Massachusetts AG Tom Reilly: Sporting Goods Stores Illegally Selling BB Guns to Minors

Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly (who I worked for before attending law school) has threatened to sue a group of sporting goods stores, including the national chain The Sports Authority, Inc., for selling "look-alike" BB guns and air rifles to minors under the age of 18, which is illegal under Massachusetts law (Elizabeth Raferty "Attorney General Goes After Illegal BB Guns," Boston Globe, 5/1//2006). These guns resemble real guns and fire plastic or metal pellets that can cause serious injury. Reilly's office, along with that of Lowell Police Superintendent Ed Davis, conducted a sting operation and found that teenage boys could easily purchase these guns both on-line and in person, with no check of identification. The operation was sparked by concerns from local police and school superintendents about students bringing these guns to school, as well as by a rash of recent shootings, with several kids seriously injured by BB guns fired by other kids. Although marketed as sports toys for kids, BB guns and air rifles may be better characterized as dangerous weapons. Massachusetts law only imposes a $5,000 fine per BB gun or air rifle sold illegally--a drop in the bucket for a chain like The Sports Authority--but perhaps this negative publicity will hurt sales.

Interestingly, Reilly's general contention appears supported by empirical data. For instance, in November 2004, the journal Pediatrics published a study finding that BB guns annually injure as many as 21,000 Americans, many of them children. The study also found that while many, if not most, Americans regard BB guns as sporting goods or sporting toys, there is a disconnect between that belief and the remarkable danger they pose. Similarly, it also identified a correlation between the increasing popularity of paintball war games and an increase in serious eye injuries, even among those who use eye-protective devices.

So here's my question: Are "gun sports" for kids matters of public concern, or do they simply reflect kids being kids? Before you answer, just remember what Ralphie Parker was told when he wanted a BB gun for Christmas in A Christmas Story: "You'll shoot your eye out!" Of course, Ralphie couldn't buy the gun himself--he needed Santa to do that. And therein lies the real-world problem: kids on their own buying "toy guns" that aren't really toys because they can shoot and seriously hurt other people seems like a recipe for disaster. Granted, a $5,000 fine doesn't seem all that consequential, and I'm surprised the Massachusetts legislature has set the fine so low in this Post-Columbine era, but holding sporting good stores and other merchants of these "toy" guns liable sounds like a better policy than doing nothing.

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