Posted on 02/13/2002 9:40:11 AM PST by real saxophonist
Johnson: Danger lurks beyond the barrel of BB guns
If state legislators are truly interested in protecting us from deadly and other dangerous weapons, they should walk Nate's aisle. They'd shut it down, throw him out of work.
Why stop just at BB and pellet guns? Legislators today are scheduled to debate whether to keep BB guns in Colorado classified as dangerous weapons. It is doubtful you even knew they were considered as such.
Sen. Mark Million, a Burlington Republican, wants to get them off the list that includes firearms with SB 116, which says a BB gun isn't a deadly weapon unless it is used to cause death or injury. He says it'll just clarify existing law.
His opposition is the Colorado District Attorneys Council and the Colorado Parent Teachers Association, which insist the guns can kill. And removing them from the deadly weapons list, they add, only sends a wrong message to kids and weakens safety at schools.
This is why everyone needs to walk Nate's aisle. He works the sporting goods counter at a north metro discount retail store.
He sells not only BB guns, but a treasure trove of other really nasty, and potentially deadly, gizmos. One costs $16.88 and is clearly marketed to young kids. Yet it'll kill a man a lot quicker and more painfully than a BB gun.
Like me, Nate didn't know BB guns were on the dangerous weapons list. "If I had a kid," he says, "I'd buy him a Red Ryder a lot quicker than I would one of these."
He pulls down the $16.88 "youth archery set." It is a heavy plastic crossbow-looking thing which comes with four long, copper-coated arrows. The box says it can travel 200 yards at 200 mph.
"If a kid was of a mind to shoot me, I'd rather he do it with a BB gun than this," Nate says.
His aisle is stacked full of BB guns. The Red Ryder, the one I had as a kid, now lists for $24.99. Some go as cheap as 16 bucks. The most expensive costs about $96.
The DAs and the PTA, though, say those are not at all similar to the rifle I had as a child. They now can shoot with enough force, they say, to penetrate skin and muscle.
What also should be on the list is the slingshot Nate sells. It straps to a kid's wrist and can fire heavy metal balls the size of candy jawbreakers as fast and as far as the youth archery set shoots arrows.
"They should put this on, too," says Nate. He's holding up an aluminum baseball bat. "How many kids a year do you figure go to the hospital because of this thing?"
He leads me over to his knife display. "Do you know that most of these a kid can buy at 16?" He hauls out a blowgun and the tiny darts that come with them. "Ouch," is all he says.
The DAs and the PTA are correct in saying BB guns are dangerous weapons. What I don't fully buy is their argument that BB guns are used in crimes as if they are real guns.
Yes, it happens. And people, too, hold up stores, banks and people all across this country with little more than guts and an index finger poking out their jacket pocket.
Maybe it just makes us feel better to debate such laws.
And maybe, too, they are needed. Many kids in the U.S. are rushed to the hospital every year for pellet-gun related injuries. This is a failing of parents.
BB guns aren't toys. My 12-year-old son isn't allowed to use his Red Ryder if I'm not there. I've locked it up for months when he, saying it was unloaded and calling it a joke, pointed it at his little sister.
See, I could buy him a cart-full of things from Nate's aisle. Yet if I fail to teach him safe use of them, or to supervise him when he's doing it, no law can protect him or me. Or others.
I might as well toss him the car keys, too, tell him not to stay out too late.
Bill Johnson's column appears Saturday, Wednesday and Friday. johnsonw@rockymountainnews.com or (303) 892-2763.
Dang Registered, you took the story right out of my mouth.
I was gonna say the same thing except it was hot Georgia summers.
Kids today are soooooo stupid, unsupervised, self centered and undisciplined today that maybe this needs to be banned too. After all it's an attempt to curb the ungodly little heathens.
Oh, they're "smart" when it comes to sex, foul language, disrespect, manipulation, and self centeredness. Hardly traits I admire or would want. Then again, I'm not politically correct and actually quite happy and at peace in my life. I also report to a higher Authority and none of this politically correct crap is acceptable to Him.
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