In case you haven't heard, the government is trying to ban Buckyballs and the manufacturer is suing to stop them. They are also running a social media campaign to save them, appropriately (or inappropriately) titled #SaveOurBalls. Here is the company's page for it:
http://www.getbuckyballs.com/save-our-balls/
Some stores have stopped selling Buckyballs already, but the manufacturer says sales have gone through the roof on their web site. There's a cool video of the toy in action at this link.
http://www.bustedtees.com/buckyballs
Apparently they've been around for 25 years and Google even did a doodle honoring them in 2010:
http://www.conceivablytech.com/2650/business/google-doodle-sells-10000-b...
The issue for the government is similar to what caused some Polly Pocket toys to be recalled a while back. Magnets were falling off of them which could cause harm if 2 or more are ingested. The Buckyballs can have the same effect. But the Buckyballs company says there have only been less than 24 known incidents out of 500 million magnets sold. And they say they're not marketed to kids or sold in toy stores and they come with this warning label:
"Warning: Keep Away From All Children! Do not put in nose or mouth. Swallowed magnets can stick to intestines causing serious injury or death. Seek immediate medical attention if magnets are swallowed or inhaled."
I would imagine if we banned everything that might cause serious injury to a kid, we'd have to start banning matches, knives, swimming pools and move onto baseball, football, cheerleading, etc.