Posted on 09/10/2009 8:28:29 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Sep 9, 2009 10:40 pm US/Central
Air Rifles And BB Guns: Toys Or Weapons? SEND A TIP TO THE 2 INVESTIGATORS Reporting Dave Savini CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Just a few hours ago a Naperville high school student was arrested for shooting a BB gun at students from Chrone middle school. Fortunately no one was hurt. Not the same can be said for one Glen Ellyn woman who had a BB pellet pulled out of her heart. That's why there is a growing call to have BB guns and air rifles regulated like handguns. CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini takes a look at whether these are toys or weapons.
They are powerful and can cause fatal injuries.
A pellet was removed from Heather Van Horne's heart.
"I was hooked up to life support," Van Horne said. "This my scar."
She was just a teenager when she was shot by an air rifle at a New Year's Eve party in St. Charles. Van Horne is proof that a pellet gun or BB gun is dangerous.
"It almost killed me," she said.
Van Horne wants pellet guns and BB guns treated the same as other lethal weapons.
"These are deadly weapons. I don't care how you want to look at it. These guns kill," said Dr. Michael Tuchek.
Dr. Tuchek is the surgeon who saved Van Horne's life at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.
Dr. Tuchek grew up on a farm using guns, and isn't opposed to people owning air rifles or BB guns. He just wants them regulated the same as other lethal weapons, with background checks and firearm cards.
This CO2-powered hand gun fires pellets nearly 400 feet per second. This rifle with a scope: 1,200 feet per second.
"They can kill somebody just like a 38-caliber or Saturday night special," Dr Tuchek said.
Dr. Tuchek says anything that shoots a projectile can cause serious injury, like an 8-year-old who suffered damage when he was struck by a paintball.
The Valentino brothers have been struck by pellets fired from the increasingly popular Airsoft guns. Vince Valentino, 10, and his 9-year-old brother Jim have sustained welts playing in their Lemont neighborhood.
They say the battles happen in the woods, and they've seen kids get hit in the face. Vince says he was shot in the face with an automatic.
"First time I got shot with that, I was crying for like 10 minutes," Jim said.
We found even Airsoft guns can fire pellets 300 to 700 feet per second.
"It's made 'em bleed," said Vito Valentino, Jim and Vince's father.
When he found out about it, their father says he put an end to their involvement in the neighborhood battles, especially after he learned kids had found a way to increase the velocity of their Airsoft guns.
"They have the CO2 cartridges for the Airsoft guns which makes them five times more powerful than a gun like this," Vito said.
So for now the Valentino boys are only allowed to shoot at paper targets.
So what would Vito's warning be to any other parent out there whose kids want these guns?
"If they don't have them, don't get them for them," Vito said.
And when it comes to the availability of the more powerful BB guns, Heather Van Horne says more regulation can't come too soon.
"I also wonder what it's going to take for people to want to take it more seriously," Van Horne said. "I am not the only one and I won't be the last person."
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission as many as 20,000 injuries have been recorded in a year. And there are typically four deaths a year from high-powered air guns.
We have received numerous tips about kids hurt by the Airsoft guns as well but we could find no central database about the number injuries associated with them.
Both
Both.
Both Cleveland and Akron have ordinances preventing people from possessing bb guns or airguns in public places. Akron’s statute actually prohibits the sale of bb guns and air guns.
You may know that Ohio Revised Code Section 9.68(A) was passed in early 2007 restricting local communities from imposing restrictions on firearm and ammo ownership. The question of whether that section applies to bb guns and airguns is unresolved. Cleveland considers them firearms, the state does not.
Columbus has no specific ordinance. But, under Columbus Ordinance 2323.11(B)(2), a jury is allowed to consider “the representations” of the holder of a weapon in determining if they possess a firearm. So, if you wave around an air gun and threaten that it is a handgun or rifle you can be held liable as if it was a rifle or handgun. This is the same as the Ohio Revised Code 2923.11.
Some of them can be deadly. For that matter so can just about anything.
They should not be regulated and for that matter, neither should guns.
YEP...A car is deadly....a fist is deadly....a knife is deadly...a rock is deadly....a club is deadly....a bat is deadly....brass knuckles are deadly.....and the list goes on.
I bought my sister-in-laws son (11) a pellet gun.
My SIL is of the don’t let kids play with toy guns variety and says “zionist” like it’s a bad word.
Did it just to irk her.
Kid’s a good shot. My spineless SIL’s husband (not sure what that is called -— and in-law of an in-law) got his testicals back for a little while and they go shoot in the back yard often.
Next up, “Wrist Rocket” sling shots.
I like the Gamo air rifles - good for varmints in the back yard.
And we all know how effective those regulations have been for Chicago, New York, etc. So sure, add to the list! Make life even more difficult for law-abiding citizens. Criminals remain unperturbed.
The fact that Dr. Tuchek used the term “Saturday Night Special” indicates to me that he is a fraud and liar; he never owned guns as a kid nor lived on a farm, by my estimation.
I used to plink in my backyard with a .22 against a sand berm I built myself. Mom hated it, but I never got in trouble from the neighbors. There were never complaints nor visits by the local LEOs.
A BB/pellet rifle can certainly HURT and certainly kill if used improperly, but they are the perfect “first gun” for a pre-teen who’s grown up in a responsible, gun respecting home.
These idiots in Chicago just don’t get it.
“You could put somebody’s eye out!”
Ha Ha Old sarge
The jOker is deadly; too bad we don't have a background check requirement for Community Organizers applying for President.
Toy or Weapon? -- You Decide
So is my MIL ‘s cooking
Sorta depends on the FPS potential, doesn’t it? The BB is constant, the speed at which it’s launched determines its ability to do harm. If a weapon can fire a BB at a speed sufficient to penetrate skin, it probably shouldn’t be on the toy isle at Walmart. But if you are a parent that doesn’t know enough about BB guns to instruct your children on safe use and supervise, you probably shouldn’t have children.
I’m guessing there will be no demonization of them though.
Liberal sympathizers are unsympathetic to the argument from the Bush administration that a post-9/11 world requires expanded executive authority to suspend habeas corpus and detain individuals indefinitely, or to eavesdrop on Americans' phone conversations, or to torture terrorist suspects. In those instances the Bush administration says the need to protect Americans from wanton violence justifies infringing on American liberties. But liberals are quite adamant that saving lives is not a sufficient rationale for abandoning principles.
Yet when the subject turns to the right of American citizens to own guns, many liberals suddenly find that the goal of saving lives justifies just that.
Toys Or Weapons? The same thing could be said about tits.
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