Are you serious, I mean really, re-read what you just wrote.
Children look up to and follow in the footsteps of their elders/parents.
Is it any wonder that since parents/elders stopped hitting their kids violence has increased.
I'm paraphrasing, but discipline hasn't worsened, violent crime generally has though. You're argueing two COMPLETELY different things combining them and making a stupid statement.
Firstly people have "played" with real guns for centuries, even as kids, without them turning into bad people. AS the saying goes, guns don't kill people, people do. A gun is just a tool, kids have been playing with fake guns for as long as anyone can remember, before that it was arrows, and other weapons, thats life, people play.
Either way, great story, Cole's a moron, they should fire him over something like that, ridiculous, completely and utterly innappropriate behaviour in the workplace, both being reckless with a high powered air gun, and taking one into work in the first place. But if you fire him, you end up losing millions in his value, in buying a replacement, etc, etc. A football club just loses way to much by firing someone like that.