Although, most cities outlaw the discharge of a firearm or pellet rifle inside city limits, many do not realize that the interpretation of the law in regards to Airsoft can depend on the situation. However, it is in the best interests for stores to educate the buyers about local laws and places to legally play after the sell is made.
- Stone Wolf
Posted from http://www.gazette.com
At Sportsman’s Warehouse on Friday afternoon, the stock of air soft pellet rifles was diminished.
What hung on the racks were two Remington Tac 1 air soft rifles, each with a small neon orange ring around the tip of the barrel indicating its toy status.
Others like them were likely already in the hands of the 8-to-21-year-olds who are participating in a national craze over the increasingly realistic looking toy guns that use compressed air to shoot tiny plastic balls that could, at worst, cause an eye injury.
Those people are also likely shooting them within Colorado Springs city limits, not knowing it is against the law. A Sportsman’s Warehouse employee said they are not required to tell consumers about the city code. Like real weapons, he said, it is the buyer’s responsibility to know the laws.
“I’m an informed parent, and I didn’t know it was illegal,” said Terri Urban, whose two teenage sons play with the toy guns.
Now that she does know, Urban is putting her sons’ toy guns out to pasture.
Between a police officer pulling his gun on her 16-year-old for holding an air soft rifle last week and then learning it’s against the law for the toys to be discharged in city limits, Urban would rather take her boys to private, unincorporated land to play than risk losing a son to a police bullet.
It has been illegal in Colorado Springs since 2004, but the law is little known and so rarely enforced it doesn’t prevent kids from staging neighborhood war games.
Still, it is increasingly common for passersby to mistake the guns for real ones and call police, who treat the guns as real until they can determine otherwise, said Lt. David Whitlock, police spokesman.
Police liken discharging the guns within city limits to setting off fireworks — you aren’t likely to get charged unless someone gets hurt or the toy is used as a threat, Whitlock said.
“It is a rite of passage for kids to desire and have these kinds of toys,” he said. “It would make it pretty laborious if we did some sort of zero-tolerance enforcement with these kinds of guns.”
That doesn’t mean police don’t take reports of weapons seriously, even when they turn out to be toys.
Urban’s sons and their friends were surrounded by five police cars during their war game at Fairfax Park in Briargate last week.
She met with police to discuss the situation and was told a reminder of the city policy will be circulated during meetings and addressed further in the police academy.
“I felt that was positive,” she said.
Most of the problem with the toy guns is how blurred the line between real and fake is becoming. Toy pellet guns closely resemble the real thing while criminals are making real weapons look like toys, Whitlock said.
“Until that weapon is in the hands of a police officer … it is going to be considered real and a threat,” Whitlock said.
In May, a 15-year-old in Palmdale, Calif., was shot in the torso by a sheriff’s deputy over a toy gun. The boy was packing the toy as he rode a bicycle in a game of cops and robbers with friends. The toy, though, reportedly lacked the orange marking on the barrel, so the officer couldn’t see it was a plaything.
The boy allegedly pointed the gun at the deputy and ignored an order to drop it, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The teen survived.
Last week, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced his office sent letters to more than 100 companies telling them to stop selling toy guns that are easily confused with real weapons and threatening legal action to companies that do not comply.
The toy gun craze has sparked a local industry.
DMZ Airsoft in the old greyhound track on North Nevada Avenue hosts supervised war games with the toys on weekends for a $15 entry fee, $10 for military.
It was unclear whether the business has a permit to host the games, as otherwise it would technically be breaking city ordinance. A call seeking comment from DMZ Airsoft management was not returned. The city attorney’s office did not return a call seeking comment.
A sign of how popular these plastic rifles have become: Two people were arrested on suspicion of breaking into DMZ Airsoft last week and stealing toy rifles and other equipment.
