NEWARK — Mayor Cory Booker wants even the youngest residents of his city to lay down their arms — their toy arms, that is. So today, kids lined up and traded up.

Eric Maxwell, 7, handed over his water gun for a shiny remote control car.

Troy Walker, 10, swapped a plastic pistol for a hockey stick and puck.

And sisters Janay, 5, and Jameerah Harris, 7, traded cold, hard plastic for Barbie dolls.

In a city riddled with gun violence, Newark officials and the anti-violence group Stop Shootin’ Music hosted the city’s first toy gun exchange today.

Booker said the nearby gunfire was from a man accidentally shooting and injuring himself, and that the fact it took place near a children’s toy gun exchange illustrated just how important such initiatives had become to curbing the cycle of violence.

Music played at Mildred Helms Park as kids and parents gathered. Booker and several city council members praised Stop Shootin’ Music’s crusade.

"They’re getting books in their hands, positive toys," Booker said.

"There are healthy toys, learning toys," said Al-Tarik Onque, founder of Stop Shootin’ Music, referring to the basketballs, tea sets, books and action figures. "Don’t let guns be the first option."

"If you give kids guns, guess what they’re going to do? They’re going to shoot it," said Peter Langman, a psychologist in Allentown, Pa., and author of "Why Kids Kill: Inside the Mind of School Shooters."

"However, linking that to behavior when they’re 15 or 25 is very difficult," he said.

Booker acknowledged there is no evidence linking childhood gun play to violent behavior later. "I don’t think it’s going to solve the problem in a direct way ... it’s a rallying cry."

Theodore Petti, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said children are more at risk of acting violently if they are bullied, abused, neglected, in gang or use drugs or alcohol.

Kids use toy guns and weapons, he said, to role play and develop social and conflict resolution skills.

"But sticks, pieces of Lego, anything can be considered a gun and is used as a gun," Petti said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Previous Coverage

• Newark group to hold buy-back of toy guns

• Bloody weekend in Newark continues with 2 more shooting deaths

• Newark groups rally against the expectation that gun violence is 'normal'