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THE MOMMY FILES: Should kids be allowed to play with BB guns?
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/29/9 | Amy Graff

Posted on 12/29/2009 3:55:35 PM PST by SmithL

BB guns and other nonpowder guns are often thought of as toys, but they injure as many as 21,000 Americans each year, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. On Christmas day, a Florida boy was among those who got injured this year.

It's a scene right out of Humorist Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story, only this story takes place in Palm Beach, Florida, so the cast of charters is a little different.

A boy gets a pellet gun for Christmas, and tries out his new toy by shooting his autistic cousin in the buttocks, according to the Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches news site. The boy's stepfather, Christopher Fred Cady, a registered sex offender, decides he needs to teach his stepson a lesson, so he grabs the gun and shoots the boy in the chest. Pow!

The boy ends up at grandma's house with a huge welt, and Cady ends up in jail with a child abuse charge, and he's being held without bail for failing to report a change in address or his name as a sex offender.

"Maybe Cady would have been better served to force the boy to watch the 24-hour marathon of A Christmas Story to show him what happens when you get a BB gun for Christmas. Everybody knows you'll shoot your eye out - or get popped in the chest," writes Todd Wright in NBC Miami's Weird News column.

This story brings up a good question: Should young kids -- say, under age 16 -- have BB guns?

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: banglist; bb; nannystate; youllputyoureyeout
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To: digger48

oops...perverted stepfathers


21 posted on 12/29/2009 4:07:59 PM PST by digger48
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To: SmithL

Thanks for posting the article.

From article:
Everybody knows you’ll shoot your eye out - or get popped in the chest,” writes Todd Wright in NBC Miami’s Weird News column.


Well, Todd, Santa knows what NOT to get you for Christmas.


22 posted on 12/29/2009 4:08:26 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: SmithL

My 12 year old son got his first .22 for Christmas. Bought a scope for it today, with his own money. Someday he might save your whiny, liberal, coward ass from harm, so DEAL with it! Oh yeah, he’s an NRA member too. Oh yeah, he believes in God. What a danger to us all!!!


23 posted on 12/29/2009 4:08:43 PM PST by Edgar3 (America is suffering from "Sorosis" of the Presidency)
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To: SmithL
BB-guns, pellet guns, and air rifles are all different. Dont start off with a BB-gun and conclude with an air rifle or pellet gun. Its like telling a story in which I was throwing rocks at a horse and my .50 cal Barrett killed a mouse.
24 posted on 12/29/2009 4:10:02 PM PST by DenCos
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To: SmithL

I spent many a joyful day with my pellet rifle. Best present I ever got. I never shot anyone’s eye out, though I do to this day feel some sorrow for how I treated the birds of western Pennsylvania.


25 posted on 12/29/2009 4:10:12 PM PST by MarineBrat (Better dead than red!)
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Comment #26 Removed by Moderator

To: Snurple
Of course not....they may shoot their eye out.

Especially if they attended the AL GORE SCHOOL of LONG-STICK-THINGY-manship.


27 posted on 12/29/2009 4:16:08 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: UCANSEE2

LMAO...at least he didnt have the mag in.


28 posted on 12/29/2009 4:17:29 PM PST by Snurple (VEGETARIAN, OLD INDIAN WORD FOR BAD HUNTER.)
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To: SmithL
Should young kids -- say, under age 16 -- have BB guns?

When I was growing up, the largest purchaser of advertising space in Boys' Life (Boy Scout magazine, target age probably 8 - 14) was Daisy Air Rifles. Somehow a substantial number of us made it.

ML/NJ

29 posted on 12/29/2009 4:17:38 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: SmithL

29 years ago next month, my then 7-year-old stepson was shot with a pellet gun that had BB’s in it and was pumped as high as it would go. Today, he is brain damaged and his “quality of life” is very limited. The part of his brain that was damaged is the part that controls his behavior and emotions and even though he is highly intelligent, he can’t live a normal life and be around people for any length of time before he “loses it.” It is very sad to see. The BB went in behind his left ear, all the way through the brain and lodged in his right temple.


30 posted on 12/29/2009 4:18:12 PM PST by bamagirl1944 (That's short for Alabama, not Obama)
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To: Morgana
”adult supervision”

Liberal Translation: Those strangers we send our children to every week day who babysit them for us. (some call it SKOOL).

31 posted on 12/29/2009 4:19:05 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: Morgana
Yes they should.....with one thing....”adult supervision”. Do any parents out there know what that is????

Well, some of the "adults" in the story probably aren't supposed to be around children without supervision..... the most dangerous thing to a child is mommy's new boyfriend.

32 posted on 12/29/2009 4:19:20 PM PST by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy Saints surrounded)
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To: SmithL

Kids and BB guns...good question. Let me go down in the basement and ask my 13 year old who is zeroing in his scope on his pellet rifle.


33 posted on 12/29/2009 4:20:08 PM PST by Right_Handed_Writer (Change the Change -- Vote Right in 2010™)
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To: Jeff Chandler
Dad bought me one of these for my sixth birthday. A single shot falling block Ithaca.

After a long line of guns I graduated to this.

Start small, dream big.

34 posted on 12/29/2009 4:20:08 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: USNBandit

It didn’t look like that in preview. RATS!


35 posted on 12/29/2009 4:21:19 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: SmithL

In a proper world, kids should be REQUIRED to at least have gun training, if not outright ownership. But part and parcel of such experience would be education and strict adherence to gun safety practices. Which obviously is a long way from the situation described here....but there’s no better way to instill proper respect for firearms and to nurture the kind of citizenry that will defend the 2nd Amendment and use it’s protection to defend themselves and their country.


36 posted on 12/29/2009 4:22:05 PM PST by bigbob
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To: ml/nj

In addition to BB-guns, air pistols, air rifles, .22’s, 12-gauge and 20-gauge shotguns, I had (and used) a bow and arrow.

Never harmed anyone (well, some rabbits, and a bunch of frogs)


37 posted on 12/29/2009 4:22:37 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: knarf

Not only Yes, but HELL yes!


38 posted on 12/29/2009 4:23:07 PM PST by Be_Politically_Erect (All Along The Watchtower.)
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To: USNBandit

OMG! Thats an ithica .22 single shot. I got one for my 12th birthbay


39 posted on 12/29/2009 4:23:59 PM PST by Snurple (VEGETARIAN, OLD INDIAN WORD FOR BAD HUNTER.)
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To: SmithL
THE MOMMY FILES: Should kids be allowed to play with BB guns?

Allowed? It should be mandatory!

40 posted on 12/29/2009 4:25:36 PM PST by upsdriver
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