2004 Volume 4
’Toy guns don’t cause aggression’
By Henriette Geldenhuys
Sunday Times, Sept 26,2004
MOST children who play with toy guns do not turn into violent adults, Human Sciences Research Council researcher Professor Andy Dawes said this week.
Dawes was responding to the launch of a renewed campaign by Gun Free South Africa to reduce the number of toy guns, following the release of the national crime statistics this week.
Gun Free South Africa’s Margie Keegan said depots would be put in place where toy guns could be dropped off.
She said toy guns socialised children into violence and ”it’s sensitive because there’s such a high amount of gun violence here and children are raised in very violent communities”.
However, Dawes said there was ”no evidence at all that playing with guns as a child turns you into a dangerous adult”.
Toy guns played a small part in causing people to resolve conflict in a violent way, he said.
Dawes’s research found that children who were exposed to violence in their homes, schools and streets were ”more likely than others to grow up with aggressive patterns and emotional distress”.