The Minneapolis Star published this news brief and letter to the editor about legislation that would have outlawed the sale and use of BB guns in Minnesota. Gerald Heinzen, the 8-year-old mentioned in the brief, describes the accident that left him blind in one eye in an interview at the end of this post.

Sen. Leo Lauerman

THEY’D BAN GUNS

B-B Victims
Put Punch in
Bill Hearing

Two small boys, each of whom had lost an eye in a B-B gun accident, appeared before the state senate general legislation committee during consideration of a bill to outlaw sale and use of B-B guns in Minnesota.

The two boys were Gerald Heinzen, 8, Howard Lake, and Joseph Fasciani, living near St. Paul.

Amos S. Deinard, Minneapolis attorney, president of the Minnesota Society for the Prevention of Blindness and Conservation of Vision, termed air rifles “dangerous toys.”

Amos Deinard

Opponents of the measure, sponsored by Senator Leo Lauerman, Olivia, will be heard by the committee Tuesday.

A few days later, this letter appeared on the Star’s editorial page:

Don’t Bother About B-B Guns

To the editor: With reference to a story in your paper regarding legislation prohibiting sale of B-B guns, I cannot imagine that such legislation would be the proper remedy.

The use of B-B guns is one of a boy’s greatest sports and it is through their use that most American boys get their first practice in marksmanship. My boy had a B-B gun, but he was taught how to use it, caution being the most important lesson. Today he has several guns and knows how to use them.

I do not believe that we should trouble our legislators with that kind of legislation. I believe it would be just as intelligent to adopt legislation prohibiting the sale of any firearms or automobiles or alcoholic liquors, as these are causing much greater loss of life than the little B-B gun. All cities have ordinances prohibiting the use of any gun within city limits.

– M.M. Ibach
Pipestone, Minn.

APRIL 2007 UPDATE: Gerald Heinzen, now 68, lives in Deephaven with his wife and their foster daughter. The couple also have four children and seven grandchildren. He worked at a religious publishing house for 40 years before retiring in 2000.

In February 1947, he was playing cops and robbers with his brother and two neighbor boys. A BB gun belonging to the 8-year-old neighbor was part of the game. By rule, the gun was not loaded. But Heinzen and his partner, the 8-year-old’s younger brother, hid themselves well. Unable to find them, the other pair became bored, loaded the gun and began shooting sparrows to pass the time. At one point, Heinzen peered out a window of an outbuilding in which he had hidden, just in time to see the 8-year-old raise the gun and fire it toward him. The boy was aiming at a bird and didn’t see Heinzen. The BB ricocheted off a window frame and glanced off Heinzen’s right eye.

Heinzen was taken to a doctor in Howard Lake, and then to a hospital. He doesn’t recall much detail. “I suppose I was in shock,” he said. “They did X-rays. I was in the hospital for almost two weeks.” By the time he was released, he knew his vision loss was permanent.

What about the boy who fired the BB gun? “Because I went to a parochial school and he went to a public school, I didn’t see him again for about a year,” Heinzen said. “I didn’t hold any anger toward him. He probably just sheepishly shied away from me.”

Heinzen said the injury didn’t affect him much at first. But the impact was clear when he reached driving age: no depth perception. “I had to learn a different style of driving from other people,” he said, “because I would sneak up on cars too quick. Judging distance just is not there.” The accident also cost him his dream: “I desperately wanted to fly when I was a kid. That’s why I never went onto college, because I had wanted to go to the Air Force Academy.”

He and his mother took a bus to St. Paul to appear before the legislative committee considering the BB gun bill. He suspects he probably wore his “Sunday best” suit, at his mother’s insistence. Did he testify? “No,” Heinzen said. “We were the show-and-tell part, this other fellow and I. He was 17 or 18. We just stood there as they talked about the whole process. We might have been there 10 minutes.”

The 1947 Legislature didn’t ban BB guns. Today, they are still largely unregulated. Minnesotans of any age can buy them legally, although large stores generally won’t sell them to anyone under 18 as a matter of policy, and they can’t be discharged in most cities.

Heinzen himself has never owned a BB gun, but he did fire small-caliber weapons as a kid. “We used to go down to the dump at Maple Plain to shoot gophers and rats,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve fired a gun in 40 years.”

When it comes to kids and guns, it’s not always about cops and robbers. In this 1961 photo, more than 100 Kenwood School students “learned history lesson at first hand” in a re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. Relax, this was an official school activity: Only toy guns were allowed. Twins caps were optional. (Tribune photo by Pete Hohn)

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Gadgets, Main, Muscle, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.