It’s nice when I find a pro-gun article in the mostly liberal media, here’s an excerpt:

“While citizens and legislators debate the pros and cons of gun control, our boys are getting in trouble for gun play. In some places, playing guns is treated almost as severely as playing with guns.

But the research has never shown a link between gun play and a propensity for violence. Playing with toy guns does not increase the chances of your child shooting up a school. Did some school shooters play with pretend guns as children? Surely. But there’s a good chance that your pastor or your kid’s soccer coach played with toy guns too.

The best available research shows that kids use play to make sense of and understand the world. Through their play, children experiment with ideas such as life and death, power and responsibility, and justice and injustice. They play out scenarios they see and hear in the real world as well. (One little boy who was suspended for pretending his pencil was a gun was pretending to be a Marine, just like his father.) They use play to master their fears.”
Source: http://www.parade.com/169517/jenniferlwfink/is-gun-play-ok/