Gardaí are investigating an incident in which a 12-year-old Carlow girl was injured by a pellet gun on Sunday night.
Stephanie Keogh was hit in the face with the gun as she played with her eight-year-old cousin.
An older girl discharged the gun in their direction, and Stephanie was hit in the eye.
She was taken to Waterford Regional Hospital for treatment and was recovering at home yesterday.
The incident will rekindle the debate over the safety of selling such toy guns to children. There were calls for this kind of gun to be banned last April after a child was hit by a pellet from a so-called paintball gun.
The six-year-old boy from Greystones, Co Wicklow, was sitting in his mother's car when the pellet flew through an open window and struck him on the side of the face.
Gardaí later confiscated a number of pellet guns from some youths who were firing them at passers-by.
The boy's father called for the guns to be banned.
The paintball guns generally carry disclaimers, saying that they should be used under the direct supervision of an adult and warning against aiming at the eye or face.
