BB guns are definitely dangerous as are Airsoft guns, "rubber" bullets and other "less than lethal" weapons. Robb is spot on, of course. Guns are the true American religion, as witness the legal contortions used to justify shooting whomever makes one feel uncomfortable. I went through my youthful gun phase but fortunately outgrew it.
As for the toy BB machine gun, a machine gun with the firing power of a BB rifle would indeed be a formidable weapon. However I'm pretty sure the $1.98 device wasn't like that. I managed to find one online photo of what appeared to be a BB machine gun. The antique dealer selling it said, "It looks like it was supposed to shoot something." It was a cheap tin replica of a WWI Maxim gun, with a narrow box on the back, a wide cylindrical barrel, and a tripod stand. The whole thing was maybe 8 inches long. There was a flimsy crank on one side of the box and an opening in the top, a hopper into which you poured the BBs. Judging by the photos the crank was attached to a spring-loaded catapult. Turning the crank would "flick" out a BB. A new BB dropped into place and was flicked in its turn. With that mechanism I doubt the BBs came out very fast. They probably flew a foot or two and crashed. Odd, though, that with all the ads for the thing over the years, and all the model variations, no one seems to have offered one online. Tons of other novelty toys (X-Ray Specs and Voice Thrower, for instance) are on ebay and its brothers all the time.
Well at that point in time every country on earth was more than a little gun crazy, and most still are to some extent.
Some have less criminal activity with guns, knives, machettes, bombs and acid seem to be the chosen substitutes,, but every decade or so they go ape and invade their neighbors, killing tens of millions before getting curb stomped by allies of their prospective victims.
Ethnic violence is also a major problem, which comes with the territory of a "melting pot".
I've noticed the tendency of some Europeans to decry the "Imperialism" of the USA, while conveniently white washing their own nation's centuries of real live imperialism and oppression of entire ethnic groups and even multi ethnic populations.
I collect airguns in a small way and I've found that while the earliest children's BB airguns were American inventions much more powerful airguns suitable for military use were European inventions and efficient small game capable pellet rifles were often designed and manufactured In Great Britain.
The first military styled full auto Airguns I can remember being marketed in the USA, the Drozod, were Russian designed and manufactured.
The pre WW2 Japanese rather than going to airguns for recreational shooting preferred scaled down military type bolt action rifles firing very lightweight finned projectiles at low velocities. Civilians, especially school children were encouraged to practice often and most schools had drill rifles.
Most of Europe were very happy to accept American firearms to protect themselves from foreign invaders .
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Topic: Re: Frisky Animals on Parade 1 (Read 227 times)
