Same here. Grew up in a Northern city and we would run around the neighborhood with our arsenal of plastic lever actions, sniper rifles, machine guns, pistols, etc. We would ‘shoot’ each other and if you got shot you’d have to count to 10 Mississippi or something. Bonus points if you had a cap gun and could make ‘real’ gun sounds.
Don’t believe any of us later became psycho killers. None of the neighbors had a fainting spell seeing us, or felt the need to call the police. They probably just enjoyed seeing lots of kids playing together...
We would play cowboys and Indians (that’s RACIST!!), army, cops and robbers with water pistols. Our moms would admonish us in no uncertain terms TO NEVER point our toy guns at strangers or cops. Yet we grew up with a healthy respect for real firearma.