an icepick through the keyhole

Oh, don't get me wrong, I kinda despise Barbie. But she's a toy. She's the prop, not the story. So's a toy gun.

And if kids want to play out violent stories -- and they pretty much always do -- not having toy guns won't stop them. My local nephews don't own any toy guns, or toy weapons of any kind. So they build them out of tinkertoys.

And of course you have to teach kids to be careful with real guns, or anything that can shoot like a real gun. You also have to teach kids to be careful with real babies. That's no reason not to buy them baby dolls.