Despite water gun-related violence and angry complaints around the country of drive-by drenchings, stores continue to sell Super Soaker high-powered squirt guns at a rapid-fire rate.
The victims have included a school bus driver in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, who said he was shot in the eyes with ammonia Thursday from a Super Soaker water gun but kept one eye open to drive his empty bus off the freeway safely.Vincent Rankin said four teenagers in a convertible pulled alongside and fired the high-powered squirt gun in his face. "If there had been kids on the bus, it could have been a terrible accident," he said.
Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn asked retailers to pull the guns from shelves earlier this month after a water gun fight with the Super Soakers escalated into real gun-fire and a teenager was killed.
State lawmakers in New Jersey and Michigan have proposed banning the toys.
"By design these toys imitate assault weapons and give children the impression that violence is an acceptable form of behavior," Flynn said.
A few sellers, including F.W. Woolworth Co.'s Boston stores, have complied with Flynn's request. But those that keep selling the guns, ranging in cost from $5 to $50, haven't gone begging for customers.
"As the weather gets hotter, the sales just seem to increase," said Loretta Bennett, an administrative assistant at Larami Corp., the Philadelphia-based company that makes the toys.
"As soon as the merchandise is put out on the shelf, it sells out," said Donna Przychodzki, a buyer with Woolworth's in New York.