How many times did we hear it growing up?
"NO! You could put an eye out with that thing!"
A mother voicing concern over BB guns, pellet rifles, slingshots, bullwhips and the like. It's become classic cliche, immortalized in films like 1983's "A Christmas Story."
Many disappointed children denied a plaything of choice have put the words down to just silly overprotectiveness. That kind of thing never happens in real life, right?
Wrong. Turns out your mom was on the the money.
According to a new study published Monday in the medical journal "Pediatrics," eye injuries linked to air rifles and the like were up nearly 169 percent between 1990 and 2012.
BB, pellet and paintball guns were the main culprits. They join basketball, baseball and softball as the cause of most childhood eye injuries.
But eye injuries due to team sports have been declining. Those due to nonpowder guns more than doubled during the study years. Now they account for about half of all hospitalizations for sports-related eye injuries in people under 19.
The two biggest problems are lack of eye protection and absence of adult supervision. Both greatly reduce the possibility of serious eye injury.
We were kids once. We remember how much fun shooting a BB gun can be. We don't suggest anyone go overboard and start banning these things.
But we do hope that children using nonpowder guns wear eye protection. And the best way to ensure that is for them to be supervised by an adult whenever they are enjoying these kinds of things.