Airsoft guns, BB Guns and the Police

[MrBishop]

MINNEAPOLIS- Popular new pellet guns that look remarkably like lethal weapons have gotten at least one teenager killed in Florida and caused scares at schools around the country in recent months.


Some Airsoft guns are powered by springs; others use gas canisters or batteries. The pellets can cause welts on the skin. The guns are used to play a military-style game called airsoft, which is similar to paintball but cheaper and less messy, because the weapons fire plastic pellets instead of paint capsules that burst on impact.

Airsoft guns, though, are prized for their realistic design. Some resemble Glock, Smith & Wesson, Magnum and Beretta handguns and Kalashnikov assault rifles.

"The replicas really don't give our police officers time to think about 'Is this, or is this not, an airsoft weapon?'" said Tom Walsh, a spokesman for police in St. Paul, where a politician wants to tighten an ordinance to cover airsoft guns.

Toy guns -- airsoft guns included -- are required under federal law to have a bright orange tip to distinguish them from real weapons. But some people remove or blacken the tips.

That was the case last January in Seminole County, Fla., where 15-year-old Christopher Penley was shot to death by a SWAT officer while brandishing an airsoft pistol at a school. The muzzle of the 9mm-lookalike had been painted black.

"These replica firearms pose a problem not only for law enforcement, but I think the community as a whole," Chief Sheriff's Deputy Steven Harriett said Tuesday. "It's certainly a very difficult situation for a law enforcement officer to process whether or not they're facing an assailant who is clearly armed with a firearm that could cause harm to them, when these manufacturers make them so realistic."

Minnesota law already makes it a crime to have a fake gun on school property. St. Paul City Councilman Lee Helgen is calling for ordinance that would bar the carrying of replica guns in public.

Some other local governments are moving in the same direction.

After a 14-year-old boy with a BB gun was shot and wounded by police in Chicago over the summer, the City Council banned BB and pellet guns. And officials in Beaverton, Ore., are considering a ban on airsoft guns.

Gabe Stitzel, president and owner of the Minnesota Airsoft Association, said airsoft guns need to be handled with care by teenagers, and parents should get involved.


"Airsoft guns aren't toys. They really shouldn't be treated like that. They should be treated with the same respect as a real firearm," he said.

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[SouthernN'Proud]

This ain't new. Lots of people get killed every year when they pull a "toy" gun on a cop, business owner, etc. I call it thinning the herd.

[Sam Kinison]If you're gonna pull that fucking gun you better use it!!!![/Sam Kinison]

 

[MrBishop]

New...not really, but the Airsoft guns are hitting the markets, and with Christmas coming and kidlets asking for these as gifts... it's a nice refresher.

 

[highwayman]

Wasn't there a federal law passed several years ago that required an orange end cap to be on the end of the barrel of any of the "play" guns like for paintguns?

[Sam Kinison]If you're gonna pull that fucking gun you better use it!!!![/Sam Kinison]

[Tuco]If your going to shoot, shoot. Don't talk...[/Tuco]

 

[Luis G]

Wasn't there a federal law passed several years ago that required an orange end cap to be on the end of the barrel of any of the "play" guns like for paintguns?

Toy guns -- airsoft guns included -- are required under federal law to have a bright orange tip to distinguish them from real weapons. But some people remove or blacken the tips.

.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

Now who would do such a thing? Some innocent kid, or would it be a thug who wants to use this thing to scare another thug?

Like I said, thinning the herd...

 

[Gonz]

Toy guns -- airsoft guns included -- are required under federal law to have a bright orange tip to distinguish them from real weapons. But some people remove or blacken the tips.

Quoting my favorite redneck

I call it thinning the herd.

 

[TexasRaceLady]

There was a thining of the herd just outside Dallas the other day. While it didn't involve toy guns, it did involve 2 dim-witted teenage boys.

It seems they were walking by a fenced in area that contained an oil storage tank --- a mere 4,000 gallons of petroleum. One dimwit decided he wanted to see what was inside. So he scaled the fence, climbed the tank, opened the access door on the top --- then, because it was dark inside, he dropped a lighted match inside. Needless to say, the results removed his genes from the gene pool. Wonder if I should nominate him for a Darwin Award?

Now if a teenage boy can do something like this, no telling what he would do with a toy gun that looks real. Some teens just don't think straight --- in fact, some don't think at all.

 

[Professur]

Everytime I read something like that, TRL, I can't help but wonder whether the parents have noticed they're gone yet.

 

[TexasRaceLady]

I hate to judge, prof, but when the survivor appeared on the news to talk, he had bright pink hair that hung down into his face so far you couldn't tell if he had eyes.

The one that died, had the dyed black gothic look.

I never saw the parents of either boy on TV. Not even the survivor's. Sad.