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Comment by chrsstrm | Hacker News Reader

Get him an awesome mountain bike or a BB gun to terrorize the neighborhood cats. He's got about 4 years left before life starts to get real serious, so let him be a kid. No one wants to spend all day sitting in front of a monitor, especially a 10 year old.

EDIT: Apparently it needs to be stated clearly that despite my tongue in cheek comment, I don't actually condone the firing of projectiles at small feline animals, be they feral or domestic. It should also be noted that I do not condone the "arming" of minors with the intent of allowing them to commit acts of violence on animals, other persons, or even plants for that matter. From here on out, if asked for gift ideas for a child, I'll simply ask a child what they prefer and relay their answer, unless of course they suggest an item not on an "approved" list.

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Kids don't get outdoors enough these days. I approve of the bb gun. When I was 10 the one thing I really looked forward to was archery class. Marksmanship is all about developing skill with practice. You can have plenty of fun with a bb/pellet gun/bow&arrow that doesn't involve killing/wounding critters. Just make sure the kid acquires a healthy respect for any weapon and understands it is a responsibility. That may be difficult given the way people wave guns around on TV and in the movies, but responsibility is the most important aspect.

I completely agree with encouraging him to be a kid and keep him away from a monitor as long as possible, but to suggest equipping a kid with a BB gun to terrorise the neighbourhood cats is appalling. You may or may not like them, but they're living things and they feel pain and fear just as much as humans do, and they have just as much right to go about their lives without being shot at.

There may have been some tongue in cheek exaggeration in the parent comment. Go out and be wild, at any rate.

Fuel & electric motors and electronic kits make good hands-on toys at that age as well, to see things working. Bikes, guns, and other implements of destruction are cool too (one can stay within the bounds of wrecking things that were due for it anyway)

Another cat apologist. They shit in my garden, kill all the local wildlife, piss everywhere, try and break into your house, scratch your kids up, lick their worm-ridden arses and only show intelligence with respect to jealousy and self interest.

Fuck 'em all.

Kid with a BB gun is a natural predator.

No need to buy children toys which represent killing devices, and definitely no teaching children to get off on "terrorist" sadism on weaker people/animals. In a more civilized society, that would be more commonly considered child abuse, not to mention the costs others will be more likely to bear from the grown child's actions.

As they say, this is why we can't have nice things...

Okay you got me. Besides the use of the word terrorism, I really can't tell if this is satire or serious.

EDIT: And yes, encouraging kids to shoot at peoples cats is a terrible idea. In all likelihood those cats are a part of some other kids life.

I wonder what happened to the tens of millions of kids that used to play Cowboys and Indians or Cops and Robbers...

Today, instead of running around outside getting exercise and learning social interaction, they're all in their rooms on the Internet or game console.

I think an awesome mountain bike or a BB gun is exactly what kids need nowadays.

Cowboys and Indians? If your friends were nerdy enough back in the 70s, you might play "Star Trek" instead (2nd grade version of LARPing, I guess)

"Cowboys and Indians" is a great example. For one thing, they're not from India, as incompetently believed; they were the US's indigenous population, largely exterminated through genocide.

(For that matter, the cowboy imagery we pose as was stolen from Mexicans, just like the land we call "Texas".)

Dissidents like Chomsky mentioned, "I clearly remember when I was a child the favorite game for young people was 'Cowboys and Indians.' You went to the forest and pretended that there were 'Indians.' It was like going hunting, like hunting animals." Now, who spends almost as much as the rest of the world combined on military, frequently indulges in international attacks against far weaker people, and jails its own population at the world's highest rate?

Should we also go back to teaching the popular racist version of "Eeny meeny"? "Catch a n... by his toe / If he won't work then let him go." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe#Earlier_...)

Who cares about the mountain bike? If I said, "I just got junior a bike and sexual predator kit!" you probably wouldn't even remember the bike, except as bizarre juxtaposition.

"incompetently believed" - By whom? I doubt the U.S. had many immigrants from India in the 1800s. Genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of a group of people. I'm sure the Europeans and early Americans had microscopes to make sure those blankets were infected before giving them to the Native Americans.

The imagery wasn't stolen. Mexico had cowboys (vaqueros) before us. Did they have a patent on what clothes to wear? Cowboys look like cowboys because of the utility of their clothes, not because of some sense of fashion. Try working on a ranch in a suit and top hat.

Did you ever study history? I recommend that rather than regurgitating other people's delusions. Texas was not stolen. The people who lived in Texas revolted and drove out the Mexican soldiers. Texas then became its own Republic. Texas later joined the United States voluntarily.

Perhaps the game of Cowboys and Indians is culturally insensitive. I don't know anyone who hates Indians because of it, or wants to go hunt them or any other humans in real life. The public school I went to did a pretty good job teach us about the plight of the Native Americans. Also, I would venture to guess that game Cowboys and Indians was introduced by the many western shows and movies that were popular in the mid-1900s. Cops and Robbers was immensely more popular even before Cowboys and Indians [0].

The rest of your post is just ridiculous and I have no idea why you brought those things up. What does a "sexual predator kit" have to do with anything?

[0] http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cowboys+and+ind...

Why can't you be a kid whilst still enjoying technology?

You make out as if the gifts outlined here (e.g. Arduino, Lego Technic, etc) are going to strip him of his childhood. I'd argue they'd improve creativity and give a sense of accomplishment ("hey, I made that!!").

Hah! +1 for the edit. Still approve of BB Guns for kids. Teach them to be responsible with dangerous things. Can you imagine giving an iPhone or Laptop to a kid you wouldn't trust with a BB Gun!?

Can you imagine giving an iPhone or Laptop to a kid you wouldn't trust with a BB Gun

Easily. I have no problem letting my 3 year old play with an iPad, yet there is no way I'd hand her a loaded BB Gun. The worst a irresponsible kid with a laptop can to is try to throw it at someone. An irresponsible kid with a BB Gun can easily cause serious damage to his surroundings.

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