Rant:Nerf Wars and Violence- Can we ever avoid the association?

Nope. No war influences here:)

Today we got news that the Australian National University has banned the use of Nerf blasters on most of the campus due to their belief that any form of gun is inherently a symbol of violence and hence associated with school shootings and war. It's funny how many people are actually slightly troubled at the sight of students walking around carrying the likes of Stampedes and Longshots slung over their shoulders and while I myself don't think it's a big deal, I guess out of context it can seem a tad confronting. Especially when those who are holding said blasters often look very counter culture (and hence stereotyped as looking like social misfit campus shooters) and from the wielder's point of view, it's hard not to hold a "gun" looking toy and not role play a little.

I don't know about you, but I would much prefer to see someone openly holding a brightly coloured Nerf blaster in public than to NOT see a concealed real fire arm. Still.. alarmist public outcry IS what it is, and mostly based around ignorance and fear of the unknown. I don't think anyone in the HVZ club would have done anything violent or anti social- so such a ban on campus has more to do with public perception rather than ACTUAL acts themselves.  Soo.. how do we go about educating the general public that this is really NOT a violent hobby?


Guns and violence tend to go hand in hand in the media; it's probably the reason why Nerf have spent so much time pushing fans to call them "blasters" in a bid to detach themselves from killing and inflicting any form of pain. It doesn't really help though, because whether Nerf want to admit it or not, they're producing toy guns and the fans, young and old go crazy for this sorta thing. Both performance and aesthetic mods just bring our blasters that one step closer to the real thing, and it really doesn't help when you've got over zealous fans (especially on the Nerf Facebook page) who make constant comparisons to REAL firearms and war situations (and then there's the odd psycho kid who talks about wanting to inflict actual PAIN) due to their love of first person shooters.

If I had a dollar for everytime someone said "but what if someone modified the darts with pins"

Nerf is a kids toy, and so it's 'normal' for a kid to want to play with them. When older people want them, it takes Nerf out of the mainstream, and into the counter culture segment. These 'guns' lie on the desks of the IT geeks at work, they're the staple for the steampunk movement, and SHOCK HORROR they're used in large scale "wars" where they simulate "killing". Right? Isn't that what happens? People who do this must be sociopaths! Right? Riiiight? Now throw in a "will someone think of the children" and we're all labelled crazy people for refusing to wear khaki drill trousers and enjoying Rob Thomas cd's like REAL grown ups.

The backlash against Nerf wars comes from the general public's lack of understanding that it's OK to like toys when you're a grown up. You can still pay your taxes and raise your kids and like toys. It doesn't make you a freak. Well.. it does to them. And to be brutally honest, you can't half blame them. We are, grown ups, playing soldier, holding pretend guns and hence pretending to kill people (even if they are pretending to be the undead) and this notion scares people. Because if we're pretending.. doesn't that mean deep down we have that inclination? Right?:P

Late night after hours access office lazer tag was the best..

At the end of the day though, we can get mad all we want about being misunderstood and persecuted, but so much of this is about educating the masses. Bringing Nerf blasters into a non-IT environment that was predominantly female was unheard of at my workplace, but after showing them that it wasn't just nerdy wannabe pretend violence but actually more like a game of tag had everyone, including the older conservative ladies sold (never seen so many middle aged ladies including my branch head packing Nite Finders on their desks!). People who belong to counter cultures often wish to reject the masses in the same way they feel rejected by those said masses in the first place, but this doesn't really help our cause. Sure, making it more socially understood and acceptable might feel like we're "selling out" but come on, we're talking about a popular toy from HASBRO sold at TOYS R US.. there's nothing secretive about it!

All ages waterfight. pic courtesy of shanghaisherry.com

The other thing I noticed, is have you ever noticed how water fights are a LOT more socially acceptable.. and noone ever cries violence or killing. Maybe because wetting someone is relatively harmless and less complicated than foam;  once you get into shooting projectiles,  it sends everyone into some sort of crazy stuper that "you can take an eye out with one of those" :) Why I think this is, is the water fight, by design is about wetting your opponents any which way how (empty milk cartons and cups in highschool for instance). The water blaster is merely JUST another way of delivering the water TO your opponent's head, so it becomes less about the blaster, and more about the drenching. Perhaps if Nerf wars were MORE about the tagging and less about the blasters themselves, the public would stress less?

And finally, here's the thing though folks- the more kids ask for Nerf to replicate real weapons, the more likely 1) Nerf won't do it, and 2) people will just think you're a dumb fat kid with wannabe war fantasies 3) the media will have a field day with it, scaremonger the general public, and Nerf will have to dumb down their blasters so much that they'll look like something out of a Nickelodeon cartoon and boast ranges of 3 feet. Wanting to cause pain is generally not considered to be good social behaviour by most people's standards, and wanting to hurt someone is right up there with torturing puppy dogs and being below average IQ as far as the anti social scale is concerned. We want the public to embrace this awesome hobby and not see it as something bad.. and in turn we have to not given them any ammunition TO find anything bad:)

It's the whole ethos of Urban Taggers; dumb, out of the box blaster fun for the masses. Our fans wonder why we don't get into modding and wars? It's because we'd like to believe we're the guys smoothing things over to the masses so you guys can:)