Now, Does This Really Look Like a BB Gun?

There was an article a few years ago about a Missoula, Montana student's decision to bring a BB pistol he found to school which resulted in a one-year suspension from every public school in the United States. Seem a bit harsh? Only until you see what BB guns look like these days. Sure, this kid should have known better and apparently did. I'm sure he'll learn a lot from the experience and one day look back on the incident with a bit of a haunting embarrassment.


Yet, if the manufacturers had made the gun orange, would the authorities have been as concerned. Obviously not. The issue to the school principal was that a made-to-look-real BB gun can initiate police action that puts other students at risk. If this student had brandished an orange gun, however, others would know that it wasn't real.


Several years ago I bought my son a BB gun that looked like the real thing and was powered by gas cartridges. Hey, every good American boy should have the experience of a BB gun, you know, just like going to a baseball game or chomping down on granny's home baked pumpkin pie on a cold Thanksgiving afternoon.

However, how is a police officer with a wife and family, and a partner with the same, suppose to react when called into such a scenario? Assume its a toy? Would you? Just as a gun is always assumed to be loaded, a made-to-look-real toy gun is going to be assumed real. Any other assumption places the assumer in great danger.


The moral of this story: Don't buy your kid or allow him to buy a BB, pellet, or toy gun that looks real. I was in a store the other day and my son saw some soft pellet air guns that looked very real, and he asked me; "Dad, can I buy one of these." I replied, "No way son, they look real." "Yeah, but Dad, they only shoot soft pellets and all the kids have them and the police have learned to tell the difference." (It always amazes me how much intense research our kids do on these subjects. I'm sure my son has interviewed all the police officers in our town and accurately assessed all of the most recent training programs)


I have learned to stand my ground and trust my common sense, even though my kids have often made me wonder if I have any connection to the present cultural realities around me at all. The answer was kind but firm, "No way son, I love you too much to put you in a dangerous situation." I suggested that we buy an orange one to which he replied, "Oh Dad, but they make those for kids." A pause, and then, "Oh yeah, that's the point, huh Dad".


Who knows? Maybe I saved my son's life that day, or saved an officer from a life of alcoholism who felt he had to pull the trigger. Too dramatic? Yeah, death has a funny way of doing that to me.


Oh yeah, about that BB gun that looked real I bought for my son a couple of years ago? It somehow just kinda got lost.


For Your Safety,


Dr. Martin Wooten