Okay, if I had put “Rubber band Gun” in the subject line, most left-leaning moms like me would have been aghast, but it is in fact just that: a good old-fashioned rubber band gun. I know this will elicit lots of “I can’t believe you encourage guns” comments, but if you think of it more like a rubber band launcher and less like a gun, you too will see what good clean fun this this. All you need is a dowel, as pictured here, a bag of rubber bands of various sizes and widths, a little duct or blue tape and a clothespin.
Cut dowel to desired size (as shown here, and any number of lengths/proportions will work, you get the basic mechanism). Cut a notch using a mini hand saw into the end of the dowel. Attach clothespin to the middle using duct tape (as shown here). Secure rubber from the notch at the end of the dowel to the clamp of the clothespin. When you squeeze the clothespin, the rubber band will release. As long as you tell your kids not to shoot at people, but at target, I think it’s all right. It’s amazing how far the rubber band flies! My kids used the rubber bands to decorate their their instruments.