On December 19th, 1988, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) enacted a total ban on the sale and importation of lawn darts in the United States. This act officially ended the commercial life of the "most dangerous toy ever made" - heavy, metal-tipped darts designed to be thrown underhand toward a target. Before the ban, it was estimated that there were 10 to 15 million sets of lawn darts sold to American homes since they were released in the 1950s. The ban made existing stock of lawn darts unsellable, and retailers were forced to pull them from shelves immediately, and consumers were urged to "destroy and discard" their sets rather than giving them away, which effectively wiped out the secondary market.
