Basic BB Gun Safety Tips

Why BB Gun Safety Is So Important
According to the "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (December 15, 1995), approximately 30,000 people end up in hospital emergency rooms every year because of injuries caused by BB guns. Most of the injuries are flesh wounds. Was that just a fluke year in regards to a high number of injuries? Fast forward to the year 2004: the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated there were more than 15,000 injuries caused by BB guns. Now, take a look at the current year: in 2007, the CDC and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission together estimate there are approximately 22,000 injuries that require hospital emergency room treatment yearly. Read this informative article and learn some basic BB gun safety tips that can help avoid injuries, or worse!

All BB Gun Injuries Aren't Flesh Wounds
Flesh wounds are bad enough. But some BB guns are so powerful that their round pellets can actually penetrate the skin. In children up to fourteen years of age, they don't have a lot of muscle mass that can deflect BBs. The result is that the BBs can penetrate through their skin and travel into their chests or abdomens. And, maybe even damage vital organs. That's what happened to an eight-year-old boy who was accidentally shot in the chest by his thirteen-year-old friend. The pellet entered his chest, pierced his heart and killed him. (cbsnews.com, 2004) This is why everyone who shoots a BB gun needs to know and follow some basic BB gun safety tips.

Deaths and Other BB Gun-Related Injuries
According to the CDC, there are about four BB gun-related deaths a year. Four too many. John Mahoney of New Hope, Pennsylvania would probably agree with that statement. If he could. You see, Tucker got a BB gun for his sixteenth birthday in 1999. A friend and him were firing the gun just days after. Thinking the gun had run out of pellets, Mahoney's friend pointed and fired it at him. An undetected BB that was in the gun hit Tucker in the head. The close-range shot injured Tucker's brain and left him being practically a vegetable.

Knowing and using BB gun safety tips can help prevent accidents like these from happening.