Furious mother slams other parents for buying her seven-year-old son toy guns for his birthday - do YOU think she's overreacting?

A mother has called giving a toy gun to a child as a birthday present "inappropriate" - after her son was gifted three.

The anonymous woman posted on parenting site Mumsnet that she was torn over taking the fake weapons away from her seven-year-old as he appeared to be enjoying playing with them, the Daily Mail reports.

Revealing her discomfort with the toys, the mother received a flood of responses on the online community from parents who agreed with her views.

A minority of people argued that preventing children from playing with toy guns is unreasonable.

Posting under the name Juneau, she wrote: "Now I know it's up to people what they give and that as the recipient's parent I don't get a say, and I should be grateful that these DC came to his party and brought him a gift (and I am), but I would never give a gun as a gift. 

"I think it's really inappropriate and I'm very uncomfortable with having even toy guns in my house.

"Seeing my 7-year-old running around with a gun (albeit a plastic one), and shooting at us and laughing is horrible. And of course he loves them and he was given them and if I took them away then I'd be the bad guy."

A large number of parents revealed they discourage their children from playing with toy weapons such as guns and swords.

One person said: "You Are Not Being Unreasonable. My four-year-old is going through a WWII phase that involves building guns out of lego and pretending to shoot the Germans (I. E. Us). I have to keep telling him off."

Another wrote: "I wouldn't give a gun as a gift so I get where you are coming from. My son has been given one which went 'missing' after a couple of weeks.

it is just for make-believe play though, he's not going to turn into a violent thug because he pretended to be a cowboy when he was 7.

Just get rid of it when the novelty has worn off."

Many others revealed that although they wouldn't approve of traditional toy guns, they make an allowance for water pistols. 

One person wrote: "I really don't like toy guns. Weapons should not glamourised as a toy. I know one day, one or both of my children might want one, but I'm trying to stall as long as I can. Water guns, yes no problem. But toy guns that make shooting noises no."

Another wrote: "Mine aren't allowed guns and they know I'll take them off them. I know I'm a cow but I hate them."

Speaking under the handle 'titchy', one person mocked those who don't allow toy guns but haven't made an effort to ban alternative toys.

She said: "Those that don't allow guns, I assume you've removed all twigs from your surroundings and amputated your child's index and middle fingers?"

Another parent attempted to defend guns as the safest toy weapon in comparison with swords.  

She wrote: "Guns are better than swords for pretend play at that age. Swords end up with injuries as fighting involves hitting. Have you banned swords too?"

One mother revealed she had compromised with her daughter playing with a toy gun by being strict on the targets she could use to play with it.

She said: "My daughter is going through a gun phase where her fingers or anything else is a gun. She must have got it from preschool. I showed her people shooting at the Olympics on YouTube and she now pretends to shoot targets instead of people, usually".

This article was first published on Daily Mail and is republished here with permission.