http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10...ma-T-shirt.html

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The attacker then fired the gas-powered ball-bearing pistol three times, hitting the civil servant in the face, hand and shoulder.
..
'If he had been carrying a real gun I would have been a widow. It is just ridiculous.
'I don't know how a person's mentality works. Why would a T-shirt get you to the point where you want to shoot someone.'
To the untrained eye, ball-bearing guns like the one used in the attack look every bit like a real firearm.
The potentially lethal weapons are often converted by criminals to fire real bullets, and can be bought easily in high-street shops and on websites.

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Ok, what happened in the article above is wrong but what irks me - "ball bearing, gas-operated pistol"?!? I didn't know I had one of these "potentially lethal weapons that criminals use until I googled "ball bearing pistol" and all I could find was entries for "bb guns".

Methinks they refer to AIRSOFT... and the potential to replace plastic airsoft pellets with small ball bearings. Much like a BB gun, only a few calibers larger... What are they? 6MM? something like that, I think...

Yep, 6mm. An airsoft weapon is lower velocity than a lot of bb/pellet guns. Most airsoft guns can be modified to higher velocities but you typically wont get one above 500fps........maybe 550fps although I suppose there may be some that can fire at higher velocities than that. If so then I have never seen one. Typical velocity for an airsoft rifle is between 300 and 400 fps. They are rated at that using either a .12 gram or .20 gram bb depending on the manufacturer. Most full auto airsoft wepons have the velocity rated using a .20g bb. So I would be sure a solid metal ball bearing will weigh a good bit more than the plastic bb's. The velocity will drop considerably with a ball bearing..........probably to about 1/2 of the rated velocity. Not even close to being lethal.

BB guns can be potentially lethal. A friend of mine nearly died as the result of a bb gun wound to the head. Spent several months in the hospital and ended up with some brain damage. That was about 22 years ago, now he still has slurred speech and one side of his face kind of droops. Sort of like a stroke victim.
Plenty of bb guns out there can propel a bb to well over 700fps. In fact I once had a gas powered bb pistol that was rated at 720fps. A lot of bb/pellet rifles are up near 1000fps.

Damn........double post, sorry.