Iraqi bill would ban toy guns

With the culture of violence growing, Iraq’s parliamentary committee on children and women is drafting a bill that would ban toy gun and firework imports, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Lawmakers hope the bill will, according to the article, “curb increasingly aggressive behavior among children who have grown up amid real war.” The legislation, if enacted, would “provide either a fine of 3 million Iraqi dinars (about $2,500) or at least three years in prison for importing toy guns and fireworks,” the AP adds.

The article also notes that according to a 2007 World Health Organization survey of 600 children ages 3 to 10 in Baghdad, “47 percent of them had been exposed to a major traumatic event over the preceding two years. Of the latter group, 14 percent showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Since the beginning of the war, the article says that “Hundreds, possibly thousands [of Iraqi children], have been killed or wounded in the violence.”

It is unclear if locally made toy guns and fireworks will be permitted under the bill, which is scheduled to be presented to parliament on Wednesday.

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