Awww, aren’t hoplophobic geeks precious? The only problem is, even when they’re all grown up, have moved out of mom’s basement and are out on their own, they’re still a-skeerd of guns. Gizmodo’s Andrew Tarantola has gone all get-offa-my-lawn over something called the FBI Agent Play Set that has him longing for the good old days when he was a kid and toy guns weren’t cool…
It’s funny, when I was a kid there was a huge move away from realistic toy guns—and playing “guns” in general. Now apparently the pendulum has swung back: you can buy your kid a 15-plus-inch toy baton and handcuffs for playing “FBI.”
*sniff* The bad ol’ days (you know, the days right before the good ol’ days when Tarantola was a kid in some idyllic, everyone-gets-a-trophy, gun-free suburb) of playing with toy guns sure seem to be making a comeback, what with these newfangle Airsoft guns and all. What’s next, cowboys and Injuns? Oh, the humanity.
I’m guessing Andy doesn’t have kids. Because if he did, he’d know they like playing cops and robbers. Good guys and bad guys. Rebels and stormtroopers. SWAT team and OWSers. OK, maybe not that one.
It’s all basically the same dress-up game, only with guns. Putting on a silly hat and yelling, “pow, pow” isn’t going to turn little Seth into a bell-tower sniping mass murderer, Andy.
We can understand some reservations he might have about the neighborhood tikes wanting to dress up like feds. But before your panties get too torqued, Andy, take another look at that play set, cuz there isn’t a gun there. Not that the kids won’t want one to complete the outift. Those drawn-on pockets on the the tac vest aren’t there to hold breath mints.
But there’s already plenty of irrational anti-toy gun sentiment to go around and all it does is hurt kids. Part of making sure kids are safe around guns is not fetishizing them or teaching them to be frightened around one. So take a deep cleansing breath and trust us. It’ll be OK.
[h/t saysuncle.com]