A History of Toy Guns
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- In the more modern era toy guns appeared, and in the nineteenth century toy guns began to proliferate, quickly becoming a thorny issue for parents, children, and the law.
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Script by JCG
#history #thehistoryguy #toys
A few years ago I purchasing a firearm and said something to the clerk about a Red Ryder BB gun, a woman behind me said, “You’ll shoot your eye out”.
"Poetry! Sheer poetry! A plus plus plus plus plus plus..."
It comes from the movie A Christmas Story (1983) and is the most common phrase used with Red Riders and BB guns in general. usually ending in the word 'kid' and in "you'll shoot your eye out, kid."
Did you marry her? If not that’s a serious missed opportunity. That’s wife material right there
I started getting Tommy Guns 💪 when I was 5 years old. I always got them in green or blue colors. Nobody messed with me when I was firing off my Tommy Gun. Pow Pow Capow 🇺🇸🫡🤙
Ralphy will never die! 😅
Ah yes, the ever versatile stick. A cane, a rifle, a sword. But if a minimum of two boys each have a stick, they will inevitably become swords at some point.
I enjoyed this episode, but you'll probably be demonetized for pointing that stick... JMHO
@@kbjerke A stick may be used as a weapon of mass destruction. If we banned sticks, our democracy would be saved.
@@M8StealthYou couldn't possibly be suggesting and recommending Common Sense stick control?
Next thing you'll want to be controlling alcohol and automobiles to prevent drunk driving deaths!
@@HM2SGT Your sarcasm detector is not working. Have you checked the batteries? =)
Only if he imagines or pretends it contains a magazine that holds more than 20 rounds.
Tomorrow, Oct. 1, Crosman will begin selling the; M1 a full auto BB gun. It will sell for $139.00. Powered by a CO2 cartridge it will fire 25 rounds (BBs), at full auto before reloading. It will also fire single BBs through the use of a selector switch.
They're pretty late to the game. All the airsoft replicas have been doing that for decades
I had a BB gun that was the same size and weight as the M-1 Carbine. It cocked by pulling the barrel into the frame, giving you roughly 540 fps of muzzle velocity. I kept that until I went into the army in 1970, when it went to my little brother. My dad was a career soldier who spent 31 years in the army, and we never had any problems getting toy guns. I was in the NRA in the sixth grade when we were stationed on Governor’s Island in Manhattan harbor, and we learned on .22 target rifles in an underground firing range on the Eastern Side of the island.
Woohoo!
As a Generation X-er I grew up in the 70's & 80's & got to own & play with all the toy guns from the late 60's & up. I can say that that was the most important toy to a boy to have fun with because as you grew so did the toy guns capabilities so they became a way to prepare for the real thing when you got old enough. 😁
Whenever a doll like object is found and they call it a religious idol, I often wonder if it was actually just a child's toy. I mean how long have we made toys for children ?
I the late eighties/early nineties I tried to get my sons to be “less violent” in their play. I took away all the toy soldiers etc and then heard them in the yard playing war with sticks and branches and pelting each other with acorns. I gave up after that. They grew up to become: a chef, a writer, an IT specialist. So much for the “you’re teaching them violence” idea that was popular at the time.
Let them get it out of their system while they're young, hopefully they'll have grown out of it before they hit their mid teens!
We boomers grew up on war toys and turned against a war. The first half of gen x grew up without them and were pro-war . Kids learn by simulating and daydreaming, so I think we had thought about it more.
Being a 67 year old Native Floridian, I grew up with guns. I always knew where Dad kept his loaded revolver (which I still own) and knew to not touch it. Later at 12 years old, I was the "family armorer" with the three shotguns and my .22 rifle and the big case of boxes of shells in my bedroom closet. I was hunting early on. I did ten years in the military, a shipmate and I had our privately owned pistols kept in our ship's armory. Later, as a civilian I got into gun collecting, sport shooting and handloading. Now old and retired (I was in IT) I sold or traded off most of my guns and other stuff. In all those decades I never threatened or hurt anyone, until in recent years on two occasions I had to chase attempted home invaders off my property at gunpoint. As a kid I had my share of toy guns and air guns. 😊
@@rosezingleman5007 I grew up in a family with the family rifle and shotgun over the mantle, we NEVER played with them. We would take them down for hunting or cleaning only. My wife grew up in the city and was against guns in our home. A number of years ago I purchased a pistol which I kept in a secure location. One day, probably 20 years ago, she said, “We need to buy a gun”. Told her we already have one, she then purchased one for herself. Since then we have purchased various firearms for different levels of self defense. Me having been in the army, she knows the difference between a rifle and a gun.
My wife is a kindergarten teacher. She told me that all the 4 and 5 year old boys want to do with Lego is build them into guns. Not wanting to hear complaints from some of the parents, she had to institute a no weapons policy at the Lego bin.
I was shopping a couple of years back and saw a display of Red Ryder BB guns and right next to it were "girls" Red Ryder BB guns. Exactly the same, but painted pink. Grrrrrr. Why does everything for girls have to be pink.
When I was in the Air Force they didn't hand out pink weapons for us female Airmen.
Our parents were ardent pacifists and would never allow us to have toy guns. We had to look at the ones our friends had and feel somewhat left out.
I had one of those "Fanner Fifty" toy replicas of a Colt Single Action Army pistol back in the 50s. You loaded plastic 'bullets' into the front of the cylinder, and when the trigger was pulled, a spring in the back of each chamber shot them out the barrel. Fun times, those, when a kid could just be a kid.
Agreed!
I had a rough childhood. I couldn't play with toys that required supervision.
I only had regular vision.
Lol
@@robertjensen1438 But did your adults have supervision?
Something about Lance & is channel brings out the dad jokes. I was listening to Boston Blackie recently and it occurred to me that he must be a relation- every scene seemed to end with a groaner alliterative pun. 😅
Here I am, getting on in years, and I still have to wear glasses. Where is this "adult super-vision" we were all promised?
I remember having a lot of fun times with my trusty 'spud gun' :)
I used to have a couple of toyguns made of metal, that looked like guns from 1890. You loaded them with ammo that made a loud sound and created a small dustcloud that smelled like gunpowder. They are still being sold and look the same.
The history of imagination and running around outside.
Also, a BB gun is usually a kid's first introduction to the rules of firearm safety.
@@HM2SGT Every American citizen should have a BB gun by age 6, a .22LR rifle when they reach double digits in age, and an AR-15 when fifteen. Remember, one is none.
With adequate supervision, discipline, education and training, yes indeed
I’m so old the early weapons I played with were stones and sticks.
...future WW4...'but names will never hurt me'...
Forty years ago, my wife worked at a group home for young teenage boys that were either orphans or had been removed from their families. Like almost all boys do, everything got turned into pretend guns. It was so common that the staff would frequently kid, "you'll shoot your eye out". Unfortunately, one of the more criminally inclined boys got ahold of a BB gun and decided to rob a store. Somehow, in the planning process, he managed to shoot out his own eye. After that, my wife and colleagues could no longer use that line.
A friend of mine had one of those Buck Rogers guns that had belonged to his father.
2:16 _What makes a good soldier?_ *The ability to fire three shots in any weather.*
Now that's soldiering!
I think that's from Sharpe's Rifles, correct? That was a good show.
@@Anamericanhomestead 😃👍 Sharpe's Eagle, 1993
That's a nice stick you have there, History Guy!
As a child of the 60's, we played army for hours, running around the neighborhood with replica M1's, Tommy guns, 1911's, etc., emulating the super heroes of our time - our Dads, uncles, neighbors, etc. who had recently saved us from the Axis threats. We played Cowboys and outlaws with our six-shooter and lever action rifles, riding our trusty steed (Schwinn). It was all great fun and had us outside burning energy and getting exercise. While I agree that Super Soakers and Nerf guns are the toys of today, many more of the guns are now found on computer screens and TV's portrayed in video games. Not the same thing.....
Loved my Matel sub machine gun and my monkey division bazooka !
@@Cedarlick
Mine was camouflaged, was yours?
born in 1958 , maybe 8 or 9 santa brought me m16 and 1911. my brother got the winchester and colt peacemaker.. I think they were made by mattel
@@theallseeingmaster no, looked like a Thompson.
I hoped you’d mention the paper cap gun.
A technology also used with a military firearm if I recall correctly
I liked to lick the cordite-tasting used paper cap reels.
Neighbor had a Johnny 7. He was the envy of the neighborhood.
I had an Agent Zero-M set that had a movie camera turn into a machine gun. Trivia: the commercial starred a young Kurt Russell.
Was a toy gun in my grandfather's workshed. It was one of his toy guns from when he was a boy. It was metal cast into the shape of a revolver. The metal was lead.
I think I played with every realistic looking Mattel toy gun that ever existed in the 60's. I especially liked the realistic looking, plastic projectile shooting, Greenie Stickem capped, chrome plated six-shooter Colt 45's; a close 2nd as was their lever action 'Winchester rifle' and let us not forget their 'belt buckle 'Derringer'. Mattel made a great Tommy gun which, unusually, only fired common rolled red caps.
I remember that Colt.. I didn't have the revolver, but I did have the rolling block rifle that operated the same way. 👍😎
@@kennethrouse7942 Life was GOOD!
Great video. Lots of ammunition or a stroll down memory lane.
I had the classic Mattel 'Fanner 50', along with the 'Johnny 7'.
I still have my Fanner-50, 65 years later! 👍😎
I'm from the deep south. We grew up with real and toy guns. We were also taught the difference between the two. So many people are against kids playing with toy guns. I see nothing at all wrong with it.
It's all about education, training, discipline and supervision... which most people don't seem to have the time or will for nowadays. 🤷 Most 'adults' nowadays are pilgrims on the path of least resistance.
I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a time of great toy guns. There were also a lot of real, old guns, that you couldn't get ammunition for. We were given a trap door springfield and a smith carbine to use with greenie stickum caps. 60+ years later, I'm disgusted about that. In the 1950s the Hubley toy company made some great metal toy guns. Good video.
Why are you disgusted by that? I get it looks kinda bad, but it's like someone playing soldier with a pellet gun, I did that all the time as a kid in the early 2000s. After 10 years old I could carry my 22 and machete
I've been waiting for a history of toy guns
I'm 67, I own Nerf guns, supersoakers and some custom electric water pistols. It's a long story. Involving medieval re-enactors, and silly games involving beer bets. It always goes well until someone gets a contract to tag our glorious leader, once too often, normally sometime in August. As my mum would've said , "There will be years before bedtime!"
In Britain, in the 1950s, there was no problem with toy guns or 'space ray guns'. We were deluged with US 'cowboy films anyway. I could buy small round cardboard boxes of blue cap reels with tiny blobs of gunpowder to reload one's six-gun. Then it all disappeared and I still think it was a cultural decision based on shaky research...the average person (not a gangster) or a police person (should one ever see one on the street outside a big city) does not carry one either in the UK. Even water pistols cannot be bought (ones that look like pistols)!
The toy stick gun was a luxury, we only had our finger gun.
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785
One of my favourite toys as a kid was my Mattel Fanner Fifty old west replica revolver. It came with a very nice leather holster and cartridge belt. We all practice our quick draws for hours on end.
The history of toy guns is, they will ban these, but keep the real ones.
Growing up in the 80’s playing with Larami cap and water guns was the best.
I played with toy dinosaurs and as an adult I admit I would use real dinosaurs to harm people if I could.
Dear THG,
Sometimes a fake gun can be mistaken for a real one.
Sincerely, John Dillinger
*not for use in humid or rainy environments
My friends and I played with guns that we made out of ice that forms on top of the snow.
I love the nerf gun party packs. So great for kid birthdays and the kids all get to bring one home.
Had a bb gun at 9 and my 1st shotgun at 12or 13 never killed anyone Lol but I'm a boomer so that's that.
I bet you also had parents who supervised you and taught you the fundamentals of firearm safety.
We played cowboys (cowgirls) back in the day. Played throwing rocks & fighting with sticks.. I am nearly 80 & somehow I survived my childhood.
maybe you're one who didn't get hit by the rock or punctured by the stick.
That was a pretty good stick there, Lance.
fun episode
Wow, thanks for reminding me how old I am, I was shocked at how many of these "toys" I have used. I still yearn for my "Rapid Fire Tracer Gun" which I was given for Christmas in 1974, and had taken by my mother about two days later, never to be seen again! How was it my fault my older sisters kept on getting in the way of the discs?
My dad gave me a couple old waterguns he had.
They're crazy in 2 ways. 1. They look like actual guns specifically an uzi and a submachine gun that I forget the name of.
2. They're battery powered. I sure do love mixing water and electricity.
We dug big ditches 6' feet down that would protect 3 kids from the enemies, and have dirt clod fights back in the 60's, and don't forget about the aqua net flamethrower. Born in Campbell, Ca, 1962. ❤
I’m 67 and had more than I can remember. Had two wooden pop guns and one of those bazooka air guns, could be pumped and made ripples in the water or knocked over stacked cans. Think it was made by Mattel
Don't know if this counts but I had an "A-salt rifle" that shot a small amount of salt and was designed to kill flies. Soooo much fun but I left salt in it over the winter and it wouldn't work the next spring.😢
No, I don’t think we’ll have toy guns as long as we have children. I think we’ll have toy guns as long as we have real guns.
You have spoken TRUTH.
👍👍👏👏🇺🇲🇺🇲
Not sure, swords arn't really used in any war anymore yet they're still around as toys, even axes.
MPC - Maybe you're reporting about a different company, but the MPC I'm familiar with was "Model Products Corp." They were part of General Mills in the 1970s and took over Lionel Trains for a time after Lionel Corp. went bankrupt and sold the train operations.
I have a cap gun from the 1990s that had the orange cap on the end with 7 boxes of cap rolls. I tried to give it to a friend recently for her 6-year old grandson and she politely declined with, "I don't think his parents would be OK with that." Time moves on.
Growing up in the '80s, toy guns and war games were part of the experience. We had the realistic looking toy UZIs and pistols that we'd play with around the trailer park, and we'd have the occasional acorn fight. Eventually, we graduated to having BB gun fights in the woods "down the hill". One pump rule, no aiming for the head... safety first! 😆 At various times, we'd play with pop guns, water guns, and of course sticks.
In high school, I arranged a big cap gun fight with my friends on Bell Isle in Richmond, buying all the cap gun revolvers and caps I could find. It wasn't as grandiose as I'd hoped, but it was fun. A year or two later, I learned two things the hard way: 1) don't trust a detective who "only wants to talk" and 2) BB guns are classified as firearms in some states. A few months earlier, I had my Desert Eagle BB gun out near my car and one of my friends' younger brothers saw it and was supposedly traumatized. A detective kept calling afterward, so I finally went downtown to see what it was about. Just questions, no charges, but with one caveat: in Richmond, all firearms related incidents falling under Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court require an overnight stay in lockup. The cops told me multiple times I wasn't under arrest and that if I fled, they couldn't pursue me. I was naive and ended up spending a few weeks in Detention as the Token White Kid, after a judge declared me a menace the following morning. That Desert Eagle was one very inconveniencing "toy".
Now, of course, it's "Nerf of Nothing". While I own over 100 real guns, though, I think that the popularity of airsoft is both good and bad. It seems like a fun way to kill some time, and of course it appeals to those who want to get as realistic as possible with mil-sim without having to actually enlist in the military (as well as an effective training tool for those who do serve), however, most of the guns look identical to their real-life counterparts. I don't know how many news reports I've seen where someone has made a threat or been caught planning something and their "arsenal" is mostly or entirely airsoft. Still, that's better than the "toy" guns a lot of kids have these days--particularly those in the inner cities. A Glock with a "switch" isn't a toy, but culture has led many to believe that they are.
💥🔫
Great episode. I had a Johnny Eagle rifle when I was a kid, and a Crossman BB gun that looked identical to an M-1 Carbine. Great times.
There is a lot of mythology about toy guns being made into real guns, but toys have always been intentionally made out of material unsuitable for such conversion.
Probably from mockup or prop guns being converted. It is possible, but what you end up with is really just a more professional looking zip gun that will soon fail.
Some starter pistols (Not a toy, but also not considered a "real" gun) can be bored out and made to fire live ammo. But, again, the end result is both illegal and dangerous. Changes in design have made this less likely with newer models.
No mention of the Japanese Model Guns. Full size metal, later plastic weapons which used brass reloadable rounds firing special caps. Almost identical in function and appearance to their real counterparts.
I did my best to keep my son away from guns when he was very little, but I gave up when he bent a drinking straw in two and fired it at me.
Oh yes, the toy gun/stick of many a youth. Dad grew up before and after the transition from "realistic" to "approved" cap guns, he said it was weird. Even I had many afternoons chasing my fellow combatants and good guy/bad guy water gun battles (dad would have called it cops and robbers). And yes I was so excited to get my very own Daisy Red Ryder bb gun (in my favorite color pink) and I'm happy to say "no, I didn't shoot my eye out" 😂
The last one mentioned, the stick, was my favorite toy gun/toy sword when I was a kid!
My sons loved there nerf guns and their wood rubber band guns. You missed the wood rubber band guns
As an adult I would love to have some Bluegun (inert training gun) versions of my real ones.
Nerf weapons and water guns are fun, but keeping an ammo supply handy can be a pain.
The police that harm our children should have been held accountable.
Who said they didn't? And how about the parents who didn't adequately teach or supervise their children so that they didn't do something so dumb and put an officer in a position where they had to make a split-second decision whether or not do you use deadly force to defend themselves?
Hate to break it to you, History Guy, but 19 yo is NOT a child, or a kid.
Good Monday morning History Guy and everyone watching. 10 days until retirement!! 😂 I have a Daisy pellet/BB rifle.
Mildly jealous and envious. Just 5,113 days for me. One of three things I'd change if I knew then what I know now, salting money away right from the beginning and rather than blowing every dime while I was enlisted on beer, pizza, cars and those luscious tomatoes!
@@HM2SGTThanks for your service Shipmate. Wish I knew then what I know now and had saved my money as well instead of blowing it on frivolous things like booze and partying. LOL.
Ha! My last day with Aerospace Corp. is Thursday!!! 40 years in the space business....
@@cpnscarletCongratulations on your retirement
You know I keep that thang on me
I remember!
I loved my Johnny 7.
They're called "pew, pews" with the internet enlightened.
Is that a stick in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Did karens play with toy telephones?
Upon their introduction, I discovered that the "plastic discs" that were to be fired from the Star Trek gun, could be easily replaced by pennies. They did not fly as far... but they certainly could provide a decent sting to any "aliens" lurking near your "fort" or tree house.
LOL I figured that out too. Photon torpedoes as opposed to phasers.
Okay, that ad at 14:25 had me laughing.
Times have changed for sure :D
Yeah. That one caught me off guard.
WOW!
what about paper caps guns
This was fascinating.
Mom thought a BB gun was too dangerous, but all my friends had one. So I made a cross bow. It was really powerful, and I realized I needed to be really careful with it. I drew it back by putting the stock on the ground and stepping on the bowstring with my normally bare heel.
I asked Mom what she thought of it a few years ago. "What do you do with a kid that can make something like that? Take it away?"
Give them the BB gun, sounds safer XD
@@jhfdhgvnbjm75 😉
I lost a great toy gun because I was holding it in the car on the way to school one morning. I jumped out of the car with it still in my hand accidentally. By the time I realized it the car was gone. I knew I'd get in trouble at school for having it, and the thought of trying to hide it all day just seemed unbearable. So I just hail mary'd it into the air in front of the school and ran inside. It worked.
My favorite toy gun was a 1911 copy that looked and functioned like the real thing. The slide worked and the magazine came out. It shot little plastic balls almost like today's airsoft. I found it after a flood in a black bag full of play money.
This video brought back lots of memories.
In about 1963, I received a “Combat” play set. Based on one of the characters of the popular TV series, it had the replica equipment of Sargent Chip Saunders ( Vic Morrow). It had a plastic helmet with three stripes of a Sargent, a plastic pistol belt with a US holster for a full size model of a Colt 1911 automatic pistol that could shoot caps. But the high-light of the set was a full size replica of a Thompson sub-machine gun that also shot caps. With this set, no one doubted who was “the squad leader”!
I played with this set for many years. The neighborhood “squad” and I successfully defended our elementary school playground from the Germans and Japanese.
When I was in college, I returned home and decided to take a look at my Thompson sub-machine gun. As I was looking for it in the basement, my mother told me “ that she had cleaned out a lot of my old toys”, including Sargent Saunders helmet and firearms. I was crushed!
I’ve often wondered how many times “cleaning out” involved toys and other things such as baseball cards!
Thanks for making me smile remembering our “army days”.
In Canada a women has been given no bail for accidentally hitting a man with water from a water gun, but a person who used a real gun to shoot someone on purpose got bail. NO joke.
Love your videos
If not for Vans and skateboards I'd easily conquered the rest of the world with a plastic M16
I loved my toy plastic soldiers and toy Tommy guns I remember my big brothers toy bazooka I was sad to hear my niece not allowing her young son to have a toy gun Times are a changing I guess
The Red Ryder lever-action BB gun was my first BB gun; a hand-me-down from my big brother. 😉👍
I grew up with toy guns and toy/candy cigarettes and never robbed a bank or started smoking.
With another sad twist of thought, there are now guns which you see painted as toys are. I zealously played with toy guns and various air guns as a boy; now, I have the fond memories shared with friends.
If you are a certain age you will be smelling cordite from a stip of caps while watching this.
Acts 2:38
I remember paper roll caps from when i was a kid. I haven’t seen them for years
You didn't cover the important change from metal caps to paper caps.
Not mentioned here are rubber band guns. We used to make our own out of wood and a clothespin.
layo
I enjoyed this episode very much.
Most popular bb gun of my era crossman 760.
Hallelujah dads and mommies, cowboys, rebels, yanks and commmies buy yourself some real red blooded fun!
14:28
I had a cap gun in the 60's. Lots of fun.
Those were the days! 💙🥳
Now… unfortunately, my own son won’t be able to experience it due to society. No further comment. 🚩👀💅🏾💯
No reason your kid can't
14:26 wtf is that name?
Lol. Yes, that was a real toy.
76th, 30 September 2024