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A new study conducted by the Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix might make it a little harder for kiddies to get their hands on an “official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred-shot range-model air rifle, with a compass, and a stock, and this thing which tells time,” made famous in the classic “A Christmas Story.”
“Oh fuuudge!”
The study shows that “shooting your eye out” might be the least of your worries, and that injuries from BB and pellet guns have become more serious than people expect.
“Parents who allowed their children to have these guns appeared to misperceive the danger posed by these weapons,” the report says. “These are preventable injuries that usually affect unsupervised male children who inflict the injury on themselves or a friend.”
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The study looked at 29 cases where children were hurt while playing with a BB gun, and found that 17 sustained serious injury; nine required surgery, six suffered significant morbidity, and two small children died as a result of their injuries.
Brain, eye, head, and neck injuries were found to be the most common. But, hey, with the Scut Farcuses of the world terrorizing schoolyards everywhere, these are risks some kids are willing to take.
