By Kylie Bartholomew and Annie Gaffney.
A south-east Queensland kindergarten has embraced children’s interest in toy guns by issuing them with their own licence.
The director of the Kilkivan Kindergarten, Anne Bicknell, said the toy gun licensing program was activated “as needed” when a child showed an interest in using or playing with guns.
Located in a rural area west of Gympie, she said many children at the centre came from properties where parents had guns, so the centre’s approach was to educate and encourage responsible play rather than ban gun play all together.
Ms Bicknell said the program, which has been in place since 2011, was originally initiated because of a child who was “obsessed” with guns.
“He had lots of toy guns and we just couldn’t find a good reason to say no to him… that’s where it all began,” she said.
“That year in particular, there was a whole group of them and they were all off farms and the girls too, they were all used to Mum and Dad shooting, dare I say, wild dogs and whatever they do shoot on the farm.
“These country kids run the full gamut of what a gun can be used for in a rural setting; it’s just part of their life experience.
“So we set up the gun play here where they could bring it [the toy gun] in and we discuss about responsible play.”
Licence to shoot
The program involved an initial discussion with children, parents and teachers about gun safety and responsibility before a licence would be issued.
“They have a series of questions they have to answer when they apply for their licence, which basically means they say ‘Yes, I would like to bring a gun to kindy and I agree to play by the safe play rules’,” Ms Bicknell said.
Top Comments
Brilliant- bet the mums and dad's love it- reinforcing the high need for responsibility around guns when the kids have them in their homes.
I have three boys and have given up my war on guns. We don't buy toy guns, but the kids make their own out of sticks, legos, toast etc.
We've enacted a gun-free (actually weapon-free) zone inside the house (usually because the weapons are sticks etc that could break things), and any child who points a gun at another human is not allowed to play guns again until they can show appropriate self control.
To this day though, I have no idea how they found out about guns at all.
I think this is a great program. I tried to ban guns when my son was a toddler, and they were banned at his kindy, but he made his own guns out of lego anyway. My kids have spent a lot of time on relatives' farms since then, and have learned to shoot real rifles. We have lots of rules relating to guns and they now have dozens of Nerf guns. The biggest problem I have is other kids coming around disrespecting the rules, such as no pointing the gun at each other. Might be good for city kids too, because banning them altogether doesn't work, but constantly reinforcing rules seems to improve the overall behaviour.