almost every kids toy has these type of warnings. It is easy to get desensitized to themI agree and think it's a mistake to put on so many warnings that tired parents, or stupid parents, or parents who can't read English well, or whoever, become so overwhelmed by the warning information that they just ignore it. But it's also a mistake to say 'well people don't pay attention to warnings so we'd better just take the product off the market.' That's just an absurd over-reaction.
'You can have fun with this' =/= 'Safe for kids to use unsupervised.' Or more bluntly 'fun' =/= 'carefree.' Lots of enjoyable things are also dangerous. At some point liability accrues to the person who willingly engages in the dangerous activity; manufacturers should clearly inform consumers about the existence of risk but should not be expected to actively insulate them from it under every circumstance.
And for the record, I'm not saying these should be outlawed or anything. Just that the comparison to guns and fireworks or using those as a justification for a lack of regulation is silly due to the marketing and perceived danger of all three products.
I don't think so. Guns and fireworks are often marketed irresponsibly from what I've seen, and while responsibility is a matter of opinion it's easy to find advertising materials suggesting that guns and fireworks can be employed for fun, so I hope you'd agree that that's a fact. It's definitely a fact that while in pursuit of said fun, people do stupid shit with guns and fireworks on a regular basis - every year a few people kill them,selves on the 4th of July doing some idiotic firework stunt, and the toll from gun accidents is higher again.
So look, while I agree that magnets are not as obviously dangerous as guns or fireworks in that they don't involve explosions, they're still dangerous and anyone over the age of about 12 who doesn't appreciate this is rather ignorant. When the magnets are sold with a large warning saying 'this is dangerous because you could die' and people choose to ignore than, then they're being willfully ignorant.
I don't understand the compulsion to make excuses for willful ignorance. Most households have several dangerous chemicals in a cupboard under the kitchen sink and it's well understood that you shouldn't let kids drink drain cleaner etc. etc. Why are parents expected to exercise reasonable judgement where firearms, incendiaries, chemicals and so on are concerned but the same level of warning isn't considered sufficient for some other products? It's a self-defeating position.