Eye injuries by guns such as air guns may be very serious. At the Ophthalmologic Clinic of the Faculty Hospital in Brno the authors recorded recently an alarming number of these injuries. In the course of 8 months they treated 21 patients aged 7 to 14 years, two of them at least have serious permanent damage of eyesight. The most frequent manifestation of injury in these patients was hyphaema (95.3%), erosion of the cornea (33.3%) and oedema of the epithelium (23.8%). The authors recorded also iridodialysis and traumatic cataract. The rate of eye injuries with a ball gun treated at the Ophthalmological Child Clinic of the Faculty Hospital in Brno is markedly higher as compared with data reported abroad. It may be assumed that this is due to the low level of information of the parents on the danger of these pistols which are often mistaken for toys. These pistols are however rather weapons than toys. Despite this they are given to children. Thus frequently rules on the use of weapons are infringed. The authors address the paediatric public, who in their opinion can improve the conditions by health education among parents and potential child patients.

        Key words: ball pistol, eye injury, eyesight damage