Another kid killed with an airgun

[Country Squire]

A second fatal shooting with an airgun in the Raliegh, NC area.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9186324/

[Bentong]

Only proves that airguns are not toys and therefore not to be left for kids to tinker or handle.

[gamo2hammerli]

$#^%, potential airgunners dropping like flies.  Another very tragic story.

[bwana]

This is very tragic. It doesn't mention how or why two kids under the age of 8 were playing with a loaded pellet gun in the backyard. I can't believe this has happened in the same community, again. It makes me very angry and sad. My prayers for the family, especially the children involved.

[Mark 611]

Yes these things are horrible and I can't imagin that they weren't supervised by adults at those ages!

[compressedair]

Yes tragic...and good fodder for more restrictions. The adult that allowed this to happen needs to prosecuted.

[RedFeather]

This is very tragic and I am sure it will have consequences for air gunners in that area/state.  The gun in question looks like a B3 or some other cheapie.  Those are the worst since adults buy them cheap and consider them toys.  All air guns should come with two pellets and a one foot square of quarter-inch plywood and these instructions:

1) Set up plywood in front of a safe background.

2) Cock and load gun.

3) Place muzzle one foot from plywood.

4) Pull trigger.

5) Cock and load gun.

6) Place muzzle onto your butt.

7) Pull trigger.

I seriously doubt anyone will get past number 4.  Actually, this is not really a joke.  Many people, including PB shooters, have no idea of the power an adult air rifle, even the "slow" ones, contain.  My first "serious" air gun was a Shadow 1000.  I accidentally let one fly while bringing the scope on target and the shot went a foot high, hitting a framing 2X4 and embedding deeply.  Put these guns into a whole new perspective.  Our bodies are not nearly as dense as a 2X4 or 1/4" sheet of plywood.  Pellet guns are very much like a .22lr in one respect - wounds aren't given the seriousness they deserve, causing complications arising from delayed treatment.  The industry needs to step it up when explaining this, especially to first time buyers.

[oldpink]

No question about it, RF, and Raleigh can just about count on someone bringing out the anti-airgun legislation within weeks, if not days.
On a slight tangent, this is why so many of those old episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show" make me cringe, because of the atrocious gun handling from both Don Knotts and Jim Nabors.

[aack73]

Hope the good Lord will over see all involved.

On another note unfortunately these type of accidents happen with firearms as well. That being said you could probably have gun safety tattooed to everyones forehead when they purchase a gun of any kind and it will still happen. My wife works in labor and delivery at the hospital and you would appalled at the stories I hear daily of incompetent people having children on drugs and dss does nothing about it. Nobody else to take care of them. If I hit the lottery I would take all of them.

[compressedair]

Cynicism is a disease that we all succumb to if we live long enough.
From the book of Mike.

[Country Squire]

The airgun in the second shooting looks to be some kind of domestic pnuematic. I live in the area so I'll be paying pretty close attention to these stories as they develop.

This is very tragic and I am sure it will have consequences for air gunners in that area/state.  The gun in question looks like a B3 or some other cheapie.  Those are the worst since adults buy them cheap and consider them toys.  All air guns should come with two pellets and a one foot square of quarter-inch plywood and these instructions:

1) Set up plywood in front of a safe background.

2) Cock and load gun.

3) Place muzzle one foot from plywood.

4) Pull trigger.

5) Cock and load gun.

6) Place muzzle onto your butt.

7) Pull trigger.

I seriously doubt anyone will get past number 4.  Actually, this is not really a joke.  Many people, including PB shooters, have no idea of the power an adult air rifle, even the "slow" ones, contain.  My first "serious" air gun was a Shadow 1000.  I accidentally let one fly while bringing the scope on target and the shot went a foot high, hitting a framing 2X4 and embedding deeply.  Put these guns into a whole new perspective.  Our bodies are not nearly as dense as a 2X4 or 1/4" sheet of plywood.  Pellet guns are very much like a .22lr in one respect - wounds aren't given the seriousness they deserve, causing complications arising from delayed treatment.  The industry needs to step it up when explaining this, especially to first time buyers.

[shadow]

The minute anyone pic's up an airgun every action made thereafter should be with safety first and foremost. This is tragic and it saddens me that some still think of airguns as harmless toys. I stress the safety factor even more when you hunt with airguns, safety first please. Ed

[Onebaddj]

This is another horrible incident. I couldnt imagine leaving my son outside alone with any pellet rifle. Thats insane and his parents need to feel it not the rest of us that are going to reap the rewards of his parents ignorance through stiffer gun laws. Idiots. 

[pindog2000]

There we go lol people think airguns are toys but infact high powered airguns are not too far from a .22lr and should be treated as such,I for a fact wouldn't want a 14.3 grainer in the butt from a per say rws 350 lol I seen what that beast can do to a garage door on 2 shots not a pretty site.parents need to pay close attention to what there kids do .

[Country Squire]

The rifle involved in the second shooting does not look like anything other than the garden variety domestic pneumatic so this isn't even a question of a high powered airgun. Just incredibly poor adult supervision combined with incredibly bad luck. I suspect somebody pumped the thing a gazillion times and left it loaded by the back door so they could get a shot at something and the kids got a hold of it.

 

There we go lol people think airguns are toys but infact high powered airguns are not too far from a .22lr and should be treated as such,I for a fact wouldn't want a 14.3 grainer in the butt from a per say rws 350 lol I seen what that beast can do to a garage door on 2 shots not a pretty site.parents need to pay close attention to what there kids do .

[Cajun Ruger]

Guys this also stems I believe from the BB-gun wars back in the day. We would dress in heavy clothes, get some goggles and play war. It was all in good fun, stung like a bee on exposed skin and ya learned the value of good cover.
Todays airguns are far and above the power levels we had in the early 70's and will kill, not just injure.
My prayers go out to the families in this time of saddness.

Lets all be safe and spread the word that these guns are not a "toy".

[jonnnyboy]

Cajun Ruger, you've got a point.  When I was a kid back in the late 60's and 70's many of my friends did exactly what you said with their bb guns.  Unfortunately or maybe more fortunately for me, my dad would have whupped me within one inch of my very life if I even thought to point a bb gun at someone.  My dad was "old school" when it came to guns.  His first rule of guns was "You absolutely never point a gun at anything you don't intend to immediately shoot!"  His second rule was, "Every dang gun is loaded boy, dadgummit!  I don't care what you think!" 

When my boys were small they were never allowed to have toy guns because guns ARE NOT TOYS!  -My dad's third rule!  To this day, I cannot for the life of me remember any instance when one of my boys or myself for that matter, have ever pointed any kind of gun at another person. 

The sad thing about stories like these is the ongoing heartache that will never be extinguished.  I feel for all involved both innocent and guilty.  Unfortunately, we have almost succeeded in raising a generation who were never taught the simple rules so many of us received years ago concerning guns.  I fear that the primary weapons training for today's generation has been the X-box and other game consoles.  There is no start-over button in the real game of life for these children.

Please forgive my soapbox.  Thanks for letting me vent.

joe

[DMikeM]

This is both tragic and stupid. The gun they show in the video is a Daisy Powerline 35 (https://www.pyramydair.com/product/daisy-powerline-model-35-air-rifle?m=2108) easy enough to see in the video closeup.
The parents here need to take responsibility as to how stupid this was. Yes I feel bad for the family but I am more angry than sad. Senseless loss of life due to ignorance and stupidity.
Yes I played BB gun wars with my Cousin and friends. We did until the day my friend had to have a BB removed from the end of his member. Yep I felt bad but not as bad as he did. But we never did it again

[oldpink]

My younger brother used to have a Daisy 880, which at the time was one of the two most powerful airguns a kid of modest means could afford.
The other was the Crosman 2100, which I had.
One time, my brother and his best friend went somewhere with a third kid, all three of them with air rifles, but my brother's was by far the most powerful.
At some point - I don't know how - the third kid got hold of my bro's Daisy and, hiding behind the trees in the woods they were in, started shooting at my brother and his friend.
They were both hit several times, one of the BBs hitting my brother in the ankle and embedding deeply.
Eventually, they caught up to the kid and (don't ask me why) my brother stopped his friend from beating the kid to within an inch of his life.
That incident was somewhere around 20-25 years ago.
Only last year, during ankle surgery, the doctors finally removed that old, badly corroded Crosman Copperhead BB, because it was causing problems with their MRI machine.
BB guns are not toys, no question about it.