Fourteen-year-old Tyler Hodge (not shown) of Reidsville, NC. Tyler and friends were playing in the woods at a family gathering, celebrating a birthday late Sunday afternoon. At some point, a friend of Hodge’s ran from the woods and flagged down a passing car, telling the driver that his friend had “accidentally been shot with a BB gun.” Tyler was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS at 6:45 PM on Sunday. . .
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 30 years,” Sherrif’s Deputy Dean Venable said. “I’ve see [sic] injuries due to BB guns and most of the time it is just that. I’ve even had reports of people who have lost an eye because of a BB gun, but never have I heard of anyone losing their life because of one. And that’s where we find ourselves.”
Rick Kanoy, a local firearms instructor and salesman stated the obvious: BB guns are deadly weapons.
If a BB would hit your skin, it would actually penetrate an inch of your skin. That’s a long ways. And if it were to hit your eye, it would go right through your eye. If it hit you in the temple, it would go all the way through and also, if it hit you in the jugular vein, you would bleed to death in a matter of minutes.
That said, BB guns are fun. They’ve brought the joys of marksmanship to millions of young people, who’ve gone on to become safe and responsible gun owners. The trick: get BB gun shooters to follow the four rules of gun safety. Specifically, muzzle control. If you see a youngster violating the rule, treat it as seriously as you would if he’d been “playing” with a real gun. Whether the shooter is your child, or someone else’s.
Firearms safety is everyone’s responsibility. No matter what the weapon.