Image by mani_xD from Pixabay

 

 December 2nd, 2019

BB guns and non lethal projectile firearms

Ove a 26 year period Dr. Jones and colleagues looked at the injuries related to non powder and non lethal firearms in over 360,000 patient emergency visits.

"From 1990 to 2016, the number and rate of nonpowder firearm injuries decreased by 47.8% and 54.5%, respectively.

Most injuries occurred among 6- to 12-year-olds (47.4%) and 13- to 17-year-olds (47.0%). Boys accounted for 87.1% of injured children, the most common diagnosis was foreign body (46.3%), and 7.1% of children were admitted. BB guns accounted for 80.8% of injuries, followed by pellet guns (15.5%), paintball guns (3.0%), and airsoft guns (0.6%). The rate of eye injuries increased by 30.3% during the study period. Eye injuries accounted for 14.8% of all injuries and the most common diagnoses were corneal abrasion (35.1%), hyphema (12.5%), globe rupture (10.4%), and foreign body (8.6%)." (Jones et. al. 2019)

This is a pretty simple analysis of risk. Boys without eye protection are our target audience for change. Therefore, if your children use these forms of firearms, insist that they wear high quality eye protection.

Dr. M

Jones Pediatrics Article