Were Ralphie's parents irresponsible?

Status
Not open for further replies.
scaatylobo said:
and hell yes,we shot at each other and it hurt like hell,lesson learned !.
Click to expand...

my dad said he and his friends had BB gun fights back in the 50s...all sorts of other self destructive activities.

He hates that movie though.

He also taught me much more about gun safety than he was ever taught as a kid.

I had a Crossman 2100 when I was a kid....for some reason it wouldn't shoot BBs though...so I shot pellets, at card board boxes filled with balled up news paper at the front and phonebooks at the back...25 yards aways
 
The 50s were a great time to grow up. I still remember the taste of Life boy.....and the sting of a bb.....chris3
 
I was never allowed to have a BB gun as a kid. Rifles and shotguns were fine, though. Dad said (and was probably right) that kids do dumb stuff with a "toy" that they'd never dream of doing with an actual firearm. Got my own shotgun with my own money in fourth grade. Many more followed. As long as I had the cash to buy it myself, Dad had no problem with it.

Got my first BB gun when I was almost 30.
 
1911 Guy, my mother was the same way. When I asked for a BB gun, I was told "No. Kids treat them like toys, and they are not." At first I was disappointed, but then I got my gradmother's hand-me-down Winchester Model 190 .22LR instead. :neener:
 
Well... it's difficult to change people's opinions once they've formed, no matter how faulty and unsubstantiated they might be. That's one of the reasons why I studied a college degree in hypnotherapy later in life.

I have a few godchildren, none of their parents hunt or even own firearms, and I've been on a mission for quite a few years now: with the parents' permission, I've taken them to the range with me, taught them the basics of safe handling of firearms and spent quality time with them, doing something their parents don't. Over the years that has had a wonderful effect, both on these children and their families. Nothing on TV can change their first-hand experience and perception of firearms anymore.

It's soon Christmas and Santa seems to know who has been nice, old enough to have a very own BB gun and proficient enough to know how to handle it safely. With absolutely no objections from their parents. Confirmation gifts used to be something they could hunt with, until the law changed and now they'll have to wait until their 18th birthday...
 
Me and my buddies got into paintball and airsoft (I grew up in the 90s and 2000s hahah far from the 50s) for those that dont know airsoft is like a BB gun but it shoots plastic BBs and its electric powered (or sometimes C02) they only move 300 to 400 FPS so they sting but rarely hurt or go beneath the skin we've had a few cases with the gas powered ones at close range doing some bleeding damage (mainly for people getting hit in the knuckles or fingers) but nothing else.

When we first started not all of us had these guns 4 or 5 of us had real BB guns, so in our wonderful child thought process it was the infamous "One Pump" rule, no more than one pump while shooting at each other (and in airsoft people wear full face masks so face shots were not a problem) so that same "airsoft battle" nobody followed that rule and everybody is pumping it 10 times to "get more range" but we all knew it was the satisfaction of hearing "pop 'OUCH!!!' I'm ouuuut!" then shoot them again and say "Oh I didnt hear you!" nobody got really hurt because we were wearing our dads old hunting and military gear so the clothes took the brunt, but a few weeks later I was the victim someone pumped it hard and it cracked my eye piece in my face mask and the BB was lodged in it. I used that same mask for the rest of the time we played that for good luck but that was the last time we used BB guns in place of airsoft guns.

My family and friends joke about that stuff now but if they would have figured it out while it happened my lord we woulda had it all taken away and grounded for months and most likely spanked. But it was sure a hell of a lot of fun.
 
A lot of it has to do with personal and parental responsibility.

Back then, kids could be kids. If a kid shot another kid or caught a ricochet and some 7 year old was blind in one eye for life -- no big deal, stuff happens. Just the cost of being dumb, or rather randomly unluckier than the other dumb kids. You weren't going to sue someone over it or spend $100,000 in an eye surgery clinic trying to fix it. Give him a patch to wear and wish him the best of luck.

Really, we were just starting to enter a world in which a sizable minority of children weren't dead before they got to 10 years old anyway. Disabling injuries were pretty low on the worry list.

Nowadays we're just a nation of wussified liberal sheeple who get all hot and bothered if our oh-so-precious little Jimmy or Sally can't see, suffers brain injuries, swallows someone's pills, falls into a bucket and can't get their mouth above the water inside... So we run around with our goofy helmets, warning labels, safety glasses, range rules, trigger locks, won't let kids shoot unsupervised, etc., etc.

Man, sure miss the old days!
 
Ralphie's parents were not irresponsible. His neighbors, however, were irresponsible dog owners
 
Yes, Ralphies Dad was definitely irresponsible. He shouldn't have used the "F" word in front of Ralphie so often, he should have fixed the furnace so his family didn't freeze and he never should have left the turkey where the Bumpus hounds could get it.
 
Totally irresponsible! I'm not sure how Ralphie and Randy survived (like most of us who grew up before the 70's).
That 1937 Oldsmobile had no seat belts, no air bags, no ABS, little Randy was not in a car seat, the Parker house was riddled with asbestos, Ralphie didn't wear safety Rx glasses (not common until the 60's), the Parker house had horrible wiring, no ground-fault interrupts, screw-in fuses, no radon mitigation, there were no smoke detectors, no carbon monoxide detectors, Ralphie was a bullied child so he would probably be a mass-murderer today, he was also abused with raw soap (might lock up his folks these days), and the worst of all......
the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun did not have a compass & sundial in the stock until after the movie. The 'Buck Jones' model had the compass & sundial in those days.

.
 
I was eleven or twelve when I got my first BB gun in the early '60s. It was a Daisy CO2 pistol. I can't say how many little green army men were battered beyond recognition. Having that BB gun taught me trigger control, how to use sights, and how to make every shot count because I only received 50 cents a week for an allowance and I had to buy my own BBs and gas cartridges. It was a sort of life lesson. On the dole, you don't get much but, if you work, you get more money and can buy more stuff. You can imagine that I was diligent in mowing lawns in my neighborhood to come up with the scratch to fund my shooting.

I received no safety training beyond, "Don't shoot anything you shouldn't or we'll take it away." I never put an eye out and I never shot any of my friends or enemies.

My real satisfaction was when I earned enough money to buy a Daisy BB rifle. It resembled a Winchester like in the cowboy shows on TV. It only cocked once via the lever which set the spring and rocked the hammer back part way, then you had to cock the hammer the rest of the way back before pulling the trigger. It was more economical to shoot.

To my remembrance, early in my life, not every little risk or hurt was a cause celebre for the tabloids and government crackpots. American life has gone to the dogs.
 
pockets said:
Totally irresponsible! I'm not sure how Ralphie and Randy survived (like most of us who grew up before the 70's).
That 1937 Oldsmobile had no seat belts, no air bags, no ABS, little Randy was not in a car seat, the Parker house was riddled with asbestos, Ralphie didn't wear safety Rx glasses (not common until the 60's), the Parker house had horrible wiring, no ground-fault interrupts, screw-in fuses, no radon mitigation, there were no smoke detectors, no carbon monoxide detectors, Ralphie was a bullied child so he would probably be a mass-murderer today, he was also abused with raw soap (might lock up his folks these days), and the worst of all......
the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun did not have a compass & sundial in the stock until after the movie. The 'Buck Jones' model had the compass & sundial in those days.

.
Click to expand...
Outstanding post! :)
 
That 1937 Oldsmobile had no seat belts, no air bags, no ABS, little Randy was not in a car seat, the Parker house was riddled with asbestos, Ralphie didn't wear safety Rx glasses (not common until the 60's), the Parker house had horrible wiring, no ground-fault interrupts, screw-in fuses, no radon mitigation, there were no smoke detectors, no carbon monoxide detectors, Ralphie was a bullied child so he would probably be a mass-murderer today, he was also abused with raw soap (might lock up his folks these days), and the worst of all......
Click to expand...

"I'm not sure how Ralphie and Randy survived."

Well, plenty and more than plenty didn't survive at all! And that was just fine. People were more at peace with deaths in car crashes, infants broken in fender benders, house fires, poor eyesight, deaths by firearms accidents, and all sorts of things that the citified wimps of today get all bend out of shape over.

Gawd, child death? Like there aren't a million more born every year! C'mon, toughen up people!


[EDIT: It seems I must state plainly the following -- I thought this was obviously WAAAAY over the top hyperbole. :eek:

No, I don't feel that we were better off before kids had good car safety seats and smoke detectors. I think the rosey past where folks lived happy lives without incident unbothered by such trivia as GFCI circuit breakers and CO detectors and half-way decent product warnings are only rosey because time tends to wipe out the memory of terrible, preventable tragedy and shattered lives. Safety is good, mmm'k?]
 
Last edited:
Truth is gun accidents were far more common "back in the day". Gun safety has become stressed much more strongly within the last 30-40 years. People just accepted it as a part of life back them more so than today.
 
I never had a BB gun when I was a kid, though when I was about eight I got a semi-automatic rifle.

I still have that gun, one of my favorites. It's a Glenfield 60, K-Mart special with the chipmunk stock. Some day I intend to give it to my son, though I will include a "talk" with it. It will also go into a safe where access is restricted.
Mauserguy
 
Although we lived in NYC, my parents bought me a Daisy pump target rifle when I was 11. It had peep rear sights and a hooded front sight with changeable apertures. Also had positive feeding via a spring loaded ammo tube. This was in the 50's.

Nice gun. I set up a telephone book filled carton in the longest hall in the apartment, and that was my range. I wasn't allowed to take it outside, my parents had seen kids having BB gun fights. I used to read Boys Life, and was a jr. NRA member before I actually had a gun. My dad was a WWII combat veteran and had no interest whatsoever in guns. I taught myself safety from what I read.

When I was 14, a neighbor kid sold me a Healthways Plainsman CO2 BB pistol, bought it without telling my parents. I was firing it with just the CO2 when I first got it, It was empty, and I went through 2 cartridges just blapping the gas out. At one point I decided to see what the gas felt like on my finger. It had 3 power settings, and when I got to the highest setting, turns out there was a BB stuck in there (probably why the kid sold it to me) which then came out and into my finger tip. I remember thinking, "wow", that high setting really has a lot of power, that really hurt". Then I noticed my finger was bleeding. The BB was visible under my finger nail, deep in my finger. I definitely couldn't tell my parents at that point, so I had no alternative but to dig it out myself with a small pocket knife blade tip. Oh man, did that hurt!

Safety lesson learned. Never pointed a gun muzzle at myself or anyone else ever again, aside from making arrests.
 
Speedo66 said:
... The BB was visible under my finger nail, deep in my finger. I definitely couldn't tell my parents at that point, so I had no alternative but to dig it out myself with a small pocket knife blade tip. Oh man, did that hurt! …
Click to expand...
I believe that was the most painful post I've ever read, and it made me cringe.

I share your pain about living in NY as well, as today I learned yet another lesson about our arcane gun laws: Amazon won't ship me a Crosman 1377 air gun---or any air gun, for that matter. They're perfectly legal to purchase and own in my particular (Orange) county, but Amazon et al apparently wants to play it safe and not ship to New York at all, regardless of the county in which I reside. So I paid fifteen bucks more and ordered from Cabelas, who has no problem shipping to me. It appears that New York City firearms restrictions have tainted the entire state!
 
I would never buy my kid a BB gun. They send a BB back at you way to often. I would give then a pellet gun(lead pellets) or a real gun and shoot aquilla no powder ammo.
I have no problems ever with the aquilla out of my grandsons Ithaca m49 in the basement. They only fly 300 to 500 fps and flatten on impact.
 
I never had a BB gun, dad bought a used Winchester pump .22 for us.
I have a Remington 521 that both my kids learned to shoot with. But even though I still take my daughter to the range on occasion both her and her husband go ballistic when I mention buying a Cricket for our granddaughter.
And oh, yeah - in high school nobody gave you a second glance if they saw the shotgun in the rear window gun rack of your pickup truck during hunting season. Try doing THAT today!
 
Reminds me of an old saying that you don't really out grow your youth, your survive it.

Some lessons are learned the hard way, harder for the unlucky ones.
 
Wasn't allowed to have a BB gun for all the above mentioned bad things that could happen in previous posts, but got my first 22 at age 12 (1965) because it was obvious it wasn't a toy. As a side note, bought myself a Benjamin pump 22 pellet pistol at age 18.

For those that think pellets don't bounce like bb's, I can attest that a pellet will ricochet off a plastic hard hat on the floor about 15' away and come back and hit your grandfather in the forehead and make him bleed (we were taking turns, I got the first shot). Boy was that hard to explain to Grama! Grampa taught me hunting ethics, and was letting me drive his pickup inside a gas pipeline station he worked at by the time I was 12, needless to say I was very careful! Miss him and the "good old days".
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

R
  • Locked
Blaming Ralphie and the Red Rider BB Gun
2
Replies
31
Views
3K
c_yeager
C
H
  • Locked
Gun maker avoids publicity for classic Red Ryder sales
Replies
21
Views
2K
Bravo11
B
C
  • Locked
Intervening With Negligent Parents
2
Replies
41
Views
2K
Officers'Wife
Officers'Wife
K
  • Locked
"you'll shoot yer eye out, kid"
Replies
11
Views
1K
Orthonym
O
A
  • Locked
Not Your Dad's BB Gun (Washington Post)
2
Replies
31
Views
2K
Mikul
M
Back
Top