The Ghana National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons has cautioned parents against purchasing toy guns for their children.
Speaking on JoyNews, Deputy Director of Policy, Planning, Evaluation and Monitoring at the commission, Gyebi Asante said handing children such implements psyches them to see weapons of similar nature as harmless and could harm others with lethal weapons if they get hold of them.
Mr. Asante indicated that most people who used toy rifles during their childhood become accustomed to possessing firearms and barely appreciate the danger such weapons pose to themselves and others around them.
He is, therefore, advising parents against buying their children toy guns in order not to make them trigger-happy and threats to the life of others especially when they grow up.
“Parents who have been buying toy guns for their boys, we should try and desist from that. Because the more we do that, we create certain mentality for them. Because these weapons do not kill. Some of them have water. And they go around playing with it.
So as they grow and they see a proper weapon that can kill, they still think that ‘but this weapon, it doesn’t kill’ and before, you realize, they pull the trigger and your child is gone. It’s something that has been happening. So we should try as much as possible to desist from it,” he stated.
Mr. Gyebi Asante was speaking on the proliferation of illicit small arms in the country and the threat the phenomenon poses to the country’s peace and security.
A survey by the commission in 2014, Mr. Asante disclosed, revealed about 1.2 million illicit arms in circulation in the country. This, he said, is a cause for concern as it has serious implications on the peace and security of the country.
He urged the populace to settle dispute amicably and not resort to arm violence.
