There were two incidents involving BB guns in Van Buren Township recently.
Just after midnight on Feb 4 a 53-year-old VBT resident pointed a pistol BB handgun at a resident then punched him in the face, said Police Lt. Ernie Thornsbury. The man was charged only with assault & battery, Lt. Thornsbury said. The incident occurred at 12692 Hannan Road.
The other incident at 9205 Parkwood on the afternoon of Feb. 6 involved a 13-year-old boy shooting a 12-year-old boy with a BB gun.
The BB was lodged between the boy’s nose and upper lip, Lt. Thornsbury said. The incident was a delayed report and filed after the victim’s mother took her son for medical care. The case is in the hands of the Wayne County Juvenile Prosecutor’s office.
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BB and pellet guns are available right off the shelf at
Walmart, Meijer and KMart. The big thing that middle schoolers are doing now is “gun wars,” where they shoot deliberately at each other. It is only a matter of time before someone is blinded, seriously hurt, or even killed. While these aren’t as dangerous as “real” guns, if one is hit in in a vulnerable spot (the eye, the temple) one could easily be killed. Time for local stores to get these guns off the shelves and behind locked doors. Kids should not be able to buy or steal these guns right off the shelf. And also time for more education. Kids need to know this isn’t a game. Talk to your kids.
Instead of removing EVERYTHING questionable from local stores, why don’t the parents start checking their kid’s bedrooms, their closets and drawers, their friends, where they are, etc. That’s how my parents raised their five kids – seemed to work just fine.
I agree, however, last year on my daughter’s bus, a fourth grade girl randomly shot a bb gun around the bus. Fortunately, no one was hurt. My friend’s son is at a local charter school, and he was shot in the arm by a kid with an allegedly safe plastic pellet gun, and had to go to the ER to have it removed. I check my kids’ stuff all the time, but I can’t protect them from other kids whose parents don’t. I am pro second amendment, but I think it is reasonable to ask that students under 16 not be allowed to purchase bb or pellet guns. You can certainly trust your own parenting, but our experience in the world should tell you that as much as you want to trust other people, and as much as you want them to be good parents, you can’t really believe that is going to happen.