Here's a good reason to get your kid that Red Ryder BB Gun!

Brothers of Briar

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Too bad the young lad was a rifleman, instead of an archer! :santa:
 
Kudos to the kid defending his mother,,, mom should have done a background check before renting to the assailant (having been arrested 10 times)


The pellet gun incident, reported as unintentional, is a total tragedy but I'm baffled by the boys death from one hit in the upper torso.
 
And the perp was no less than Paul Newman, what we've got here is failure to attack....

BB guns were part of my youth, growing up in rural Western MD where everyone hunts. Daisy guns mostly, but than some more powerful Crossman pumps as we got older (and pellets..) Sadly, a BB gun was the demise of my model airplanes my dad helped build. I'd love to have one of those back again...

We started shooting targets in my basement, which progressed to BB gun battles shooting, well, er, us. We'd dress in heavy winter gear and go at it, no head shots (we were stupid, but apparently had a limit..).

My little brother has a wicked scar on his right hand. I had a Daisy 45 gun that thankfully wasn't real powerful. I shot him in the hand, when he forgot the "gloves" rule. I was 10, he was 9. He rightfully threatened to go upstairs and tell our mom and get the BB removed from his hand. To avoid a whipping, we convinced him to let us remove the BB from the meaty part of his hand. Lacking proper tools and any medical training, I was able to get the BB out with a sharp penknife and a steel-tipped dart (no plastic darts for us safety fans). A few band-aids and once the bleeding stopped, hey, he was fine. We wisely choice to end this game, but thinking about it makes me cringe now...

Than, as we moved outside with the more powerful pellet guns, the railroad tracks behind the house had plenty of glass wire insulator targets. My neighbor took a shot a passing train one day and that proved to be a bad move. Railroad detectives took a dim view of anyone shooting at a train. A mean looking detective came to each of our houses a few days later and confiscated all of our bb guns. No questions asked, my mom just handed over the guns, and it wasn't even me who shot the train!

We moved to 22's after that, but no more foolishness, somehow....
 
mark":21th2bct said:
The pellet gun incident, reported as unintentional, is a total tragedy but I'm baffled by the boys death from one hit in the upper torso.
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If you pump 'em up enough, they're really powerful weapons. One of my buddies had an old Crossman Siver Streak and at 20 pumps it could go all the way through a 2x4. They aren't toys at all!
 
My story is that when I was 13 I shot a friend just beneath the eye who was some 30 yards away with a BB gun that had consistently performed so poorly that I assumed the BB would never go that far.

My point is that you can firearm safety train kids all you want, but kids are kids without the powers of reasoning and common sense of adults; they should never be allowed to use these minor, or major, weapons until they grow-up, unless they are under the direct supervision of an adult.
 
Yep. I shot myself when I was a kid with a BB gun. Shot at a sign some 30 feet away and the BB ricocheted and came right back at me and hit me in the mouth. No damage, but a big lesson learned. I'm not at all against kids having BB guns, pellet guns, or even single shot 22 rifles or single shot .410 shotguns. i ran around with them when I was a kid. But, I'd not allow it unsupervised like I was back then. Maybe I'm just old and overprotective of children (yes on both accounts) but I'd not allow it.
 
When I was eight, my grandfather and I went out to the bayou (yes, I grew up in LA) to shoot some bottles with a CO2 powered BB gun shaped like a pistol. Granted, CO2 is a lot more powerful than a pump action BB gun. That being said...

That BB gun was gravity loaded; a bunch of BBs would get put into the handle (see how well I know guns?) then tipped while a lever on the bottom of the barrel was pushed to allow a BB to fall into position. On this particular occasion, I'd tried twice in a row to load, then fired, getting only CO2. The third time I got a little impatient and loaded with some fervor then raised the weapon and shot at the bottles floating in the water. Just CO2 again!

When I went to reload a fourth time, I noticed that my left hand was covered in blood. Since I was so young and the gun had some heft to it, I'd been holding it with both hands. On the third try, I'd covered the barrel with my left index finger and shot a BB right into it.

I won't bore you with the rest of that story, but in the end I've got a nice scar on both sides of my index finger to remind me of the incident.

My grandfather had walked me through the use of the weapon multiple times and I felt comfortable using it. Too comfortable obviously.

The point of this story is: even with adult supervision, BB guns are dangerous.
 
Simple Man":5lpcbcqq said:
I personally would rather live in a Country that has too many freedoms than one that restricts any freedoms. As long as my actions don't hurt someone else or their property I don't want the government to have any say in my life.
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I completely agree. The main problem that I think we keep coming up against is this: what happens when one person's freedom causes someone else to have less of theirs? I think that it's the analysis of this question that gets people up in arms, so to speak.

I personally am not interested in disarming America. However, I would like it to be much harder to purchase a gun (required training programs and the like) and illegal for a minor under the age of 16 to wield one. Hey, if they can drive a car, they can wield a gun.

Admittedly, I don't know what the laws are now, but it seems that it is way too easy for criminals and minors to obtain weapons. That being said, I have a feeling that making it harder would only inconvenience honest folks. Criminals may always be able to get a weapon no matter what we do.

All things aside, it would be terrifying to me if the only Americans allowed to wield fire arms were the military. Yikes!
 
Simple Man":1r84rmwn said:
It really surprises me that people (especially in the U.S.) have such a dim view of firearms anymore. It seems where ever I look on the internet there are a lot of folks that always are countering stories of home defense with even greater stories of home tragedy. I'm not speaking of any of you that posted on this thread in particular, I understand kids were part of the equation and you all have a right to your opinion. I'm just talking about the view of firearms in general. I fear we may be becoming like a lot of European Countries after all. Our overall view of things seems to be changing rather rapidly.

I guess my views are mostly outdated by today's standards. I'm one of the few remaining dinosaurs. :lol: The generation after mine are the ones that are going to have to deal with so many of the new ways... I personally would rather live in a Country that has too many freedoms than one that restricts any freedoms. As long as my actions don't hurt someone else or their property I don't want the government to have any say in my life.
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Ditto!!! :santa:
 
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