[thackney]

Pretending the toy gun is real and has similar safety concerns teaches the child the real gun is like a toy and not that dangerous.

I greatly disagree with this approach and teach my children how to use and respect real guns. I don’t teach them how to drive with toys either.

Any equating of the two lowers the respect for the possible harm from the real.

[SkyDancer]

Really. So the military is wrong when they first teach firearm training using 'fake' guns.

Teaching a child how to hold and aim and gun safety and all that using a toy/fake gun is wrong. Okay.