air gun, airgun n. A kind of gun in which the elastic force of condensed air is used to discharge the ball. The air is powerfully compressed into a reservoir attached to the gun, by a condensing pump, and is controlled by a valve actuated by the trigger. The common BB gun is a type of air gun.
... Club leader, Miss Edna Stafford, a teacher in the public schools of Albany, Indiana, writes: "One day last summer a twelve-year-old boy {251} was out in our street with an airgun shooting at every bird he could see. Recently this same boy came to me with a bird that was hurt, and in a most sympathetic tone said: 'Who do you suppose could have been mean enough to hurt this dear little bird?' Our study of birds in the Junior ... — The Bird Study Book • Thomas Gilbert Pearson
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