Free Republic

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...

First, it was cow gas that was wrecking the environment. Then gas-powered lawnmowers. Now, it’s fireworks we’re supposed to worry about. Fireworks, it was reported this week, are helping ruin both the Earth and our health. Where most of us looked up at the sky last night and saw red, white and blue, some people, it seems, saw only the first. Fireworks, some scientists are warning, are toxic, and you know what’s next. All those “ooohhhhhhhs” and “aaahhhhhhhhhhs” will soon be “booooos” and “baaaaaaaaahs.” Except that people, many people, have had enough of “Enough.”“No matter what you do, something is...

At just 2.16-inches, the SwissMiniGun is the world’s smallest functional revolver, complete with ammunition — shoots tiny 0.35-inch long bullets. This miniature Swiss-made revolver and its ammunition are painstakingly crafted using watchmaking technology. Looks like the little shooter could do some damage, propelling that tiny slug at 426.5 f/sec. out of the muzzle. _____ [Product information follows]

April 12, 2006 -- A California man was blinded in one eye at a Brooklyn hotel after he got into a confrontation with two transvestites who passed him a bogus $100 bill, cops said yesterday. The attack on Michael Hartwig, 64, was followed by the heroics of a 14-year-old good Samaritan, who saw the cross-dressing duo flee and helped cops nab them, sources said. Hartwig, who lives in Rio Vista, was in the Best Western on Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge at 8:45 p.m. Monday when Dwyer Lopez, 30, and Eileen Rivera, 43, walked into the lobby.

day dream toy? Modern-day BB gun is no such thing Rebecca Thoman Published December 12, 2003 A boy's Christmas wish list that includes BB or pellet guns is a parent's worst nightmare. One look at contemporary pellet guns, named and modeled after their grown-up counterparts, the Uzi semiautomatic or the Magnum .44, should convince any parent that these "toys" are not what they used to be. Modern BB guns are nothing like the wooden-stock rifles of 1938, the kind yearned for by Ralphie in the holiday classic, "A Christmas Story." Eighty percent of BB guns on the market today attain...

The horrors that can be attributed to fire and explosive accidents cannot be overstated; but, depending upon your perspective, walking across the street can be a dangerous endeavor as well.....

A boy visiting San Angelo was shot in the eye with a BB gun in July 2001, and his mother is going to the courts for relief. According to court records, a young boy and his friend were playing with their BB guns in a living room. One of the boys pulled the trigger, documents state, but he didn't aim at his friend. The BB ricocheted and lodged into the other boys' left eye, where the fated BB remains. The mother of the injured boy filed a civil suit this week in district court against the gun manufacturer and the...