Chances are you'll be watching 'A Christmas Story' at least once over the next few days. Ever since TBS started airing 24 hours of the film beginning Christmas Eve through Christmas Day, it's become a tradition in many households to keep their televisions tuned in to Ralphie's X-mas-related trials and tribulations for hours upon hours on end.
As such, there's a good chance a few questions may pop up while the film is playing in the background, attempting to drown out Uncle Eddie's post-Christmas dinner snoring. We'll be taking the next couple of days to answer some of those questions for you, this way when your little cousin Bobby turns and asks whether you can really shoot your eye out with a BB gun, you'll be waiting with a smile and the correct answer.'A Christmas Story' Myths: Can You Really Shoot Your Eye Out with a BB Gun?
Short Answer: No ... and Yes
Longer Answer: All Ralphie wants for Christmas is an official Red Ryder Carbon Action 200 shot range model air rifle, except all the adults around him think it's ridiculous because, well, he'll shoot his eye out. But is it really possible to shoot your eye out with a BB gun?
That depends. It'd be very hard for a person to shoot themselves in the face with a BB gun to begin with since, like in A Christmas Story, the BB would have to ricochet off something in order to actually reach the face. If that's the case, then there probably wouldn't be enough force to literally pop someone's eyeball out, but it could do some serious damage to the eye depending on where it hits. Another way to injure the eye would be for the force of the gun when its shot to push its butt back into a person's eye. That may cause enough damage to leave a person with a swollen black eye, but it won't knock the eye out.
The real danger here is for the innocent person standing next to or near the girl or boy with a BB gun, since in an unfortunate freak accident, it's possible for that person to be shot in the face. Depending on where the person is shot and whether or not it's at really close range, then, yes, there's a chance you may be able to literally pop someone's eye out with a BB gun. A brief search online brings up several personal stories from people who know someone or have heard of someone losing one or both eyes after being shot in the face with a gun, though most people who've been shot in the face with a BB gun have received a number of stitches and had temporarily lost their sight, but not their eyeballs.
However, if we're to take the saying "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" to mean the same as shooting out the lights, then, yes, definitely, a BB pellet to the eye can injure you to the point where you may lose the ability to see out of that eye, at the very least temporarily.
Fact of the matter is, guns (of any kind) are dangerous, and any child with a gun should be properly supervised by an adult so as to prevent any unfortunate accidents.
Sorry kids, but you'll shoot your eye out.