Kites appeared in China around 1000 B.C. and at approximately the same time stone yo-yos were invented in Greece. They were followed by other toys and games but the wide-spread idea of toys belongs to the 20th century. Before that, some kids were busy at school while most were expected to help at home, in the fields or work in factories or coal mines.

It is thus not a surprise that when the list of the All-TIME 100 Greatest Toys was created by TIME magazine, it began with toys manufactured in the 1920s. Although a Buck Rogers Rocket Pistol is prominently listed among the greatest toys of the 1930s Angela F. Keaton argues (Journal of American Culture, Sept. 2010) that it was during the early Cold War era that youth gun culture thrived in the United States. Roughly a 20-year period following World War II was also the "Golden Age" of cap guns when millions of cap guns in various versions were manufactured.

Fast forward to 2012, when annual toys sales surpassed 22 billion dollars in the United States and 84 billion dollars worldwide, according to Toy Industry Association, Inc. It is difficult to establish what proportion of these revenues derives from the sale of toy guns. According to IBISWorld database, toy manufacturers in foreign countries are able to produce as many as 150,000 different kinds of toy products a year, of which 5,000 to 6,000 are new designs. In general, toys are divided into several categories such as electronic, stuffed, transport, etc. Toy guns do not constitute a separate category.

The overwhelming majority of toys are safe. We know, however, that problems do occur. In 2007, Mattel, at that time the largest toy producer, recalled 19 million toys made in China because some were covered with lead paint and others had small, powerful magnets which could have harmed children if swallowed. According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission there were 256,700 toy-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments in 2013. There were also nine toy-related deaths among children in the United States during that year, down from 16 in 2012 and 19 in 2011.

The Trouble in Toyland report is annually produced by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and contested by the Toy Industry Association, Inc. Toy guns do not even appear in this report but they could be dangerous in a different way. We have all heard about the deadly consequences when toy guns are mistaken for real ones.  Police conduct and race relations, both of which figured prominently in recent tragic events where toy guns played a role, are not ignored here but are simply not the focus of this post.

Using Academic Search Premier and Business Source Premier databases (which you can access from home with your NYPL library card) let's begin with a listing of several efforts to make toy guns look less like real guns.

Toy gun legislation has been on the books in NYC since 1955, New York State since 1970, and nationwide since 1988. Twenty years ago came the decision of toy retailer Toys 'R' Us to stop the sale of toy guns that can be modified to look like a real gun (Japan 21st., Dec. 1994). New York City Local Law 58/1999 (effective 2000) specified colors of toy guns, modifying an earlier law that merely excluded normal real gun colors from being used on toy guns. In 2003 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was hauled into court by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for selling toy guns that lacked safety markings required by law. (New York Amsterdam News, 4/17/2003). The same year, a special report by the Council of the City of New York entitled Toy Guns: A Deadly Game stated that nearly 20% of toy stores investigated were still selling illegal toy guns. New York City Local Law 83/2009 (effective 2010) increased penalties for sales of banned toy guns and also acknowledged that less restrictive federal law did not overrule this city law.

That's one side of toy guns issue. The other one is whether kids should play with them at all.

A former US naval officer C. Devon Marsh was appalled in early 2000 after his wife took their toddler son to a park where a boy of about six years old, whom they did not know, pointed a toy gun at their son and pulled the trigger. After his wife approached the child and told him sternly not to point a gun at anyone the child disrespectfully pointed the gun at her and pulled the trigger again. This took place just two days after a six-year-old in Michigan had shot and killed a classmate. Marsh subsequently published an editorial in the March 20, 2000 issue of Christian Science Monitor entitled “Disarming Children: Start with Toy Guns”.  In this piece he suggested that all parents refrain from buying toy guns, and asked that those who have already bought them take them away. In this spirit on August 22, 2011 a toy gun exchange program was held at Mildred Helms Park, Newark, New Jersey for exchanging toy guns with other toys or books. (New York Amsterdam News, 8/25/2011)

There exists however a different approach to the issue of playing with toy guns. In his book Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence, Gerard Jones argues that boys especially need ways to act out power and victory and triumph. The Toy Industry Association in its Statement on Toy Guns and Violence claims that “Toys themselves do not promote aggressive behavior.” The Association quoted Jeffrey Goldstein, Ph.D., author and professor of Media and Communication at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands, who allegedly said: "There are no 'violent' or 'nonviolent' toys. There are simply toys, many fashioned after objects found in the adult world, and others inspired by fantasy objects found nowhere else.”

The British Department for Children, Schools and Families in its report Confident, Capable and Creative: Supporting Boys' Achievements stated that "Images and ideas gleaned from the media are common starting points in boys’ play and may involve characters with special powers or weapons. Adults can find this type of play particularly challenging and have a natural instinct to stop it. This is not necessary as long as practitioners help the boys to understand and respect the rights of other children and to take responsibility for the resources and environment.” Perhaps in this spirit, there is a bill in the Texas legislature that would prohibit schools from disciplining students for having toy guns and eating pastries into gun shapes (Washington Post, 12/4/2014)

And when it comes to adults Michael Hsu of the Wall Street Journal declared that "Happiness is a Toy Gun" (8/27/2011).  In his article he provided information on several toy guns including the Nerf Vortex Praxis, the Xploderz XGround Pounder Blaster, and the Executive Marshmallow Shooter from Marshmallowville and added “(…) Mad at your spouse? Don't talk it out; shoot it out. A duel with the Vortex Praxis, in particular, can be surprisingly therapeutic. (…)”

So what’s your gift for Christmas?