John,
Your point is well made, of course. My concern is that someone at the range, or a BG, just might not grant the little toyish piece the total respect it deserves. Hopefully we would not make an error in having untrained kids around the house or guns not secured if there are. My option has been to have my children trained in shooting and safety from the age of 2, 3, and 4 respectively -- so that THEY are the ones who most often correct the adults who have lapses in safety.
As my daughter said, this Christmas, when someone asked if the Makarov I received as a gift had been checked for cartridges... "Yes, I was watching him and Daddy always checks first." So does she and she has since she started shooting at age 17 months. Of course then I had to operate the firearm for her and her responsibility was to ask me to check it and for her to do the looking after I did. She is 9 now and enjoys telling the other students in her class that she has a pistol and a rifle as well as a sword and several knives. So far she has not had a safety infraction, I can't say that for ANY of the other folks who work or shop in the gun shop.
The toyish look of the pistol just seemed too likely to me to be taken too lightly.
Good point though as I said John.