One thing looking back at my boyhood was I had and enjoyed playing games that featured cap guns and back then there was less issues around what boys "ought" to playing and around having toy guns on you in the street.
We did play "Cowboys and Indians" splitting into two groups, fighting, trying to capture each other and mock kill them with our cap guns copying the rituals we learned from "Westerns" we saw on tv.
For us it was just a game, we didn't look deeply into historical context or any racial motives where our imaginations ran riot in gardens, local woods or countryside.
I enjoyed playing it even the being captured and tied up cos we knew what was acceptable and when you were being hurtful or otherwise mean and the grown ups we knew also could tell when play was fine to left alone and where they might step in if things were out of hand and we needed chastising.
It was better to let us work with our boyish streaks than to try to make us be more like girls.
I was never a softie for all my disabilities.
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