Guns and the Law

So. I'm in John Lewis shopping - I like John Lewis, never knowingly undersold - and I notice the spud gun, I bought my son last week (for sale at twice the price of the one I bought from Poundland - do the math). Reading the package on the back I noticed that this also had the ability to fire caps. You know the ones we used to have as a kid - little black dots of gun powder on a roll of paper. So I'm getting excited now. My own boy can menace his big sister in much the same way I did at his age - 8 (the photo is of me a bit younger, but you get the idea).

So a kindly shop assistant walks past and it sort of goes like this:

"Er, excuse me. I noticed the packaging on the back of this spud gun says that it can fire caps. Is that right?"

"Yes sir."

"Great. Can I get some?"

"Sorry. We don't sell them to children. It's against the law because the potato gun is a replica."

(at this point I'm slightly taken aback as the spud gun itself is bright red - call me naive, but on my visit to the Royal Armoury in Leeds a short while back I didn't notice any bright red real guns).

"Sorry?" I say.

"We can't sell the caps to children - it's against the law. Besides, we don't stock them."

At this point I started to quietly rant a bit to the kindly shop assistant, but realised that this was neither helpful, nor going to get me those caps. Still, it got me thinking (something I'm not much good at).

What is happening to our UK society when we can't even sell cap-guns to kids? I had one and I didn't turn out to be a gun-toting whatever (now I'm starting to sound like fifty - or a raving Tory). It's not that I actively promote boys and guns either. It's more like they'll do it anyway (my own boy has this uncanny skill at being able to make a gun out of pretty much anything - even a stick!). My thinking is that: if we teach them from an early age that using guns is simply not a good idea, they should get it. Boys will play. Boys will play at [cowboys, soldiers, gangsters, use your own names]. That's often how they learn about right and wrong. Of course my wife doesn't approve of this approach, but I'd like to think that my lad and myself have a good enough relationship to be able to discuss these issues as they arise - and they might not arise IF WE CAN'T BUY CAPS FOR CAP-GUNS!!.

I'm not an advocate of war either. It would be a real heartbreak to have my own son join one of the armed forces.

What I'm really trying to say is that in our risk-averse, game-consol passive culture we have lost something - the ability to teach our children what's good for them and what isn't through real activity. I think if my 8 year old son can prepare and light (under supervision), the woodburner that keeps us warm in the winter months, he'll be able to cope with a few black dots on a roll of paper that go bang!. He knows that fire is dangerous. He also knows how to control that danger and make it safe. I'm trusting that he'll understand, as he gets older, that fire is not to be underestimated, but respected and used as a tool to heat and cook. I'm also trusting that he'll understand that guns (real guns, that is) is not such a good idea.