Airsoft guns: harmless toys?
April 28, 2008
St. Charles County
by Kris Kolk
Perhaps you have seen kids in your neighborhood pulling their hoods over their heads, creeping around trees while holding a gun to their chest, SWAT-team style. This vision can be a bit intimidating as you glance past your windowsill herb garden to witness a scene out of Die Hard. What is going on?
It’s likely that you’ve just seen some neighborhood kids playing with Airsoft guns.
Airsoft is a sport similar to paintball, meaning that friends get together and enjoy non-lethal squirmishes, oftentimes in a safe, commercial facility.
Airsoft guns are air guns which shoot small round plastic pellets of 6mm or 8mm in diameter. They work by using compressed gas forcing a pellet down the barrel. They may also be automatic or semi-automatic.
Since these guns are all the rage, a parent might conclude they are harmless, according to the number of kids on the cul-de-sac brandishing them. The guns are, after all, only replicas of the real thing and are categorized as toy guns.
So, what’s the problem?
Airsoft guns are created to look as realistic as possible. So much so, that law enforcement sometimes uses them in training and Hollywood uses them on the set. When Bruce Willis points a gun, it looks real to me.
To distinguish between an Airsoft gun and the real thing, one must look at the tip. Toy weapons are orange, pink or red on the end of the barrel; whereas the real thing is all one color. The difference is subtle.
Sometimes, Airsoft gun owners will paint over the colorful tip to make the weapon look even more realistic. Law enforcement has many variables while assessing a scene, and spotting that red or orange tip is sometimes impossible.
Make no mistake. If an officer thinks you have a weapon, he will act as if you do.
In 2006, Florida eighth-grader, David Penley, was shot by police and later died. The police reacted to seeing Penley’s Airsoft gun, which had been painted all black and resembled a 9mm Beretta handgun.
Are Airsoft guns legal around here?
In St. Charles County, each city has its own ordinances. Some common ordinance violations applying to Air Soft guns include: discharging a projectile weapon and displaying a replica or toy weapon which may cause alarm in a reasonable person.
Gun rights are not the issue here. A kid hunting with his Dad is in a totally different situation than a gun-wielding-gangster-wannabe squatting behind neighbors’ cars and bushes before Mom and Dad get home from work.
A startled neighbor’s call to police may trigger a series of dangerous events quite foreign to a suburban kid from the cul-de-sac.
One local police officer repeatedly stated to me, making his point extremely clear, that law enforcement has no choice but to react to Airsoft guns as if they are real firearms.
He also stated that he could not understand the lack of parental guidance, especially post-Columbine.
Copyright 2008 Neighbors About Town