Washington Post expects Wii Zapper backlash, too gun-like

Me and my friends used to run around the neighborhood and shoot realistic looking cap (at around age 5) and later airsoft/paintball guns at each other, and noone ever said a word.

Try it now and you'd get pwned so fast.

You know what's really ironic? The Guncon 3 comes out this week...yet no uproar about that. Plus it's not like we can pour Ammonia into the Wii Zapper and shoot people with it. Although I encourage anyone who thinks the Wii Zapper is bad for children to do so, and actually add Bleach to the mix as well.

I shouldn't worry about the zapper being too gunlike. Since you can't even aim down the zapper (since the Wii can't offer pixel perfect aiming or anything close), the thing is effectively a piece of plastic crap to hold the zapper in. It's just another worthless gimmick.

It would be more interesting to see what the GunCon works like.

Forget kids, just keep these things away from the bovine population!

http://www.cowswithguns.com/cowmovie.html

There’s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?
-Dick Cavett

This is the Washington Post stretching it. The reason that monstrosity is so freaking ugly is so it doesn't look gun like, and it doesn't.

wow, when will parents learn that they DONT HAVE TO BUY things like these if they dont feel there kids should have them...

jesus, they cant think for themselves anymore....

1. I remember that when Columbine happened I was just graduating high school, and my friends and I went to buy Nerf guns to toy around with in the dorms. But Nerf discontinued 90% of their "real" looking guns after Columbine, and haven't brought them back until now.

2. When I was in middle school our school bus got pulled over and searched because some lady reported seeing a kid with a gun get on it. Eventually they found.... a 1.5 foot long pink and yellow laser tag rifle.

We should probably ban remote controls while we're at it. I know that my Dish Network control has a button that lights up red when changing the channel. Someone might mistaken that for muzzle flash!

Parents, don't buy dangerous Wii Zappers for your kids, buy them BB guns!

From personal experience, when kids don't have their own toys to compensate for something, they create their own (they don't have a plastic sword? carve your own stick!). I'd rather have my kid play with a safer and lighter plastic shell than to have them carry bits of heavy splintery wood into the house.

So I guess arcades that actually have controllers as a shape of a gun are ok? (House of the Dead, Time Crisis, Ghost Squad, etc.)

I work at some Toys R Us located in texas in a town where some musician was born.

We got some crazy policy about not selling guns that are realistic, this includes old west style guns. However NERF guns, and guns of the space fantasy variety are ok. Medieval Swords...for some reason...are okay too.

This whole Wii Zapper ordeal is an obvious non-issue though. Parents that actually care about this are in the minority compared to the parents I've talked to where I've been asked if we have any cowboy guns for a two year old.

Also, we don't sell kites.

umhello, you had a great line with that 'god didn't save your princess' but then you ruined it by putting your tail between your legs and apologizing like a pussy as soon as one person called you 'rude'
it's that same attitude of only saying 'safe' things that leads to parents banning anything vaguely shaped like an L... and eventually to nazi germany.

Only a mentally ill person would go off and harm others because of some video game they played. If by some chance that were to happen it's the parents/guardians fault for not monitoring their kids "properly"(most issues start from home). Ill-equipped minds shouldn't be subject to certain material. If parents do their job and teach kids real from fake, then there won't be anything to talk about. It is a parent's job to make sure kids don't get a game not rated in their age group. This parent vs game industry crap is so annoying. I bet the same parents who let their 10year olds play Halo online while cursing like they're drunk men in their 50s, are the ones complaining.

The Wii zapper looks nothing like a gun, so I don't see the problem here. If the article was referring to the guncon 3 now, the "looks-like" a gun comment would be a little more valid.

Is this thing only for America?
Nobody would have cared about its shape if gun crimes had not been so rampant.

Did you know: Ralph Baer who invented the first (except the tennis thing) real videogames for his "brown box", including pong, did already have a working light gun, made of a plastic winchester-rifle toy. So this stuff is nearly as old as videogames, and now they start complaining?

And the original zapper, what was that? That one didn't look like a gun at all! I guess that is why they didn't care back in the day?

I plan to buy a Zapper, paint the Zapper black, and then go on a robbing spree. Everyone will, of course, believe I am using a real gun.

I AM A PARENT THAT IS OFFENDED BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY WANT TO SELL MY CHILD PLEASE JOIN ME IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT WE CANT ALLOW THEM TO SELL THING THAT LOOK LIKE MELTED GUNS TO OUR CHILDREN0100010101010101010

Mama Batzarro taught me real from fake and right from wrong. And despite me actually wanting to harm some idiots(middle high school was a LOW point in my life) I didn't. Because I could tell It would have had consequenses. So I held up taking glue in the hair, slobered lollipops in my uniform and duct tape balls in my eyes until I graduated.

First of all I find this incredibly ironic comming out of a country where real guns seem to be an item in every household. A country where real guns a glamourised. It seems to me that a plastic toy is not the problem.

Even without that, parents are afraid of a piece of plastic? I bet there are 100 other toys in a toy store that look much more like a real gun, and they are intended to be pointed a t a childs friend, where as the wii zapper is pointed at a screen. Are they going to try to ban all of those toys too? Are parents so dumb that they think they have to buy it if they dont like it? Don't try to ban it for everyone else then, I'm 25 and I'm going to get one of these for myself. If you don't like zapper, don't buy it for your kids - you are the parent right? Perhaps if you were a good parent your child would know about the rights and wrongs.

why do dumb people also feel the need to go some crusade? we'll i'm glad they do, it helps me recognise the dumb ones from the people that actually have some form of independant thought.

I guess really the only way to tell if the wii zapper resembles a gun if for someone to try and rob a bank with it. If they can get out of there before their batteries run dry then perhaps its too dangerous

go go dumb people that have 10 babies ! idiocracy is really happening - global warming is nothing compared to this.

What a pathetic, scared society we live in. All anyone talks about is PROTECTING THE KIDS! Let's just turn our entire culture into a frightened, protective cocoon and attempt to keep any unpleasantness from the spawn of left-wing asses. Then our enemies can just waltz in and take over, since nobody will have learned how to defend themselves or our nation.

By the way, aggressiveness is an evolutionary trait that ensures survival. Let's not vitiate our natural tendencies solely to prevent the demon spawn of the BREEDERS from encountering any unpleasantness.

Sorry for posting on something from mid November but felt I had to after reading Synner's comment that

'brits prefer the nanny state'

Don't imagine for one minute the majority do, or that we can decide how much we are nannied - anymore than you can in the US. There was no public vote to ban hand guns here, the advice of experts was ignored and as always the government did what it wanted - hoping to ride the media frenzy to get a few extra votes. A few years back the US government banned certain high capacity weapons, was there anything you could do about it that would make a difference? Did the constitution prevent it? No. Its only because the NRA ponies up lots of cash that guns are protected at all in the US. The very second the anti-gun lobby makes a better bid and its adios 2nd amendment.

Basically, in both the US and UK, the government can do what it likes and what can you do about it? Your sum input to democracy is to every few years vote for one candidate out of a list of a few people with largely similar backgrounds & views with the attitude of say whatever will get them in power. I guess you could 'vote from the rooftops' but the government has a heck of a lot more firepower and a populace willing to shrug and say 'its the law' if it gives them an easy life.

If a politician thinks they can get get the votes of paranoid parents who'd rather blame video games than accept that some parents/school environments are destructive then they'll get on their high horse. So what if they ruin the fun of millions of law-abiding harmless folk - as long as it doesn't stop them from whatever they like doing. There are plenty of nuts wanting their 15 minutes of fame by blaming X for Y and as long as it sells papers they'll get their spotlight.

So this brings us to the Wii Zapper which is clearly designed to be gunish enough to fill the niche but un-gunlike enough (more like a poor crossbow) to not raise too many hackles. Thanks God that Nyo and other companies still have the balls to make an add-on that unashamedly looks like an actual gun.