When ads like these were commonplace and when schools were not union shops filled with habitual problem cases.Can’t remember how many BB-gun wars I took part in.
Not one eye lost!
I wonder how much of an urban legend ‘you’ll shoot your eye out’ was?
I had several BB guns when I was a kid, good God I loved them! It’s inconceivable that today anyone with half a brain would look at them as anything other than a gift from God but leftists would vilify anything good and wholesome about America.
When ads like these were commonplace and when schools were not union shops filled with habitual problem cases.The great thing about the Red Ryder is their indestructibility. I bought one for my 14 year old grandson when he was 7. My 6 year old grandson now uses it and his 3 year old brother will take it over in a couple it years. A new 6 month old grandson will eventually get it. One $25 BB gun that will last decades.
Got my Daisy for Christmas in 1958.
We went from six shooters (cap guns) (Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy)...to 22s.
Don’t shoot like they used to. Bought my kid one. Can’t hit the barn.
When my older by 2 years brother and I were very young, we had matching Roy Rogers and Dale Evans pistol sets, with wrap around belt holsters. He graduated to a BB gun several years later. Never shot anyone’s eye out.
I’ve been hit several times with BBs and they never broke the skin, but did leave a red mark.
As for eyes, I almost lost one to a home made arrow released by another kid, and I almost shot out an eye of a kid with a cork gun. Remember those?
There was a giant black widow on the concrete wall in my Dad’s garage when I was seven.
Shot it with the BB gun.
BB hit it, then the concrete, bounced straight back and hit me on my tongue.
Black widows aren’t that tasty!
I have two brothers and two sisters. There were five of us, two boys and three girls. We all got BB guns before we were 12. At 12 we all got our first .22 rifles, well, except for my baby brother. His .22 got pushed out a year or two after he shot Mom in the butt with his BB gun. We were raised on a farm so no danger of shooting out the neighbor’s windows or anything. My other brother had his .22 taken away for a while after killing a bird for no good reason. It’s funny how the two boys got in trouble with theirs while none of the three girls did.
They were a great first “gun” for kids to teach gun safety before giving them the real thing. Nobody shot anybody’s eye out either. Mom had plenty of padding after five kids, all two years apart, to prevent any long term damage. I can’t say that about my baby brother. He didn’t sit for about a week. Mom was sitting before he was.
We all grew up with a respect for firearms. Dad was a stickler about that.
I was shot a thousand times by BBs. I also recall a 1/4” rubber ball shooting gun that really hurt. Darts were bad if they hit a bony place — they’d stick in good. Had a couple firecrackers go off against my skin.
None of that compared to high school football.
I learned to shoot on my Dad’s Buck Jones pump action. It was the many reason I was always glad to go to Grandma’s house, as I was not allowed to have one at my house because my Mom was convinced I would “put your eye out with that thing.”
I’ve got three rifles by the front door for different levels of threat. BB gun to scare off small animals. .22 cal pellet gun for a little bigger animals. .22 rifle for real threats. And then if the end of the world comes I’ll run to my arsenal for the fun stuff.
We had a rule of no head shots.
Slight inaccuracy. Indeed the Daisy BB gun was all the article says, but the BB gun was not the only “precursor” to .22 firearms for youth. There were also the “pump up” and “spring air” pellet air rifles, far more powerful than the simple BB device. The progression was usually BB-to-pellet-to-.22.