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Iraq moves to ban toy guns as play turns real
The Ministry of Health here is campaigning to ban the sale of guns in Iraq. Toy guns, that is.
Baghdad's toy markets are stocked with plastic weapons in all prices and sizes: toy guns, tanks, knives, uniforms, even silencers. In a country where guns and military gear are heartbreakingly prevalent, basic training begins early.
"It's the responsibility of the community to get rid of these toys," said Dr. Emad Abdulrazaq, national adviser for mental health at the ministry. "They make it easier for a child to make the next step to real violence, because every day he enjoys guns."
The ministry, which itself has no authority to regulate toy sales, has urged the government to ban all toy weapons. But for now it is concentrating on one: a cheap plastic air pistol highly popular among boys that fires plastic pellets and has been the source of hundreds, possibly thousands, of eye injuries.