From: Matthew Gaylor
http://opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=95001535

Wall Street Journal Opinion
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!
A federal agency takes aim at BB guns.
Friday, November 30, 2001 12:01 a.m.
“You’ll shoot your eye out!”

As anyone who has ever watched “A Christmas Story” knows, that’s the rebuke
little Ralphie Parker meets at every turn when he asks for what every
red-blooded American boy wants under his Christmas tree: a genuine Red
Ryder Carbine Action Two-Hundred Shot Lightning Loader Range Model Air
Rifle. Even the department-store Santa tells him that.

In the movie, of course, Ralphie eventually gets his gun. But in real life
stories don’t always have such happy endings. Especially if the Grinches at
the Consumer Product Safety Commission have their way.

Recently the commission filed a lawsuit against Daisy Manufacturing Co.
(the maker of the Red Ryder) that seeks to force Daisy to recall two of its
popular BB-gun models, for no other reason than that they are . . . BB guns.

Even Santa must be scratching his head. Daisy has been selling one of the
models for nearly 30 years and the other since 1984; in total 7.5 million
would be up for recall. Daisy, moreover, has already passed six CPSC
reviews since 1981. Strangest yet, the “defect” the commission now claims
to have found in the Daisy rifles is actually common to the entire air-gun
industry.

Ah yes, but this isn’t about safety; it’s about politics. Former Commission
Chairman Ann Brown needed one last hurrah before she resigned this month,
and what better target than air-guns? They’ve been on the “naughty” list of
zero-tolerance types for years–gender-neutral, antiviolence folks don’t
want little boys playing with toy soldiers, much less real hardware. And a
victory over Daisy (which, along with other BB-gun makers, has a spotless
record of self-regulation) would mean control over the whole market, 100
million BB guns strong. Even if the lawsuit fails, the commission might be
able to scare retailers into dropping the products for fear of liability.

BB guns, as everyone who has used one knows, are operated by dumping BBs
into a gravity-feed magazine. Ms. Brown and her fellow Scrooges are
claiming that BBs might get stuck in the Daisy, causing kids to think their
gun was unloaded and thus to handle it unsafely.

That’s a pretty big “might.” Commissioner Mary Sheila Gall, the one voice
of dissent in the suit, revealed that the commission hadn’t even been able
to replicate the “defect” in any of its (many) attempts. She noted that the
gravity-feed mechanism has been around for 100 years and is common to most
BB guns. More to the point, the “might” also ignores the most important
safety device of all: parents who make sure that their kids know never to
point a gun at another person, whether they think it is loaded or not. No
amount of commission recalls or lawsuits will ever replace good
old-fashioned common sense.

And so we have a suggestion for Santa. This Christmas Eve, as he delivers
Daisy BB guns to expectant children all across America, he might bring
along an extra load of coal. And he might just drop it down a certain
Washington chimney–observing all the proper safety procedures, of course.

FAIR USE!