Gardaí have warned parents it is an offence to possess air pistols, following an incident in a school yard in Tralee in which a boy was injured.
It occurred at lunchtime on Tuesday when a 16-year-old boy entered the schoolyard of the all-Irish primary school, Scoil Mhic Easmainn, and fired a pellet which struck a boy of around 12, who is in the fifth class. The yard is accessible and not fenced in all around.
The younger boy was hit over the ear and suffered minor injuries. He did not need hospital treatment.
Gardaí later confiscated the air pistol which had been discharged and also recovered a second air pistol from the 16-year-old. A file is being sent to the DPP.
They were unable to say if the older teenager was a past pupil of the school. But they ruled out "an American-style high school shooting" and said parents had no cause for panic or alarm.
"This incident is not comparable in any shape or form to an American high school incident where young people enter the school with high-calibre weapons with the intention of killing or seriously injuring others.
"This weapon was at the lower end of the lethal weapons category and there is no cause for parents to be alarmed," Garda Insp Martin McCarthy said.
"Scoil Mhic Easmainn is a very well-run school with good discipline and no such complaints of that nature have been made to us ever," Insp McCarthy said.
However, air pistols which emit hard plastic circular pellets like ball-bearings can cause serious injury if fired at short distances from the face and body, he said.
Air pistols are illegal and cannot be held even under licence in this country.
A shop in Tralee had sold air pistols but had stopped when approached by gardaí. However, they are being smuggled into the country and sold by traders at carnivals and festivals.
They originate mainly in the far east and are brought in via Northern Ireland in many cases, or in some cases, are bought abroad during holidays.