By JUSTIN SCHUVER
Managing Editor

If B.B. guns are a children’s toy, then you can call Robert Green the oldest kid in Bainbridge.

Green, 66, has collected more than 90 of the small guns, most of which were built by the Daisy Outdoor Products Company. His guns vary in size, build and age, but they virtually all have something in common — they shoot small ball bearings (known also as B.B.’s), not bullets.

“I reckon I just wanted something that would remind me of my boyhood,” said Green, who started the collection about eight years ago.

Green said he bought his first gun in the collection from Lofton Willis’s hardware store in Bainbridge. Since then, he has found guns at flea markets and has also purchased several through websites like Ebay.

“It’s a little easier to collect B.B. guns because it’s not as much of a hassle to get them shipped to you,” he said. “If you buy a real gun, sometimes you have to get permits and other things before you can get the gun delivered. With the B.B. guns, it’s a lot quicker and it usually doesn’t cost as much.”

Green isn’t sure how much his collection is worth, but he doesn’t care. In fact, he doesn’t even usually display them.

“Usually I just keep them in boxes in storage,” he said. “Not a lot of people know I have this collection.”

However, one of the guns has a special affinity to Green. That gun is a variation of the “Model 25,” which Daisy began producing in 1913. Green said the Model 25 is probably very similar to the kind of B.B. gun that he played with while growing up.

“That’s all we had to do back then,” he said. “We didn’t have computers or TVs, so we spent most of our time outside.”

Green said he shot “beaucoups” of birds and also some smaller animals like squirrels and rabbits.

“It’s pretty funny,” he said. “I can get mad at my grandson for shooting at animals, but I’d be kind of a hypocrite about it, since I did the same thing at his age.”

As Green got older, he graduated onto “real” guns and began hunting larger game. But he never forgot his love of B.B. guns.

“They’re really a part of a great era in our nation’s history,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know it, but Lewis and Clark had a gun that was very similar to a B.B. gun. Another interesting fact is that the Daisy company started out by selling windmills. When a person purchased a windmill, they also sent a B.B. gun for the owner’s kids.

“Eventually, people just started asking for the guns and didn’t care about the windmills. That’s when the company began focusing on the guns.”

Green said he knows that some people might consider B.B. guns as toys, but he knows the power they can create. Ralphie was warned in the classic A Christmas Story that “you’ll shoot your eye out,” and Green said he has heard of some people who have had eye injuries from using B.B. guns.

However, Green never had such painful experiences with his B.B. guns — although he does remember getting a few welts from “gun wars” that he had with his brother.

“We weren’t supposed to, but I remember me and my brother getting into it a few times with our B.B. guns,” Green said, with a laugh. “The worst whooping I ever got in my life was when I shot him and he went and told Daddy.”

Green said he is proud of his collection, but still has some guns he’d eventually like to add, including a 100-year “centennial edition” of the Model 25, and a double-barrel Daisy gun.

“I just started getting older and began wanting to feel like I was still 16 years old again,” Green said. “Some people get classic cars — I got classic B.B. guns.”

Green’s family moved to Bainbridge when he was 3 years old and he has lived here ever since. He attended West Bainbridge High School and recently worked 17 years in the maintenance department at Bainbridge College.

He has been married to his wife, Karen, for 47 years, and they have four children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

“Two of my grandsons love to hunt and fish, and they especially love to go hunting with their Grandpa,” Green said. “I’ll take them out there and spend time with them, but I don’t really hunt myself anymore.”

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