A childhood friend who always seemed to play with toy guns grew up a pacifist and joined CND. A friend who grew up in a family where such toys were not allowed grew up and tried (but failed) to join the SAS.

CR, Berkshire, UK

I was reading an article yesterday that said that boys in school should be encouraged to do things like netball, dancing and cooking. Now today I read that they should be encouraged to play with guns. It seems to me that this government hasn't got a clue as to what it wants or how our children should be brought up, (not that its their right to dictate what children do anyway). Like a lot of the people here, I grew up making guns out of sticks, bits of wood etc and I would like to think that I am a well balanced person. Boys are boys and girls are girls so let them develope their likes/dislikes without the nanny state spoiling everything.

Mike Jones, Farnborough, Hampshire

Banning guns encourages kids to engage in physical activity. Instead of sitting in chairs saying 'bang bang' they need to physically catch their prey. Kids benefit from plenty of active games. Psychologists who know more about the subject than me may well find active children make for well-adjusted adults. It could be that banning play-guns solves many of the sick-society problems of today.

I banned guns as playthings when grandad gave a small plastic gun to my son while he was still in nappies. My three children grew up without guns. This did not stop them from having a great deal of outdoor fun with lots of physical contact.

Ministers cannot sit on the fence regarding real or playplay guns, perhaps they need some total immersion education - for both the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons.

I and my kids grew up in South Africa. I served my time in the military and my kids served their time in a violent society. Happily, we moved to a largely gunfree society.

Fred C, The Hague, The Netherlands

Some girls enjoy playing with weapons too! As a tomboy in the 1950s, I had a full cowboy outfit and toy gun. All the boys had toy guns in those days. This emphatically did not lead to any of us becoming violent in later life. Indeed, we became the "peace and love" generation.

The fact is that those who seek to lecture to others are usually talking from ignorance, and just like to feel important.

Cathy, Bristol, Uk

How disgracefully sexist!

Guns for girls too, please!

Sue, Cheshire, UK

I wonder how much money was wasted coming to that decision?

Steve, chester, cheshire

When I worked for a couple of years as a playschool assistant regardless of what 'construction toys' were put out, the boys invariably made swords or guns.

As mother of two almost adult boys who were in the top grades of their classes at infant and junior schools and for the first couple of years at senior, I watched the feminist teaching agenda and GCSE curriculum knock all the enthusiasm for learning out of my eldest. The school has since made huge efforts to engage more with young males, and the younger has benefitted. Anything that is done to reverse the feminist bias in education will do young males a huge service .... and in the long run, society will benefit. They could start by actively encouraging male teachers into primary level.

Donna Walker, Effingham, Surrey

Having seen a lot of child care professionals at first hand over the last two years, it seems that the child care industry has forgotten that Sam from Cardiff is absolutly correct.

The problems seem to be caused by that nearly all people involved in nursery and primary child education are female. I have only met two men working in this sector over two years. Female child development workers, even with the best will in the world, can have no idea what it is like to be a small boy.

Their inventive mind can create guns, swords and light-sabres from sticks or even fingers. My two-year-old's weapon of choice is usually a balloon, but he has been trained to only fight with people who are similarly equiped.

Steve, Wolverhampton, UK

What absolute rubbish, children will use other things as mock weapons if they are denied playthings. 50 years ago my brother and I would shape our hands into guns and 'shoot' at each other and it didn't make us violent at all. We had guns with caps that banged and made bows and arrows from bits of trees and string but didn't turn out to be homocidal maniacs either.
It's not the toys that are the problem, it's the way children are brought up these days. They are given rights without responsibility and they are allowed to disrespect others.

D Shaw, Derby, England

I'm sure I read/heard recently that forces enlistment figures were down...perhaps the ministers are finally forward planning

G Howard, Cambridge,

Dear Toy Gun Objectors,
Have you watched children closely when they are at play?Boys in particular will instinctively create their own weapons (guns / grenades / knives etc) out of whatever resources are available to them. In Britain, we have been 'castrating' boys and stifling their natural instincts - from a very young age - for far too long. Interestingly, three outcomes have been achieved as a result of these extremist and unnatural measures and this psychotic post-feminist dehumanisation of men;
i. the child gun crime rate has increased,
ii. boys continue to lag way behind their uber-girl peers who are more able to meet the female-orientated demands of what is considered to be 'good' in the British education system
iii. we have created two or three generations of gutless, bewildered, frustrated and bullied British men.
We must focus on what really matters - how to raise and educate boys in a way that celebrates their natures.
Teacher and mother of two boys.

Suzie Sheehan, Cairo, Egypt

The problem is not whether boys should be allowed to play with guns, it is rather that the government feels the need to issue these edicts at all.

It is worst type of interference in familes' lives by the state. The state has no place in micromanaging the behaviour of law abiding people.

The role of the state in education should be restricted to providing the resources to allow teachers to get on with their jobs. The problem with this approach now is that the government, through its persistent prior interference in education, has encouraged the profession to fill with marxist, political thought police determined to turn our youth into empty headed, illiterate clones of themselves.

Edwin, Bucharest,

I'm generally suspicious of the undemocratic micro-managing of society by current and recent governmenrts, but I support this initiative. I can make a compelling a case for this as its opponents.

The dilution of the masculine role has caused a deep confusion that has led to explosive violence in everyday life. The sanitized environment of PC thugs clearly alienates boys and fails to meet their needs. The danger of that is something we have seen; the boys create an environment for themselves out of sight of adult eyes and unfettered violence ensues.

We really need to give boys a chance to channel their aggression. Chanelling that energy in ways that capture their imaginations and creates associations with learning is a opportunity for a double-win.

Boys are not girls who pee standing up.

Sam, Cardiff,

This country is a bloody joke.
Why not dress the boys in girl's clothes from the off?
PC is destroying the very fabric of society.

Michael Rigby, Blackburn, England