Had this discussion with a good friend MANY years ago. He was absolutely against "toy" guns and would never allow any of his kids to have one. To sum up his position, "Guns are not toys". For the record, he is an AVID shooter with more guns to even count. I understand his position and respect it, however, my position differed. My son was allowed to have toy guns ever since he showed an interest (about 5 or 6 years old maybe). HOWEVER, the rule was that if he was caught pointing one at ANYONE, they would ALL be taken away and, yes, he had his toy guns taken away a few times. To my way of thinking, "toy" guns are a great way to teach kids safe gun handling when making a mistake (something we ALL do from time to time) has no REAL consequences other than losing them for a week or so. By the time he was old enough to start shooting/handling the real thing, muzzle awareness and "finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot" were a habit and second nature.