The toy gun industry has experienced a backlash, as they struggle “to strike a delicate balance between profit and sensitivity.”
“I have heard that toy guns that look like real weapons have slowed down in general, but toy weapons that are whimsical, fun and colorful, those have not been affected,” said Beaver Raymond, co-founder of the Marshmallow Fun Company, a toymaker.
Clever marketing has allowed some manufacturers to avoid scrutiny:
“We have never called any of our products guns. We also call them shooters, blasters, bows, and we always try to take the softer side. We make sure no one gets hurt by having marshmallows as our edible ammo, and parents really endorse that.”
And it gets worse:
“We do like stuff that shoots, but we don’t want it to look realistic,” said Joe Rooper, president and CEO of Hog Wild Toys. “We like things that are fun, funky and functional. Our competition makes real-looking guns, and we intentionally do the opposite to make our products look more like a toy so we don’t get that backlash.”
The underlying assumption here, carried over from the twisted logic of gun-control, is that the mere act of owning a (toy) gun will turn a completely normal (child) person into a sociopathic killer with no respect for life.
(image from Competitive Enterprise Institute)
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