A lesson learned with airsoft... oh wait

[T3H G0DST3R]

That is something you dont hear everyday

[Wraith]

Did you remove the orange tip of the airsoft Guns?

[herbanator3]

I was just thinking how real mine looks without the orange tip...

I live in a really rural town, lots of places to go out and airsoft, but not a large community. So mainly it's just a group of friends, and i'm worried that since the cops here are more than likely ignorant, that this may happen.. it's so obvious what they are when you hear them though :\

[Froggy]

Originally Posted by dpq06

So it was just a regular day, had two other friends over we were just shooting each other in the yard around my house with some airsoft guns, a custom airsoftGI M4, an Echo1 HK416, and my new Echo1 MP5. Now we never expected to get in any sort of trouble seeing as we weren't doing anything illegal as most people assume with airsoft guns.
Now, we have had people walk by and kind of look at us for a brief second but can tell by the orange tips they're not real guns. But on this one occasion a lady walking by looked at us and walked away as usual. One of my friends telling me earlier she did actually pull out a cell phone.

It just so happens that later when we were in the middle of a game my friend who was on the other side of the house walking up towards the front door area and on to my side, turned the corner where there were about 4 cops and 2 SWAT team members were tactically and silently moving further into the backyard, and when he turned the corner they promptly told him to "FREEZE! DROP THE WEAPON! DROP THE WEAPON! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!" which he did, and i was thinking at the moment, my teammate had gotten close to the other guy and was within 5 feet, (our "freeze range") but when i heard them say drop the weapon, i definitely knew it wasn't him so i put my gun on the ground and ripped off my goggles and balaclava, went up there and one of the cops told me to sit down.

I happened to look over behind me and my friend was on the laying on the ground face down with his hands on his head getting searched. I kept telling the cop "they aren't real! it's airsoft!" so afterwards when the cops had thoroughly understood they weren't real steels, they were telling us we didn't actually do anything wrong. But when they received the call from that lady they had to think they were. So that lady was just too oblivious and couldn't tell the difference. The first moment was pretty heart pumping and adrenaline rushing... and the cops were actually remarking on how similar our guns were to theirs. And one said " i was *this* close to pulling the trigger on him." so yea, that was my day.

You live in Seattle? Are there any news articles about it. That would be interesting.

[A-10Warthog]

local paper police blotter will have it

[BloodBane611]

If there are no charges files it won't be picked up by a police blotter (or at least should not be). Probably won't be anything about it, police departments have plenty of false alarms like this on a regular basis

[Sidewinder Zulu]

So, Seattle has no restrictions on Airsoft Guns? I'm surprised; most American cities have very strict anti-gun laws, whether the guns are real, airsoft, paintball, BB, or whatever.

In New York City, where I live, it's illegal to have a paintball gun if you're under 17 years old, and it's illegal to shoot it outside, anywhere within city limits, even if it's in your own backyard on your own property.

Basically, that's the same law for owning a real gun, except for a real gun you need to get a special license from the NYPD and stuff.

Although it might even be the same for a paintball gun, I can't really find the exact law anywhere.
If that's the case, well then, I guess my owning a Tippman TPX paintball pistol makes me a felon.

Anyway, yeah, people take airsoft and paintball guns way, way too seriously.
There are more people killed playing football in the United States each year than there are combined injuries from paintball and airsoft.

If I remember correctly, there was only one paintball related fatality worldwide last year.
So yeah, cops and legislators need to chill out.

[[R-DEV]Ninja2dan]

When "playing airsoft" there are some general rules that you should always follow, most of them are just common sense.

First, not everyone knows what a real firearm looks like up close. When they see someone running around with something that looks like an AK-47 or M-16 from 50-100m away, do you think that they are going to sit there trying to look for an orange tip or a CO2 bottle? If you think someone has a firearm and looks like they might be intending to use it, you should be running the other way and calling the authorities.

Second, you shouldn't be using airsoft in a residential area anyways. While "airsoft" is not illegal, how you do so can be. Playing soccer is not illegal, but if you decide to play a match in the middle of a highway then that IS illegal. Again, common sense.


If you want to use airsoft on private property, do so where the area is either marked as a designated airsoft or similar play field, or is off limits to the general public not participating in the event. In fact, most cities actually do have local restrictions on the use of any "weapon or device" that fires a projectile in a residential zone. This can include archery, BB guns, pellet guns, airsoft replicas, and even paintball guns.


I have been both active in airsoft/mil-sim and also have served as an LEO, so I know how this works from both sides of the fence. If you don't want to get shot, follow the rules and use common sense when choosing when, where, and how you participate.

[[R-COM]Glimmerman]

Thats one of the reasons its illegal here, because normal people cant tell the difference between a real gun and a airsoft replica.

Problem here is its not allowed to use them on designated area's also like paintball does

Have to drive to Belgium to do it.

[Panama Jakk]

Common sense isn't so common.