TargetTalk

I ran across this today on the CNN web site.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/11/01/bb ... index.html

Wow, I was just going to post the link. Looks like it's started. I guess all the international style shooter who thought gun grabbers would never go for their target guns and air guns might have to reconsider their views.

Here's the text of the story on CNN.com:

Study: BB guns injure thousands of youths
Powerful nonpowder guns can cause internal injuries

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- A study has found that air rifles, paintball pistols and BB guns injure as many as 21,000 Americans each year, undermining the notion that such weapons are harmless in the hands of young people.

Nonpowder guns kill an average of four Americans yearly, and from 1990 to 2000, there were 39 such deaths -- 32 of children younger than 15, according to a report in November's issue of Pediatrics.

The report, published Monday, comes just two weeks after the BB gun death of an 8-year-old South Carolina boy accidentally killed by a 13-year-old friend. The pellet pierced the boy's heart, said Richland County Coroner Gary Watts.

"These are not the kinds of BB guns that I grew up with," Watts said. Today's BB guns "are extremely high-powered," and some can shoot with a velocity nearly matching a .22 caliber rifle, Watts said.

Nonpowder guns include powerful air rifles introduced in the 1970s and paintball pistols used in war games. They're sometimes described as fake guns and often given to children as gifts, but the report says they can cause internal injuries.

Nationally, an estimated 21,840 injuries related to nonpowder guns were treated in emergency departments in 2000 -- most in children aged 5 to 14, according to the report prepared by the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Injury, Violence and Prevention.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show there were 19,163 nonpowder gun injuries last year.

Most states have laws or regulations governing nonpowder guns. New York's is one of the strictest, prohibiting the purchase or unsupervised use by someone younger than 16 years, the Pediatrics report said.

While some models of air guns and BB guns are marketed specifically to youngsters, manufacturers and sellers also stress that they should be handled like legitimate firearms.

The gun involved in the South Carolina shooting was a present from the older boy's parents, who had hoped it would lift his spirits after his own brother's recent death in a car accident, Watts said.

"They're being given as toys without recognition that there may be a serious injury risk," said report author Dr. Danielle Laraque, a New York pediatrician.

From headline -

"undermining the notion that such weapons are harmless in the hands of young people"

It actually aligns quite nicely with what NRA instructors have been teaching all along - these things aren't toys! So, we can put the positive spin right back at the anti's that WE are at the forefront of firearms & nonpowder arms education, and can keep kids safer.

i hate stupid polls like this. we should find out how many little kids are harmed or choke on mc donalds toys every year. i bet there are more than 21000 kids that get hurt doing that. and wait...no crap people get hurt shooting paintball guns...we're shooting them at eachother...thats the whole point of the game in the first place.

ryan

I would love to know the breakdown on injuries caused to individuals that were shot at intentionally versus those that were shot accidently. Also, it would be great to know the numbers who were willing participants in the activity that resulted in the shooting versus those that were bystanders or were unwillingly targeted. Unfortunately, even if such data were available it probably would not be published by the "usually biased" mass media. Does anyone know if the full report or the raw data is available anywhere on-line?

Of course they're dangerous weapons.
Last week the police in Boston using paintball guns shot a girl to death with one.
Kids with the machine-gun versions are known to put the paintballs in the freezer so that they won't burst and jam their guns and so they can jack up the power for flatter shooting.
And they hurt like hell too.
Ya gotta bundle up if you play that game.

Walter Young wrote:Of course they're dangerous weapons.

Well, I would have said that they're not weapons, but that of course they're not toys - they're pretty much up there with power tools. So long as you don't abuse them, they're safe.

Last week the police in Boston using paintball guns shot a girl to death with one.

I'm still trying to figure out what they were doing shooting at someone's head - I mean, any blow to the head is potentially lethal!

I don't think it was a paintball, more like a rubber coated projectile. Without being there it's impossible to know, perhaps she was drunk and laying on the ground?

HELLLOOOO people

the point is you don't aim these things - ANY of these things - AT people unless you WANT to hurt them

and we've GOT TO get this message across to the knuckle dragging public

which seems pretty impossible since they don't like to hear anything they don't want to know

No it is not the old rubber bullets (like in the IRA days) it is just like a paint ball but it is filled with pepper spray. The guns they use are probably a little more powerful than paint ball guns. The other problem is that it is starting to get cold so that would also make the "non lethal" lethal projectile harder.

That is the problem with "non lethal" weapons, it makes them quicker to use them and excerise less care, and almost all non lethal weapons can kill.

The other key is " do not be involved in a riot or near a riot" if you are caught up in one duck and cover and hope to hell that your head doesn't get caved in by the rioters or the police.

Each year over 400 children die due to bicycle use. Most of the needless deaths are in the under 15 age group, prompting Pediatrician groups to call for regulation on bicycle use. Licensing users would be logical they claim, after all if it saves just one life it would be worth it. These are not toys and should not be treated as such claimed one prominate member. Bicycles are over 100 times more lethal than even air guns and we want those banned too, along with inline skates and skateboards. If we can't reason with parents to eliminate these dangerous items from their homes, then it is time to legislate them out of existance. After all we know better and have years of college training. First we would like for the goernment to fund a 2.5 billion dollar study, after which we can then ban these items from our society.

Boy oh Boy!!!

Everyone really needs to read up the history of air guns.

Napoleon had standing orders, that anyone, ANYONE caught from the opposing side with and air gun was to be executed as a sniper!!!

Air guns were the most expensive guns way back when and were the guns of choice for hunting by Kings. And yes, they hunted big game.

Lewis and Clark had an air gun with them on their journeys, This was so much easier to deal with that carrying powder. And YES they killed deer and other large game with it.

I have seen a 50 cal air guns that was used to hunt boar with. They will go right through the boars head. This is tough to do.

It has only been somewhat of a recent development that air guns have gone to .177 cal and of course to paint ball.

Air guns ARE NOT TOYS.

There are .22 cal air guns that shoot at 1200 fps. Lets see…. .45 cal = ~850 fps So you see. These of course are treated as real firearms. Anything over .20 (5mm) and or I believe the number is some were around 840 fps is treated as a legitimate gun in the eye of the ATF. You must have all the documents in order when buying like the 4473 forms etc.

We keep giving the anti gunners what they want. We hand it to them on a silver platter. Education is our biggest and best weapon against them. They are trying to use what we don’t know against us.

So please, in all manner of handling both the guns themselves and the people around you, threat them with respect and be educated on how to handle them.


Peter Dorn
Head Coach
AIAC (Arlington International Airgun Club Junior Division)

The point is, how can we get our point across to joe public without being dismissed out of hand as a gun toting, rabid minority?
It's one thing to rant and rave amongst ourselves, but if we get quoted like this (and it's very simple to cut and paste out of this or any other board) then all we end up with is a he-said-she-said roundabout that gets nothing achieved.
We have to communicate with reason and sanity against these people and relate just the facts.
A national network sent two undercover reporters to an airstrip eariler on this year to demonstrate just how easy it was to rent a chopper for terrorist purposes. Of course they were busted almost immediately, but did we hear that part on the news?
No, that's not news.