Boys and guns....

What is it about boys and guns? What is the attraction?

Alex copies other boys- running around with his hands in the shape of a gun saying "pew, pew" -that's his gun noise-it's kind of cute! (and, yes I know I'm generalising about boys, but MY boy is insterested in guns and shooting but MY girl is not)

We've always had a blanket rule of no guns in our house for all kids, even pretend guns. But I don't know if that is just adding to the allure of them.

Alex sat and watched a little bit of 'Star Wars' with us the other night and was excited to watch them 'pew pew'ing'. I'm sure part of the excitemnt came from the illicitness of it. Then he pulled out a pretend light saber and started 'szhhhh'ing around (it's hard to spell the light saber sound!!!)

I'm sure we are all desensitised to violence because of how much we see on TV and in video games. Is that why our society is very much "shoot first, talk later"?

I read once that we should let our kids play heros and villains because it lets them play out the good guy/bad guy fantasy.

 But does that include using guns?

Is it too much to ask to keep my little boy as innocent as possible for as long as possible?