# boys before guns **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2000, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boys-before-guns/33481 "2000-09-17T09:06:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boys-before-guns/33481/21 "2000-09-18T21:56:09Z")
I told you, it’s all about throwing rocks. How much to shoot that thing? I have four plump pullets in barter. ---
**Author:** ![Timothy\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Timothy\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timothy_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boys-before-guns/33481/22 "2000-09-18T23:41:35Z")
**jb\_farley** : “_don’t get me started on fencing_” Interesting that you should mention that. As a kid, we used to have “crabapple fights” (pelting each other with hard little apples from the local trees), plus we’d blow up piles of sand with firecrackers, and we made some pathetic bow-and-arrow thingies. But we never tried fencing. I think we knew that you could _actually_ hurt somebody if you thrust a stick in their eye, and figured it wasn’t worth the risk. Of course, somebody might get hurt occasionally by some other kind of mayhem we had created, but that was just “friendly fire”. (I once had a 2 inch firecracker go off as I held it in my fist.) So I don’t think it’s all about _actual_ power. Kids know that a toy truck isn’t a real truck, and that going “braddabaddabaddabadoww!” isn’t firing machine-gun bullets at somebody. I think, instead, that it’s about “trying power on for size”. Here’s an example: one kid shouts “Pyeoowww!” (each kid had his own “gun sound”, right?) and then announced, “Gotcha!” The other kid says, “Did not!” The eloquent response, of course, is “Did too!” Well, that goes on for a while, but here’s the catch: who ever wins the argument … WINS THE META-GAME. He’s the guy with the power. And I’m pretty sure that if those two meet later in life, there’s better than a 50/50 chance that the pecking order will be the same. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boys-before-guns/33481/23 "2000-09-19T03:38:07Z")
As for fencing, me and my best friend growing up used to always tear up his mom’s irises, to use the leaves as swords. I think we may have even played with them more than we did with the bent sticks (neither mom allowed “real” toy guns… I didn’t get my first squirt gun until the unrealistic SuperSoakers were invented). This may have been partly because hits and misses are relatively unambiguous with swords. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boys-before-guns/33481/24 "2000-09-19T08:55:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*originally posted by Tim Campbell \* > **I think we knew that you could actually hurt somebody if you thrust a stick in their eye** > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > **As for fencing, me and my best friend growing up used to always tear up his mom’s irises** Ouch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boys-before-guns/33481.md?page=1)