Did any real kid ever say “Let’s play guns!” ?
We used to say something like that. My childhood was late-50’s, early 60’s.
But the function of “playing guns” is learning the concept of protecting your family and your stuff. Remember girls liking to be tied up or “locked” in a room (usually a square made out of rocks) while one boy protected them from another boy? We used to play that sort of stuff back in the 1st to 5th grade years. It’s about learning to be a man who protects his family.
Sure, it can become too rough as you get older, but that is part of the risk of hanging around human beings. They can be quite dangerous, but usually are not.