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Duluth BB gun control law shot down Duluth stores now are stocking their shelves with BB guns, air rifles and paintball guns after the city council quietly revoked a longstanding ban on pellet-firing weapons. by JOHN MYERS Duluth News Tribune Staff Writer February 2, 2004 You'll shoot your eye out. Or somebody's window. For decades, that was the worry of Duluth officials as the city enforced a strict ordinance against anyone selling or even possessing a BB gun or air rifle within the city limits. Not any more. In quiet action Oct. 27, the Duluth City Council revoked the old law. The same goes for paintball-firing air guns, which had been considered air rifles. Slingshots and wrist rockets remain illegal. The original ordinance was approved on Oct. 3, 1945, purportedly after a rash of BB gun vandalism. For nearly 60 years, Duluth kids supposedly grew up without the excitement of having that Model 1938 Red Ryder BB gun under the tree on Christmas morning. In reality, of course, many kids and adults flouted the law and shot at chipmunks, paper targets and empty cans. Still, stores in Duluth couldn't sell the pellet-firing guns, losing business to nearby Hermantown and other areas where BB gun control meant being able to hit your target, not limiting their sale. The new ordinance allows the possession and use of the guns in one's home, in a manufacturing or commercial facility making, selling or repairing them and on premises for which the police chief had issued a permit. They also are allowed in areas of the city zoned "suburban." It further allows them in other areas if unloaded and fully cased. Except for paintball guns, it still prohibits discharging an air gun at another person or in an area where persons could be endangered. And it's illegal to brandish them in a threatening manner. "We'd talked about it in the past, but the timing wasn't right. This time, it went through without one word of opposition. There wasn't any discussion, really," said Jim Stauber, City Council president. "The fact that you could walk into Gander Mountain and buy a .44 caliber handgun but you couldn't buy a BB gun never made any sense." Now, the guns are starting to show up on store shelves. A quick check of a few Duluth merchants showed some were still unaware of the change. But others, like Gander Mountain, received notice of the law change in December and already are selling them. "We'll have them in soon. We've already had a few people asking, and we've ordered them," said Russ Francisco, owner of Marine General sporting good store on London Road. "The city shot themselves in the foot not allowing them for so long. Consider all the sales tax the city lost out on over the years because everyone just went to Hermantown." Francisco said pellet guns likely will be the most popular models because they fire farther and are more accurate. BB guns and pellet guns can range from less than $50 to more than $500, he said. The biggest economic impact may be allowing Duluth retailers to get into the lucrative paintball business. Until now, with air canister-powered paintball guns illegal in Duluth under the old law, local fans of the sport were forced to head to places like Fisherman's Corner sporting goods in Pike Lake. "There's quite a group of people around here that do paintball. It's gotten to be kind of a big thing," said Scott VanValkenberg, owner of Fisherman's Corner. Limited use of paintball guns had been allowed in Duluth, such as at Spirit Mountain, under a special Duluth permit.