Segregation in the schoolyard

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-11-13 08:06pm

A few months ago, I saw what could only be described a water M-16.

I'll post pics when I can find them.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-11-13 08:08pm

Another thing: (Sorry, lack of edit)

Mike, where did you get a black lightsabre?

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-11-13 08:13pm

Stormbringer wrote:
I can understand why police would be paranoid, given the prevalence of gun-culture and how many Americans feel it is their constitutional right to possess a weapon.
Most NRA types despise those "gangstas" as much or more than the cops do. There's a huge difference between wanting a gun for legitimate reasons and gun toting criminals.

*raises hand*

Like myself.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-11-13 08:57pm

My childhood consisted of massive Super Soaker Wars and raids against neighboring subdivisions in which we were armed with eggs, Stinky Soakers (special modified SS guns which we would use this extremely noxious black fluid distilled from the worst-smelling things we could find like carcasses, rotten eggs, shit, and other dreck. Gas Masks were mandatory when using these weapons

) and Bottle-Rocket Launchers. Many Pedophile Nazis fell to my Stinky Soaker and bottle rockets in that last Trianon War too

I was an evil little kid when I was 11.

Darth Wong wrote:<SNIP>

Is that a toy RPG!!?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-11-13 09:48pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Is that a toy RPG!!?

Of course! If you're going to play war, you need more than just a bunch of assault rifles

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-11-13 09:51pm

Darth Wong wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Is that a toy RPG!!?
Of course! If you're going to play war, you need more than just a bunch of assault rifles

Does your kids have toy shoulder mounted missile launcher.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-11-13 10:13pm

Stinky Soakers (special modified SS guns which we would use this extremely noxious black fluid distilled from the worst-smelling things we could find like carcasses, rotten eggs, shit, and other dreck.

From what I've heard, if you fill a Super Soaker with something other than water, it will mess it up. Did you modify yours to handle it?

Anyway, I couldn't imagine a childhood without some sort of toy weapon, whether it be a water gun, GI Joe, or cap gun, and perhaps later, a paintball gun (My brother got one a couple of days ago after much begging) It's not as if they're going to become mass-murdering lunatics when they grow up because they played with toy weapons as a child.

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2003-11-13 10:46pm

As a kid I don't remember being into toy guns very much, I had a few pistols, they were much more fitting of an officer like myself for wargames

. I did however have battalions of toy soldiers, everything from radio guys to sergeants to guys eating their rations to tanks, planes and bunkers. I was always a fan of mass destruction, I remember games with friends involving lego scud launchers and rubber bands of death. A few years ago I got a paintball submachinegun. This halloween I got a toy Mp-5 with the excuse that it was part of my costume, though I keep it in my room, its very good for letting off steam after a hard day

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-11-13 11:23pm

Zac Naloen wrote:i was allowed toy guns.... but never the caps that made the loud bang with gunpowder.... i was always jealous of my friends who's guns made more noise than mine

Ah cap guns.

There were of course the old style versions that you could run the red strip of caps through. They'd feed through as you pulled the trigger. Even some metal guns that weren't cap guns could use these caps as long as they had a working hammer. (Sometimes when we were bored and didn't have cap guns we'd just set off the caps by hammering them on some concrete).

Then there were the newer cap guns that looked a little more like real pistols. They looked kind of like the wimpy hideout guns that the dectectives always had on tv. The caps were usually red or yellow and came in small strips or circles. The circle ones were best for the revolvers because you could just pop in the circle and you were ready to go. It also came out as one piece when they were spent. There were strip versions of these caps that could be used too but in those cases you had to place each cap individually. These caps looked an awful lot like plastic versions of the precusion caps used on blackpowder firearms.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-11-14 12:00am

Darth Wong wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Is that a toy RPG!!?
Of course! If you're going to play war, you need more than just a bunch of assault rifles

Do they have steel pot helmets, BDU's, and army boots?

Ah, the benefits of being able to raid your USAF dad's closet (all but the helmet, I found one of those for 10 bucks w/ liner at the DRMO at Eglin AFB).

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-11-14 12:05am

We've got some capguns that take those round revolver quickloader caps. My boys discovered that the plastic toy capguns are no good because the pin wears down, but the metal ones work well.

On a side note, I find it amusing how every kid, no matter how sheltered, knows exactly what the toy RPG is, and immediately hoists it onto his shoulder

Icehawk · Post by **Icehawk** » 2003-11-14 12:41am

Something I do remember from primary school - I'd bring my DinoRiders collection (anyone remember these?) and we'd wage war on each other in the school's gardens - we pretended they were a prehistoric jungle. That was cool, and as far as I recall no-one had a problem with it. Well, except for me when the toys got damaged.

Lol! I remember Dinoriders!. I still have the Pterodactyle and Triceratops ones actually but they dont have their weapons anymore. Although I personally liked my GI Joes alot more. I used to have this huge thing called the Mobile Command Center or something like that. It was kinda like a huge toy Jawa sandcrawler but it all opened up to form a base with defense turrets and missiles and stuff.

I also remeber getting a toy MP5 from Toys R Us years back and it was very realistic looking. Other than the orange nub on the barrel it was perfect size and looked really well detailed.

EmperorChrostas the Cruel · Post by **EmperorChrostas the Cruel** » 2003-11-14 12:53am

As a child I had what I believed to be a very rare cap gun. Instead of the six shooter with trigger feed, (slide the "cylinder" aside to load in the cap spool) my gun was a colt 45, with a detatchable magazine, into which the cap spool was loaded. If I had had more than one maganize it would have reloaded just like the real thing!
(It was a Dick Tracey junior G man pistol!)

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-11-14 12:58am

Darth Wong wrote: Of course! If you're going to play war, you need more than just a bunch of assault rifles

So when's the Terminator Resistance conversion scheduled for your car?

Darth Wong wrote: On a side note, I find it amusing how every kid, no matter how sheltered, knows exactly what the toy RPG is, and immediately hoists it onto his shoulder

Real Men/Third world idiots/Winners of the Victoria Cross, fire from the hip!

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-11-14 01:41am

You going to get your kids air rifles Mike?

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-11-14 02:05am

Darth Wong wrote:On a side note, I find it amusing how every kid, no matter how sheltered, knows exactly what the toy RPG is, and immediately hoists it onto his shoulder

Have you actually noticed this? I find that a very interesting tidbit.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-11-14 02:11am

Real Men/Third world idiots/Winners of the Victoria Cross, fire from the hip!

You can't fire an RPG from the hip ...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-11-14 02:12am

Howedar wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:On a side note, I find it amusing how every kid, no matter how sheltered, knows exactly what the toy RPG is, and immediately hoists it onto his shoulder
Have you actually noticed this? I find that a very interesting tidbit.

I'm dead serious. I've had a few kids who started playing with the toy guns who (as I later discovered, when Rebecca told me to hide them before the kids' parents came to pick him up at the end of the day) came from homes where they strictly forbid such things, and they immediately gravitated to the big toy RPG.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-11-14 02:15am

Vympel wrote:
You can't fire an RPG from the hip ...

Well not truly, though firing it from waste level in your arms is basically the same thing in my book, and I;ve seen people doing that alot in Afghanistan. The PIAT however can be fired from the hip traditionally, which is how a British private won his Victoria Cross, plus he knocked out two Tigers in the process. They probably was part of it.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-11-14 02:24am

I'd think with the PIAT's nasty recoil that that would be a bad idea. Oh well.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2003-11-14 06:57pm

Shit, I need to go to Canada and play at your house...

Let's see... I had all those cool toy NYPD sets...had a uniform, badge, pistol, submachine gun looking thing (still got it somewhere) and the SWAT shields. I also got some of those "frontier rifles" from Disney, as well as Super Soakers of various types.

And then my favorite, my old cap gun...

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-11-14 07:18pm

Darth Wong wrote:This may be the reason why some kids are not encouraged to come play at our place:

http://www.stardestroyer.net/BoardPics/Toys.jpg

That and the fact that some of the parents may be reading these forums. How do we really know who's in the BOTM?

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2003-11-14 08:32pm

You know I never had any toy guns when I was young, had a few brightly coloured water pistols, but they could only be used 3 months out of a year, and usually broke.

Although I did have a pletora of toy swords, which I used to love.

Mind you, I am sure everyone here knows that I have an abhorrent attitude to guns, and am a strong supporter of gun control (a discussion for later), but I absolutely love going Skirmishing!

It helps that I kick ass too!

I don't see a direct correlation between toy guns and violence, although that might be because I didn't start playing with 'guns' (read Skirmish), until I was over 18 and had pretty much formed my political attitudes to guns.

*shrug*

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-11-14 09:11pm

Nothing like conditioning someone at an early age to be repulsed by something.

Anyone up for a conspiracy with this?

Post by **Coyote** » 2003-11-17 02:12pm

In truth, this is an interesting topic-- what Mike says is true. Some kids get left out of games because theri parents don't let them play with toy guns, or have any toys that are'connected to violence' (ie, toy soldiers, tanks, etc).

But bear in mind that one of the Columbine killers (I forget which, I think it was Dylan Harris) was raised in exactly this type of strict gun-free, violence-free households, where he was bever allowed to play with such things. Obviously, it did not work. But then the profile of his parents was (in my opinion) entirely too hands-off. They let him do as he pleased because they 'respected his privacy' and never inspected his room.

Is a household free of 'violent' toys really a way to curb violent behaviour? It didn't work in Harris's case (please lets NOT turn this into a Columbine thread-- he was just a famous example) but his problem could have been parental failure.

All people, especially kids, have a aggressive side. I think trying to ignore or suppress it is dangerous; it becomes a pressure cooker with a happy face. Letting kids play violently allows them to blow off this energy in a social circle where the norms of behavior are enforced with other kids.