As with most things in life that children are going to be exposed to, safety begins with preventative education. And for parents, befriending insecurities begins with proactivity. Considering the enjoyment and utility of recreational firearms can be daunting to some because the importance of firearms and their consequences are self-evident. In this revisited article on toy guns and teaching safety, the WON is seeking to dispel some of the noise, particularly around the holidays.
Sponsored by Project ChildSafe
In Becky Yackley’s writeup, she stresses the importance that toy firearms can have not only on the perception in the mind’s of our youth, but also the measured impact it can have at each stage of their journey. Toy guns can evolve from foam and plastic into wood and metal in a deliberate attempt for this American tradition to handrail each age group succinctly with their maturity. Firearms do not have to be a late injection into our children’s memory; however, better late than never!
Becky also reviews different games that can make safety, education, and skill as viscous and fun an experience as possible. Not dissimilar to the games and challenges of life itself, they often require focus, attentiveness, and a healthy dose of competition, even when the challenger is our previous self. Toy firearms put these invaluable lessons in the caring hands of children well before adulthood. As Becky covers, all recreational guns can be treated with the same reverence as our cleaned and secured firearms. See the below excerpt and check out the full article. ~IBR
While many people regard recreational guns with skepticism, I prefer to think of them as teaching tools – that are a lot of fun! If you are on the fence about allowing your children to play with guns, consider that even if you don’t own firearms, your children will come across them in life. And just like we want to educate our kids about the safety lessons in driving a car, or navigating around cars, we need to educate them about firearms. Toys and recreational guns can give us a way to talk, touch, manipulate and understand how to handle a real gun.
A game that we have played with kids on the range with real guns is also fun with toy guns or BB guns. Basically, it’s a game of HORSE, where you have to make a shot and everyone else has to make the same shot. It can be a small target, like a ping pong ball from across the room with your Nerf gun, or set up dice to hit with a BB gun. But whatever the target is, you can learn sight alignment and trigger control.
View the original post here. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the NSSF’s important program, Project ChildSafe
The Women's Outdoor News, aka The WON, features news, reviews and stories about women who are shooting, hunting, fishing and actively engaging in outdoor adventure. This publication is for women, by women. View all posts by The WON
