"I Turned Mine In"

In the toy industry, it has long been an article of faith that a youngster who plays with make-believe guns is no more likely to grow up a criminal than a boy who plays with make-believe churches is apt to mature into a saint. Yet as a result of the furor over gun controls that followed the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, toy guns may soon be much harder to obtain.

Sears, Roebuck, the world's biggest retailer, has removed toy guns from its Christmas catalogue and ordered its 815 stores to stop advertising guns and "similar toys of violence." Department stores throughout the U.S. are "de-emphasizing" toy guns, which usually means that they are not placing new orders. In Manhattan, Bloomingdale's and Stern Bros, have even taken their exsting stock off the shelves. Payson Sawyer, 35, one of Maine's largest toy distributors and leader of a citizens' group called "Toy Disarmament," has earmarked his entire stock of toy guns for a big bonfire this month. "Everybody talks about disarming the world, but we believe a practical step is to start at home," says Sawyer. His group is sponsoring a campaign in which children who surrender their toy guns receive buttons saying "I turned mine in."

Playful Aggression. The move toward toy disarmament has gained an ally in Dr. Spock. In his revised edition of Baby and Child Care, published last July, Spock writes: "We should bring up the next generation of Americans with a greater respect for law and for other people's rights and sensibilities. One simple opportunity we could utilize in the first half of childhood is to show our disapproval of lawlessness and violence in television programs and in children's pistol play."

Many psychologists argue that pistol play is a realistic way of releasing aggression. Moreover, points out Dr. Sirgay Sanger, child psychiatrist at Manhattan's Payne Whitney Clinic: "Forbiddance only leads to fascination." Thus, total disarmament is probably unattainable. While there is a piece of wood handy and a boy to shout "Bang, bang, you're dead!," toy guns are likely to remain a part of childhood.

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