” Modern air rifles have come a long way from that Red Ryder BB gun you played with eons ago.”
Lewis and Clark carried one in .51.
That sort of thing never became "mainstream". Very low powered BB guns (eg "Red Ryder") and careless play with them was very mainstream. We've gone from air rifles being serious weapons (Lewis and Clark) to air guns being toys (the smoothbore RR) to air rifles being serious weapons again (see Cabela's or even Wal*Mart).