I WAS a Jesse James-type Wild West gunslinger when I was a small boy. Not with real guns, I hasten to add. Our plastic pistols shot dried peas.

Those were the days when a boy had to know his way around a pea gun or find himself up Deadman's Creek without a paddle. If you got hit on the cheek you knew it for the ammo stung like billy-o.

By contrast, I know a couple of parents who banned all toy guns and swords from their home when their son was growing up. They were gentle people who did not want to encourage aggressive behaviour.

Today, many years after dangerous toys like my pea gun have been justifiably banned, the feud between the anti-toy gun posse who argue that play weapons symbolise aggression and those who think that outlawing them goes against nature is still a touchy subject.

This week's crossfire was triggered by new government guidance telling nursery staff to resist their instinct to stop toddlers playing with toy weapons in their games. Some teachers strongly disagree.

Who is right and who wrong is a moot point but with gun crime and stabbings on the increase among young adults in big cities it can't do any harm to air the issue again. The catalogue of young victims seems to grow each day.

Oh and in case you are wondering how the lad I knew who was not allowed play with guns and swords turned out, well, he grew up to be a sensible, balanced young adult who can stand up for himself if ever he needs to.

And me? The pea gun-toting little lad who modelled himself on the tough American outlaw Jesse James?

I grew up, they say, to be a bit of a Jesse.