Airsoft Wars

On January 4, 2012, police officers in Brownsville, Texas responded to a middle school after a 15 year old student was seen with a gun in the halls after punching another student in the face.  When the student refused to obey the commands of the officers, he was shot and killed in the hallway of Cummings Middle School.  The gun this student had turned out to be an "airsoft" style handgun with the orange tip removed. 

If you take a trip to Walmart, Sears, and specialty knife shops in your local mall, you may see displays of very realistic looking firearms hanging on the wall.  The prices range from less than $10 for small, cheaply made handguns to several hundreds of dollars for heavy, metallic, military style rifles, fully equipped with lights and laser sights.  The only thing which sets these apart from real firearms are the orange-tipped muzzles which are legally required. 

A quick Google search of "airsoft wars" reveals various websites listing rules and play-styles for various role-playing or simulation type war games.  Several sites also state that police and military agencies use airsoft weapons for simulation training because of the realistic look and feel of the weapons.  While this may be a very cost effective and useful tool for these agencies, the indiscriminate parent who succumbs to the wish of their child can be in for a horrific awakening. 

Don't get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with buying your child an airsoft rifle.  Participating in a controlled and supervised airsoft battle can be very exciting and stimulating.  the problem comes in when parents allow their child (or ignore them) and the airsoft is taken to school or to the community.  Many kids decide to remove the orange tip from their gun to make it look real.  While many people chalk this up to "teenage behavior" it can also be used as a test run to carrying a real pistol. 

The main problem, which for the 15 year old in Brownsville proved deadly, is when kids use these "weapons" in a threatening manner towards others, including police officers.  With the orange tip removed, and often at night, kids take to the streets.  When these guns are used in aggressive ways, the consequences can be deadly.