title: Air guns: toys or weapons?
abstract: Air guns and blank guns may appear relatively harmless at first glance, but they are, in fact, potentially destructive, even lethal, weapons. Approximately 2 to 2.5 million nonpowder firearms are sold annually, and again approximately 12.9 per 100,000 population are treated for such injuries in hospital emergency departments each year in the United States. Unfortunately, these guns are considered to be a toy for children. Therefore, incidents of air gun injuries are gradually increasing. Although such injuries may initially be considered trivial, it may signify severe internal tissue pathologies. These apparently trivial injuries may have catastrophic consequences if unnoticed. In this study, we report 4 cases with head injury due to a shot by these guns. The cases indicate that these people had used the guns belonging to their parents for the purpose of suicide. The cases also show that these machines are not innocent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Ataturk University, School of Medicine, Erzurum, Turkey. sahinaslan29@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Sahin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aslan
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uzkeser
authors.forename: Yavuz
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katirci
authors.forename: Zeynep
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cakir
authors.forename: Ozlem
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bilir
authors.forename: Fatih
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bilge
authors.forename: Murtaza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cakir
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000388:Air; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms; D020197:Head Injuries, Penetrating / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013406:Suicide, Attempted; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000473:pathology*