Pointed a gun at a kid with an Airsoft.

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Airsoft should not be sold as toys to kids

My nephew is a SEAL, and on a required reading list for him was the book On Killing, by Grossman. He recommended it to me, and I was greatly impressed by it.

The author is a Ranger-qualified Army officer with, if I recall correctly, a doctorate in psychology. He makes a very compelling argument that the escalation of violence throughout the industrialized world has been caused by removing the normal inhibition that humans have against killing. The removal of this inhibition is primarily due to allowing adolescents to be exposed to graphic violence in the entertainment media.

Airsoft games are OK for adults, and can teach a great deal about CQB. Serious Airsoft people are very concerned about how their guns look when transporting them to and from their events, and try to keep a low profile. But teaching unsupervised kids that its OK to point a very realistic gun at people and then pull a trigger in a light-hearted game is a very bad thing.
 
I do NOT disagree with you, Murdock. More people should sit and THINK before they buy things for their kids.

As far as I'm concerned there are NO "toy" guns. Period. I'd never buy one for my child (I don't have any). I would buy them an air rifle which they'd use only with adult supervision. I'd buy them a .22 rifle with the same stipulation: adult supervision. Teaching them to shoot well is enough; no need to desensitize them to taking a human life. If the need arises and they are properly reared it's there. No need to enhance it.
 
I looked out the window and saw a person dressed all in black, walking away from a vehicle I didn't recognize, with an AR-15 at his shoulder pointed at my neighbors house. My first thought was that it might be an airsoft, but there was no discolored tip. I immediately went and retrieved my own AR that I keep loaded, hammer down on an empty chamber. I put a shell into the chamber, put it on safe, and looked back out another window. Only through the scope on 9 power could I tell that his AR had a dark blue tip.
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I've held my tongue on this one for a fewe days, but what the heck.

Your grabbing and use of a rifle in the scenario you describe was poor judgement.

WildifihavetoexplianwhyseemysigAlaska ™
 
Only issue that I have with actions taken was the use of a scope to identify, with a round in the chamber, weapon on safe.

Not sure I would have done anything different, since my binos are in my hunting gear. Maybe clear the weapon, re-insert the mag but not chamber a round, then scope? From that status, it would take but a second to have a round locked and loaded.

Again, given the same situation, not sure I could have done any better. Lot of stuff to process simultaneously.
 
I saw somebody walking through my woods at home with an AK. I had my FN .308 PBR with ACOG with me (scouting for deer.) I took a look through my ACOG and noted that it was indeed an AK variant- a paintball gun. I cleared my weapon before I took a look because I would never want to shoot another hunter or any human for that matter, and just wanted to see if indeed someone was poaching on my land with an AK. I walked up to the guy who was in his late teens judging by the profusion of zits on his face and informed him that he was tresspassing, and that it is not a good idea to carry toys that resemble assault weapons on somebody else's property without their permission.
 
Only through the scope on 9 power could I tell that his AR had a dark blue tip.
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You pointed a loaded weapon at a kid? This is against the laws of every state better rethink this posting sir.

And he was walking away from you?

I just dont belive the level of fear some are living under.
 
What do you think a cop would have done in a similar situation?

If a person dressed in black carrying a semi auto doesn't raise your pulse, what does. Next time I'll wait till shots are fired and then go try to reason with the individual.

He went out in public, with what could be easily mistaken for a real weapon. And was acting in a threatening manner. The police officers I have spoken too have said they would have drawn their weapons, and ordered him to the ground even if it had a orange tip. One even said they have confiscated real guns that had orange tips painted on.
 
Look, I'm not trying to start a fight. I felt my life and, more importantly, the lives of my 3 children were in danger. My walls are not 223 proof. As soon as I saw the situation for what it was, I put the gun away. I hope to never use it for any thing other than coyotes or deer.

In the day in which we, live do you really think the situation, with a real weapon, is far fetched?
 
Look, I'm not trying to start a fight. I felt my life and, more importantly, the lives of my 3 children were in danger. My walls are not 223 proof. As soon as I saw the situation for what it was, I put the gun away. I hope to never use it for any thing other than coyotes or deer.
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Stop rationalizing. In the amount of time you took to get your gun, you could have called 9-11 and taken your kids into the basement or whatever.

Guy in black with a gun? What if it had been a cop on an operation..they see you peering out the window with an AR....


Poor judgement.

WildnowgoonstartflamingAlaska TM


In the day in which we, live do you really think the situation, with a real weapon, is far fetched?
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Yes.
 
My nephew had one of those guns. It was a dead knockoff of a Beretta 92.
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I've got that same gun and it's amazingly accurate. More so than most of my firearms at 20-30 feet. I use it to shoot seagulls away from my property. Doesn't hurt them permanently, but gives them a reason not to stay around and crap all over everything. It does look exactly like the real thing, other than the orange tip.
 
I agree with Wild and the others here, that in an URBAN setting, the correct thing to do is call 911 and then shelter the family, taking DEFENSIVE measures.

BUT, in a rural setting (which I am in) I don't see strangers in close proximity. If I see "perp" with gun, I go to the Bedroom and grab 12ga, I do not confront, but I will use any and all means to dispatch a threat. We have had to call 911 for medical emergency, we had a 10 minute wait. I am 15 miles from the sheriff(at least). I can not rely on them alone to provide protection. Unfortunately for me, most of the time people paying visits around here are burgalars, looting for meth cash.
 
That kid is an idiot.

I disagree with banning realistic replicas. The VAST majority of airsoft owners do not act that stupidly. I am part of the "serious airsoft" crowd, and would HATE to be running around with a clear airsoft rifle. I like my metal airsoft rifle. The only airsoft guns I have seen that have physically broken were plastic.

As for the OP's response, it was reasonable, but there was probably a better alternative than pointing a loaded AR out the window.
 
In the amount of time you took to get your gun, you could have called 9-11 and taken your kids into the basement or whatever.
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ding ding nail on head now think about it rationally and not defensivly.


I also live out in the country away from all the keyboard commandos. When I see a guy carrying a rifle I suspect he is coming over to shoot it up at my range back of my hill. :)
 
When I was a kid, I carried a very realistic 1911 plastic gun and a Thompson SMG - we ran around the streets and pointed them at each other. Didn't become a killer.

Grossman makes the point that toy guns and computer games can teach aggression and prime violence. That has some validity from the literature. However, we also know from the same literature - that more detailed knowledge of firearms and usages decreases aggressive ideation.

The increase in violence can be looked at in two parts - the majority of gun crimes in the USA are due to the drug wars, poverty and broken family situations.

The recent supposed trend of rampage killings has most killers having some kind of preexisting mental illness. It could be the case that the media culture of violence then channels them and gives them methodologies to employ.

However, I don't think the overall violence level is due to gun games. In fact, violent crimes are dropping, gun accidents are down.
 
When I was a kid, I carried a very realistic 1911 plastic gun and a Thompson SMG
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Cops and robbers was it man :) never played cowboys and indians tho, Mom got very upset :) as her mom is one :) yep a cowboy,,,,,no no an Indian :) mom never tolerated any prejudice towards any others cause of race or other reasons. But cops and robbers was it for us :)
 
However, I don't think the overall violence level is due to gun games. In fact, violent crimes are dropping, gun accidents are down.
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Glenn: I agree with the above. And I too played lots of gun games as a kid, and loved them. The problem is not guns or even gun toys, but entertainment for profit (differentiated from political free speech) that uses mindless violence to titillate, and which is devoid of moral context. What I recall from our games as children is that there were good guys and bad, order imposed on chaos, and high moral positions to be defended (e.g.; defeating Nazis, preventing enslavement by extraterrestrials, etc). Now many of the video games seem to simply urge killing as many as you can, because you can, in a moral vacuum. For adolescents, this ain't good.

Jeepers! I sound so conservative!

Incidentally, I'm out the door for a 5-day conference out of town, but am looking forward to reading the stuff on the links you posted when I get back.
 
Kids like "real" looking things. My mom did her best to contain us to fake-looking weapons. But if I could get something that was at least shaped realistically, I had a habit of just painting it. I also ripped out orange tips. I grew up in suburbia and didn't come from a shooting family. Even if I had, I'd have probably disobeyed my parents anyway. What would you expect boys with a lot of energy between the ages of, say, 5 and 12?

As for the situation at hand... I can see both sides. When things seem squirrelly to me, I have investigated with a concealed weapon, but I've also never seen a situation where I would be terribly outgunned with my single-stack, as in the case of an AR. So it's a call I'd prefer not make here. Part of responsibility, whether it's driving a car, owning a gun, or even deciding what you eat, is knowing how to exercise judgment and discretion. While I think the attitude "No harm, no foul" is a bit cavalier, I also think that you can't always second-guess a situation you weren't there for. Where there is value in this is what you take away from it. You have just considered a situation you would not have otherwise, and hopefully thought about yourself in such a situation. Your judgment is now more keenly developed. There's no need to flame anyone. Reasonable people may differ on the interpretation, so focus on what you can take away personally.
 
Cops and robbers was it man never played cowboys and indians tho, Mom got very upset as her mom is one yep a cowboy,,,,,no no an Indian mom never tolerated any prejudice towards any others cause of race or other reasons. But cops and robbers was it for us
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Crap. I am an American Indian and we played cowboys and indians all the time. Guess what I played? Yep, a cowboy. There was no prejudice involved. Just a simple child's view on good and bad. But today, I find that most of the kids that volunteered to be indians back then, are now dead. Drug addicts, mostly, but street criminals of all types abound in their numbers. I suspect that even then, they were rebellious enough to actually want to be the "bad guys.":(
 
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