Shoot 'em up

Having restored my work-life balance for the second part of this week, last night found me in the playground with Eve at 6.05, having worked all day from home.

I was a little unsettled to find that many of the bigger boys (age 8 or 9) have taken to playing with guns. I have never really approved of guns as toys. Guns are possibly the one thing in the world I would like to abolish if I could have anything. The idea that someone could take the life of another with no more effort than a finger on a button, and the cheapness of life that this implies, scares me. I find the glamourisation of guns a horrible development.

I don't subscribe to the idea that toy guns or TV violence prompts some of the dreadful child gun crime we now see, such as the German school massacre this week. Undoubtedly this had nothing to do with toy guns and everything to do with a deeply disturbed teenager, however there is something about boys this young running around trying to kill each other that I find very unsettling.

After about 20 mins I heard one of the boys complaining to his friend about how the game was getting dull, and asking if they could play police and thief (the global version of cops and robbers I would imagine) instead.

Maybe this means I am getting worried about nothing.