Air guns aren't toys!

[RandyRay41]

Always remember air guns aren't toys and have a very high probability of killing any human with the correct shot placement. Very unfortunate this 12 yr old girl died from a 6 yr old, Shooting her with a pellet gun.

http://www.ktva.com/home/top-stories/Girl-12-killed-by-pellet-gunshot--229466001.html?m=y&smobile=y

 

[Busyhands94]

That is very unfortunate, it is always a tragedy when a young one dies.

Airguns can be very lethal if misused. I have found that my Crossman Quest springer will put a pellet through a half inch of plywood, that's not something I'd want unsupervised children playing with.

 

[WALKERs210]

Air guns was the cause of young man loosing his eye sight in left eye. This happened about 60 yrs ago and I read the OP post I remembered it like it was yesterday. When I was around 5yrs old I was following and pestering my big brother and his friend to include me in their bird hunting and wanted to shoot his air gun. What I remember is my brother handed me his rifle, and I didn't aim or turn any way just pulled the trigger. His friend was struck in the left eye blinding him which was an ironic stoke of luck being that his father and two older brothers were all blinded in the left eye. In one split second I destroyed a young man's life and with today's air rifles being as powerful as they are it could be much worse. Now I preach safety and have no problem letting anyone know if they do something with any type gun that could lead to injury.

 

[Mike1234567]

When I was about 12 years old I darned near lost my left eye. A friend and I were shooting my Daisy pump BB gun. He set it down just a bit too hard and it fire a BB just one inch above dead-center of my eye. The muzzle was only a couple feet away. The skin there is extremely thin and it ricocheted off my brow bone... hurt like heck for a few seconds and drew blood. The little scar is still there. Oh... and I never told mom or dad.

Don't forget about folks who are hurt and killed with "blanks" too.

So, yeah, be darned careful... and supervise those kids.

 

[WardenWolf]

There's a huge difference between something like a Red Ryder, that you can let a responsible 12 year old target practice in his backyard with (where safe and legal to do so) and a pump pellet gun that can have velocities exceeding a .22LR round. Neither are toys, but one is significantly more dangerous than the other. Shoot a wood fence with a Red Ryder and it will bounce off. Shoot that same fence with a fully-pumped Daisy Powerline and it might go through and hit something or someone you didn't even know was there.

 

[Derek Zeanah]

There's a huge difference between something like a Red Ryder, that you can let a responsible 12 year old target practice in his backyard with (where safe and legal to do so) and a pump pellet gun that can have velocities exceeding a .22LR round. Neither are toys, but one is significantly more dangerous than other. Shoot a wood fence with a Red Ryder and it will bounce off. Shoot that same fence with a Daisy Powerline and it might go through and hit something or someone you didn't even know was there.

Just make sure you have your kids wear eye pro with BB guns. My wife has dealt with more than one kid "shooting his eye out" with BBs...

 

[WardenWolf]

I hear you there. I learned my lesson with that. I set up a target stand in my back yard for shooting my Red Ryder. I built it out of brick, and threw a bath mat over it to prevent ricochets. A high miss had the slight possibility of hitting the wrought-iron fence instead of continuing out into the desert. I was shooting well over 50 feet from the target so I thought I'd be safe from return-to-sender. Well, a freak shot hit one of the fence spokes, then a few seconds later I heard it hit the wrought-iron gate immediately BEHIND me. After that I wore eye protection. To be fair, in my case, it probably wouldn't have done any real damage. That BB had to have around the same velocity you could casually throw one at.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Nope they are not toys but tools to learn.proper gun safety and shooting skills.