That accepted wisdom is not wisdom at all, it's sheep behaviour inspired by a plague of political correctness propaganda.

I played with toy guns throughout my whole childhood, and so did every other boy and a fair few of the girls back then. It did not make us any more violent than other people or any more likely to shoot someone. I have no inclination to shoot other people. Most of the other people I grew up with have no inclination to shoot other people. Most children are perfectly aware that a play fantasy is not real life. Children (with very few exceptions) are not stupid.

Meanwhile, the society that gets all bent out of shape over toy plastic guns is marketing "shooter" video games to its youngsters which are far more impersonal and far more chilling in their psychological implications than the innocent adventure fantasies we engaged in when we ran around outside in the bushes and vacant lots, pretending to be Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, Geronimo, or someone out of past history.