Issue with Playing with Airsoft Guns

[AZ Jeff]

My 14 yr. old son and his neighborhood buddies have taken to playing with airsoft guns in the park behind my house. They have certain rules they follow, like not engaging innocent persons not involve in the activity, and always wearing eye protection, etc.

One of the busybody mothers in the community was aghast that this activity is going on. (She has previously indicated to me that she does not like firearms, toy or real, and prohibits her 14 yr old son to play with them.) Even though this person does not even live near the park, she has circulated the following email amongst some of the other parents, presumably hoping to garner support for some group action, I suspect.

Your comments and thoughts are appreciated. (I would love to fire her back a response to this email, but I did not receive it directly, and was given a copy by a sympathetic parent.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It has come to my attention that a group of teenage boys are shooting air guns (BB guns) in the park (the main park).

I have contacted one of the parents of these boys and apparently they have NO PROBLEM with their son shooting a gun in a park with our kids running around! Not to mention there are TONS of small BB pellets in the grass everywhere.

I contacted the Town Police and they said BB guns are considered firearms and it is obviously illegal to shoot any type of firearm in a public area! If you see these teens using BB guns CALL THE POLICE. They will come out and take care of the problem.

Protect our kids!!!


FOLLOW UP INFORMATION--My local PD says that airsoft guns are NOT firearms by city definition, so it's NOT illegal to discharge them, as long as it's not done in a malicious or vandalistic way. So....I guess her plan to call the police on the airsoft shooters will not necessarily result in any action, provided the boys are not shooting anyone or anything other than their opponents in the game.

MORE UPDATES--All the airsoft guns in use are either clear plastic, or painted a bright neon color, so as to not appear to be "the real deal". I also experimented with the range of these toys--they cannot be called real guns, based on the ballistic performance I noted. When fired from shoulder height, the plastic ball strikes the ground, on a windless day, about 60 feet from the shooter.

 

[El Tejon]

How long have young boys been play shooting/fighting each other in recorded history? Several thousands years now?

Well, are the boys doing anything against a city/town ordinance? Seems to me that one should ensure they are on solid legal ground before any response is made. However, I'm biased by the gig.

 

[Kevlarman]

Depending on your city laws, airsoft guns may not be regulated as BB guns, since the former does not shoot a metal projectile. As for the pellets in the grass problem, you can try to get the kids to switch over to biodegradables, which will disappear in a few weeks.

 

[Justin]

I would suggest an email educating her that airsoft and BB guns are not the same thing. Call up the local PD and ask if airsoft are regulated as firearms. Most likely they aren't. Be sure to include that in the email, too.

It'll probably just bounce off of her, busybodies don't usually let the facts confuse the issue.

 

[Brick]

Hello everyone.â„¢

As for the pellets in the grass problem, you can try to get the kids to switch over to biodegradables, which will disappear in a few weeks.

Where did you get that info? If that happens to be verdad, I want to know so I can use them also.

See here and here for some interesting counter-info.

playing with airsoft guns in the park

Never play airsoft guns in a park. Ever. Technically, Airsoft guns are NOT BB guns.

Protect our kids!!!

 

[geekWithA.45]

My advice is quietly gather the reactions of the folks she's sent the message to, and if it has any traction, to proactively get ahead of the woman with sound research and a distribution list.

One unnopposed biddy can stir up a hornet's nest of trouble.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Guns aren't toys. Kids should be shooting real guns under close parental supervision at ranges.

 

[OF]

If the game is leaving tons of plastic pellets around, I think the kids should move onto private property and/or be made to clean the place up. Also, if the game is keeping the neighboorhood from using the park and it's turning into nothing but an airsoft field, that's pretty inconsiderate.

As for the sheeple...they do bleat, don't they.

- Gabe

 

[WvaBill]

One unnopposed biddy can stir up a hornet's nest of trouble.

Just ask Madeline O'Hare.

 

[standingbear]

I had a neighbor that did the same thing back before airsoft was even invented .. mid 70s. These were toy revolvers that looked similiar to an old west sixgun cept the cylinders had a spring in each and launched a half inch crayon nicely out to maybe 10 feet,flipping the front site blocked the barrel. the thing was plastic and potmetal- loaded through a loading gate just like an original. We were playing in our own backyard and she called the police every single time, whom then got parents involved whom then told her to mind her own business. I suspect she was one of the original soccermoms...I wish I still had that thing.


Ive taken my son in our backyard and set up paper cups and shot my airsoft beretta copy numerous times.the neighbor saw us and now has my other one as his own.see him out there all the time with it.

 

[geekWithA.45]

These were toy revolvers that looked similiar to an old west sixgun cept the cylinders had a spring in each and launched a half inch crayon nicely out to maybe 10 feet

I had something like that!

If you held the trigger half back, you could spin the cylinder and turn it into a machine gun, splatting out 12 crayons/second!

 

[45Badger]

Guns aren't toys. Kids should be shooting real guns under close parental supervision at ranges.

I agree. My boys (9&6) have BB guns and the oldest has a .22 rifle and a Ruger Bearcat. ALL are used only under adult supervision, shooting at paper, reactive, and soda can targets.

Lack of proper supervision, combined with general "boyhood fun" when I was a kid resulted in me and friends accidently breaking a few windows, and raising a few welts (yes, we had BB gun wars). At 13, I hit a friend about an inch above his eye. That was a wake up for both of us, the BB gun wars ended. We paid for the damage, got grounded, etc, but really should not have been acting so stupidly, and were lucky no one was seriously hurt.

My older son shot an airsoft gun at a gunshow, and immediately wanted one. No way that's gonna happen. I do not want them ever thinking of any gun as a toy. That part of my "childhood fun" had extremely low value (when looked at from the ripe old age of 43) in my life, with very large, life altering possible outcomes.

Like they said in A Christmas Story, "You're gonna shoot your eye out" (or something to that effect). I don't care how "mature" a 14 year old is (or anybody thinks they are), too many hormones combined with too little sense of mortality and consequences is a bad mix.

Happy Sunday!

 

[WEPS]

Boys will be boys. Let them have there fun, just make sure they have protection. Over protective parents need to learn how to let their kids learn from their own mistakes.
I had a few BB guns growing up. I remember shooting a peace of rubber and the BB bouncing of and hitting me in the neck "ouch!!" after that i was more carefull at what i shot at. Some lessons you just have to learn on your own.

 

[SUE ROVR]

"I contacted the Town Police and they said BB guns are considered firearms and it is obviously illegal to shoot any type of firearm in a public area! If you see these teens using BB guns CALL THE POLICE. They will come out and take care of the problem."

Slander.

Sue.

 

[landon74]

Sounds to me like a midnight TP raid is in order.......

 

[TexasRifleman]

I would just ignore her and let her work herself into such a frenzy that she quits caring and moves on to something else.

If you fight her on this, she might not have anything better to do with her time than prolong the fight.

They are your kids, do what you think is right and ignore her. You've made sure you are on solid legal grounds, so you're done with her.

 

[carpettbaggerr]

Guns aren't toys.

Guns aren't toys. Toy guns are toys.

Kids should be shooting real guns under close parental supervision at ranges.

Ideally, yes. But they should be playing by themselves, too. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Soldier.

Hardly see kids playing outside at all anymore. Too many fat kids with overdeveloped thumbs.

 

[TallPine]

There's always a busybody everywhere ....

Geez! I would hate to be a kid these days :banghead:

IMO, kids (especially boys) need to play out like this to develop into healthy adults (men). We're going to have more and more "adults" suddenly "go postal" because they were NOT allowed to play like boys have always done.

 

[PaulBk]

I also come from the generation when kids played outside, sometimes with toy guns. We also played with wood burning kits, chemistry kits that actually had reactions, model rocket kits, and fireworks. Was this a good idea? Probably not, but most of us survived with all appendages intact

My son and I played with airsoft guns indoors and on our property until he moved out a couple of years ago. Wearing safety glasses, it was great fun.

In today's world I would be less inclined to play shooting games outdoors, especially in urban public parks. Hopefully, the airsofts your son is using look clearly like harmless toys. Some do, some don't. Both of the pistols below are airsoft.

-PB

 

[GlenJ]

Hard to make a comment when you only hear one side of the story and I'm sure there are two sides of it. Every kid is an angel in there parents eyes. That being said how much are you back there watching what there doing?? The latch key kids that live all around me raise hell until there parents get home. Then they all same the same thing "NOT MY KID" It even went as far as when I told one parent his kid cut through my yard his answer was "you should put up a fence." As far as kids not playing outside enough I put that blame solely on the parents.

 

[WvaBill]

most of us survived with all appendages intact

Paul,

From the smiley, it looks as if you have harmed that eye though.

 

[PaulBk]

nah...

The eye was actually a popcorn accident a few years later. Always wear eye protection when popping corn!

-PB

 

[Gifted]

An airsoft pellet can be just as damaging as a paintball. They shouldn't be playing in the park with others around. I don't care how careful they are. Paintball takes place on fields with netting to prevent stray balls from going very far, and people to supervise the game. Even the people who do free games in the woods make sure they go somewhere where the chances of someone being around to catch a ball are minimal. Everyone should have the safety gear around the "battle". Beyond that, well, I had fun running around with toy guns.

 

[Dionysusigma]

I didn't grow up with guns, or even toy guns. Mom doesn't like her boys playin' with them, although she has a couple of highpower competition medals she won't talk about... And Dad, well... he's a good shot, but he won't tell me how he got that way.

However, I went out one day (think I was 8 or 9), and cut down a small tree with an old dull axe. I used some leftover bailing wire to turn the sapling into a perfectly functioning longbow. Bought some cheap arrows from Wal-Mart, and both parents were fine with me shooting hay bales all day. At one point, I got good enough I could hit a section of ground 2'x2' from about 85 yards away in any kind of wind under 35mph. Knives were allowed under the strictest supervision until I was 13.

But guns? Never. Too dangerous. Even if they only shot rubber bands, it was the mere association that was feared.

I still want a full-auto Airsoft Mac 10/11-9, though.

 

[VARifleman]

I remember a while ago when there was talk in England about banning "boistrous play" as they called it (playing with toy guns), there was a developmental psychologist that stood up against the ban citing her study that it would be detrimental to the boy's development. I played with cap guns when I was younger and I never had a problem distinguishing between real and fake. That woman would probably rather her boy stay inside and become fat like the a lot of Americans out there. So sad that they want to limit a good chance for the boys to excercise.