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I'd mention it because it would bother me a lot

So my son was doing gun play about 2 years ago, he was about 4 and he and I had a conversation about it. He understood and since then, he hasn't done it in front of me.

I thought about talking to the teacher or director to see if they had any suggestions or if they could redirect when they saw it, though, but didn't follow through.

It would bother me, but I also want to offer another perspective. One of my younger brothers was very into playing guns as a toddler/preschooler. He was a spirited, energetic, slightly wild kid. Our parents are strongly anti gun, did not buy him toy guns, and discouraged playing guns. However, he still pretended that everything was a "shooter". Legos, sticks, his hand. As he got older, it mellowed out a bit, but he still played war with his friends. He's now a very well adjusted, non gun supporting, 26 year old finance professional.

I think there's a level of it that is impossible to stop (as PP have said, kids will just use their hand.) But I do think it's reasonable to approach the teacher and say DD picked up this behavior and you'd like them to curb it if they see her doing it. That may also mean they stop other kids when they see it, but they surely won't see it every time.

I think it's still worth a conversation, but it's also probably a good time to start talking about it with your daughter. Honestly, it's probably more than just this one little boy and you don't know that he and your daughter didn't pick it up from another child. There's a strict "no weapons" policy at our daycare, but I know that they have to remind kids quite often.

I think that guns exist, and that children see them and have complicated feelings about them, and that they need the space to work those feelings out through play. If this kid was scaring your child, that would be one thing, but if they're just playing? Guns exist, and we haven't been able to get rid of them, and we can't keep that knowledge from kids forever. They have to be allowed to express their feelings and curiosity through play.

I would focus my efforts on speaking to my daughter. I would tell her that different mommies and daddies have different rules, but that in your family, you don't pretend to play with guns. I don't think pretending guns don't exist is the best way to teach our kids gun safety, because we won't always be able to control every situation they are in. Explain to her that guns are very very dangerous, and that's why we don't even pretend to play with them. I have this conversation with my daughter, along with other safety conversations, on a regular basis. The other day she told me "Mommy, if a stranger tries to talk to me and give me a gun I say 'no thank you' and find an adult I know". She seemed to be mixing up a couple lessons there, but I'll take it as progress!

Our son, despite all my best efforts to quash the behavior AND that daycare does not allow gun play, still turns literally every thing he picks up into a gun. So rather than try to completely stop the behavior, we've had conversations about guns being very dangerous, and that they can hurt people, and that they should never be used to shoot at people. He's allowed to pretend to shoot bears (I have zero issues with hunting and he's seen Fox and the Hound where they go hunting bears). But we never shoot people. If I catch him shooting people, I step in immediately and remind him of our rules.

I tend to agree with @sarac: Guns are, unfortunately, a very large reality in our society. I am not going to deny that they exist. Instead, I'd rather have frank conversations with him about them, their danger, and how they can be used safely. Do I like that he engages in gun play all the time? No, frankly, I hate it. But I think to deny their existence does a disservice. So we address responsible gun use instead.

@sarac: yep. My Dad always said you can keep guns away from a kid but they'll still pick up a stick and run round shooting each other!

OP - as long as he wasn't scaring your child then I'd just leave it.

I truly have to agree with @sarac / @littlebug and what many others have said on this. I have a son who is not at the age of acting out gun play but imagine one day will probably do it at some point, despite my best effort of preventing it. My parents were very anti gun and regardless we still found a way to play "Star Wars" shooting with our fingers when we were kids. I think the blunt conversations we have with our children and the constant awareness about how dangerous it is can really help. I am glad that the teacher was supportive and understanding.

@PawPrints: I'm glad they're taking it seriously! I agree that she's too young for that conversation. My LO is 3.5 and has no idea what a gun is. She's never pretended to shoot anything and I actually showed her pictures of a gun last night and asked if she knew what it was and she didn't. We also don't own guns. I guess I'll have the discussion with her sometime in the near future...why can't Daniel Tiger cover this stuff??

@PawPrints: Thank you!