Too many guns in the town
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
December 13, 2004
AS A letter writer points out in our column today, pellet guns can be dangerous to people, property and animals and the authorities should pay heed to the concerns raised.
To find out more about the kind of dangers the so-called toy poses, we did a check on the Internet yesterday and came up with the following item on the `Eyewitness News’ website which provides some food for thought:
“If your child wants a bb gun for Christmas, your first reaction may be, "He'll shoot his eye out!" Well, your instincts may not be far off the mark.
Just like little Ralphy in the movie A Christmas Story, many children are hoping to wake up this Christmas morning and find a bb gun underneath the Christmas tree.
While parents may think air-guns like bb guns, pellet guns and paintball guns are toys, Sean Walker with the North Las Vegas Police Department says they can be very dangerous and even deadly.
"Thousands of children are injured with pellet guns and bb guns every year."
According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, on average three children are killed with air-guns every year, and more than 20,000 are injured.
"To me it's like giving your child a chainsaw and saying here's a toy." Bob Irwin owns The Gun Shop.
He says bb guns are more powerful nowadays than they were when we were kids.
"The more dangerous ones are the ones you manually pump up because most of them can be compressed more than the manufacturers recommend and you can launch bb's at 1000 feet per minute and better."
But if you still want to buy your child an air-gun or bb gun for Christmas, Sean Walker offers this advice. "If people are going to buy bb guns they need to make sure they are supervising."
Because, while it may seem funny in the movies, the real dangers of bb guns are no laughing matter.
To reduce the number of children injured from bb guns, the North Las Vegas Police Department offered gift certificates for people turning in bb guns as part of their gun collect effort over the weekend.”
There are far too many guns in this country and children should not be encouraged to further the gun culture with toys that can do more harm than good.
While illegal guns are in the underground and in the black market, the authorities can keep a closer check on what’s available as toys in open marketplaces.
Pellet guns are dangerous in the wrong hands and should not be so easily available.
The Consumers Affairs Division of the Trade, Tourism and Industry Ministry should also mount an education campaign about the inherent dangers in some items passed off as toys for kids for Christmas.