If you examine the contrasting experiences of New York and Baltimore over the last 40 years, you can see that the homicide rate in most core cities is a consequence of institutional neglect – understaffing of police, suboptimal deployment of police, and poor workforce motivation within the police. In New York, the homicide rate is 4 per 100,000. In a city of 8.2 million, the police precincts with homicide rates exceeding 9 per 100,000 have a population in sum of about 300,000. There are no precincts with rates exceeding 15 per 100,000. The homicide rate in Baltimore is currently running at 51 per 100,000. As you know, proper staffing and deployment of police forces is of no interest to mouthy liberals (it’s of no interest to suburban Republicans for a different set of reasons).
It amazes me how, in all these comments, the hundreds of thousands of civilians we have murdered in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and elsewhere, using unmanned non-selective drones, for years and years, does not make us the most violent nation on earth. And we are still doing it. Those who defend violence at home and abroad in those countries are not the brightest lights in the room. And that doesn’t begin to count the loss of lives of our young men and women beginning with Viet Nam and following through to today. The last rightful conflict this nation engaged in was WWII. Long term, violence never accomplishes anything but heartache and loss. Of course truth is the first casualty of conflict, and patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. A’ho
One has to grapple with the realization that outside of war somewhere around 100 million plus lives were killed by the left in the 20th century. One also has to reconcile themselves with the fact that the US, based on capitalism and its military, helped to bring hundreds of millions of people from starvation.
I grew up in Canada. We had toy guns. My brother, who still lives there, has a family Nerf armory where every child has their rapid-fire, magazine-fed toy gun. So yes, other societies do, and it doesn’t make them violent. This comment is shot through with false statements and non-sequiturs, and you ought to be ashamed for offering it.
Kids being ‘conditioned’ to fulfill stereotyped gender roles is not really very accurate. We do not have those nerf guns, yet my boys make guns with their fingers, duplos, tinker toys, and sticks. They prefer more rambunctious games than my daughter. She is very different than I was a kid; I, too, preferred to play the more violent, rambunctious games with the boys. Temperament determines the choice of and use of toys far more than conditioning. I also gave my boys dolls and those dolls often became projectiles.
“Temperament determines the choice of and use of toys far more than conditioning. I also gave my boys dolls and those dolls often became projectiles.”
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Amen Sister! I had a GI Joe or should I say lots of them. They lasted about 3 weeks each after submarine duty (bath time), infantry duty (sandbox) and air sorties (like your boys).
LOL! They were well-loved and served their tours-of-duty with honor!
Purple heart winners, all! LOL
mespo – I do hope you buried them with military honors. 😉
Funeral Pyres!
mespo – a Viking funeral with a sacrificial Barbie would have been my choice. 😉
mespo – my brother’s G.I. Joe seems to end up on naked maneuvers with Barbie in my sister’s bedroom. 😉
Obvious maneuver to keep warm and evade the enemy — Ken — as prescribed in the Army Survival Manual:
“One of the quickest ways to get heat to the inner core is to give warm water enemas. Such an action, however, may not be possible in a survival situation. Another method is to wrap the victim in a warmed sleeping bag with another person who is already warm; both should be naked.” Survival Manual FM 21-76, p. 178.
mespo – there was no blanket and a lot, a lot, of up and down movement going on. I do not think anyone’s survival was at risk. 😉
Survival of the species, I guess!
mespo – It was pre-birth control pills and G.I. Joe did not come with condoms. No pun intended. 😉
PR,
With 4 sisters and no brothers, it was my GI Joe against the Barbie foursome. My favorite weapon was a can of lighter fluid and a match. I’d run a trail to their Easy-Bake Oven and light it to distract them, and then kidnap their Barbies. For some reason, I had a difficult time putting those Barbie heads back on that neck. 🙂
It is pointless to expect to please everyone no matter how much they foam-at-the-mouth in their perpetual state of virtue signaling outrage.
The British Monarchy has nearly world-wide scope in the net they broadcast in seeking attention. It is bound to snare a trivial number of malcontents. Icebergs, not snowflakes, sank the Titanic.
Thus, this proves that caving to snowflakes never appeases them. For even amongst themselves they soon attack each other for not being sufficiently politically correct or left-wing enough. Simply do what you wish and life, say what you will, and keep your freedom of thought undaunted. The malcontents are only relevant if you allow them to be.
Once you pay the Flakegeld, you are never rid of the Flake.
Royals should screen the photos released to the outside world to circumvent this “outrage”. The UK has become an insane country where PC rules, Sharia law looms, the Magna Carta matters not and the subjects are not allowed to carry even knives. No Brexit in sight, Tommy locked up, Julian can’t leave the Embassy because the “loyal” UK would apprehend him and hold him for extradition to the US…………
Orwell, Huxely ceaselessly spinning in their graves.
Royals should screen the photos released to the outside world to circumvent this “outrage”.
I disagree Autumn, not about the PC nonsense but screening the photos. Hiding reality won’t help the PC radicals deal with their version of it.
Autumn,
By screening the pictures, it could reinforce the detrimental PC culture. The picture is controversial only because of the pervasive political correctness. Good for the Royals to stand against PC bullies.
Watch the Andy Griffith Show and the episode in which Opie stands up to the bully–it ain’t politically correct to depict the outcome of a kids’ fistfight–a fight that occurred because Opie refused to be pushed around anymore–as positive.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qZiicMy4pBw
Prarie, when my children were young I permitted no toy guns or anything of the sort in my house. I fully supported the Second Amendment but didn’t like guns and violence. At a community affair, my son (quite young) got beaten up by our friend’s son and when they returned and the children were questioned about what happened and the dumb response from my friend to his son was ‘you shouldn’t beat up another person especially when they are older’. (They were the same size and only months apart).
My son was always very peaceful and remained that way to the present (he is not small). I asked him why that happened and he said I told him fighting wasn’t allowed. I explained to him that one didn’t start a fight but one had the right to defend themselves. From that point on my house was filled with toy guns for defensive purposes. When the kids returned to school after vacation and my son was attacked by the same boy again (that boy was a bit of a bully) my son beat him up. This happened several more times until the “bully” stopped due to the fact he was beaten up every time.
Guns can be defensive or offensive. They all look alike. Everyone has a right to protect themselves but what I see in society especially in the inner cities is that we have taken that right of protection away from the folk that needs it most and they are abused by the lawless.
Autumn,
“Orwell, Huxely ceaselessly spinning in their graves.”
I do agree with you here! 🙂
I think Daisy Torme is Mel Torme’s daughter. She’s quite handsome, but for naught as she appears to be unmarred and childless at age 48.
People around the world are outraged this week by a photos of Prince George playing with a toy gun.
No, emotionally damaged attention whores are using modern means of communication to let the rest of us see the detritus of their emotional problems.
Exactly! The idiots are simply feigning outrage for attention.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Actually, the “@teamtrace” tag indicates that she’s part of a coordinated propaganda campaign against the 2nd Amendment, orchestrated by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, not just another random nut on the Internet.
I know I am agnostic, but Jesus H. Christ, we have to stop making little girls out of little boys!!!!