Are toys firearms?

[aray]

BATFE thinks so:

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Government-Documents-Declare-Popular-Toy-a-firearm-115198119.html

and the memo:

http://images.bimedia.net/documents/Internal+ATF+memo+on+airsoft+findings.pdf

Thoughts?

[Dietrich]

BATFE [especially under the current administration] would probably classify lighted flatulence as an explosive if asked.However,I would be very hesitant about buying one of these airsoft rifles for my young`un simply because the darned thing looks too realistic.[Not to mention the price.]The fact that it`s so authentic looking is probably what started the whole thing anyway.As to whether or not it`s a firearm,I don`t think so.I would like to know exactly how much and what type of modification has to be done in order for it to fire actual bullets.Also,it would be nice to have firearms experts, rather than a government agency, take a look at these and make an informed,unbiased decision.Not that it would matter to the government,actual facts rarely do nowadays.

[getsome]

Are toys firearms? You better believe it....When I was 8 years old I got the greatest Christman present ever...It was the one and only "Johnny Seven" O.M.A "One Man Army" It was a bipod mounted machine gun that also sported a Grenade launcher, Anti tank rocket, Armor piercing missle, Anti bunker bomb and detachable pistol....I was in hog heaven with that thing and was the baddest a$$ on the street...I had the whole neighborhood cleaned out of Germans and Japs in no time...Go on U Tube and look up the Johnny Seven TV commercial from the mid 60's...It will bring back some memories for us older fellows that actually played Army OUTSIDE and not on a video game...

[Bawanna]

I had one of those on my christmas wish list for several years. I gotta write a letter to Santa. Bastard never brought me one. Not like he hasn't had time in the last 50 years or so. Ya think?

He better wise up and make amends or I'm gonna tell Jocko he don't really exist. He'll be heartbroken.

[garyb]

I gotta laugh about this toy issue, because it just came up in my family. Recently I visited with my grandson and he was so proud to show me his new auto rifle toy. It made the real sound (battery operated) and had some kind of lights in it that made the barrel light up when he shot it. Even had a bayonette on the end. He knew PopPop would be proud of him being a soldier.

The next time he visited he was proud with his cowboy revolver and holster with a lever action Winchester rifle replica. He was proud of me seeing him be a cowboy.

The next thing I know my wife is telling me about shopping with our daughter and that our daughter would not buy the kid a semi pistol. I guess the thing looked so darned real that it scared her. I tried to talk to my wife and daughter claiming "It's a toy", but they did NOT cave in and were well prepared for my words, because they know my point of view on this subject very well.

Anyway, it made me wonder about the toy market making guns look TOO real and having adults confuse them for the real thing. Normally they have a big orange plastic piece on the end. I thought it was some new law, but apparently not. Apparently the semi pistol did not have the big orange plastic thing. I did not see it so I can not say for sure. But I know my grandson was disappointed that he could not get that new gun and I know why...it looked real.

So, "Are toys firearms?" - The reality is that I do not consider them a firearm....BUT, I guess perception can become reality and this makes the answer change when we consider on what the toy does and how they look. Especially when we consider the videos out there and the horror stories of kids getting their hands on real weapons and shooting themselves or other kids. If the toy can shoot something out the barrel they "fire" something, even if it is a toy bullet or paint ball; AND couple this with the fact that if they look so real that they can be "mistaken for a real firearm", I guess they "look like a firearm". If a toy "looks like a real firearm and shoots like a real firearm, and can be mistaken for a real firearm"...perhaps it follows suit with the saying "if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck...it's a duck!.

In the good old days, when I was a kid and you could actually play outside without fear of being kidnapped, the more the toy gun looked like the real thing, the better. Even if it was a b.b gun. No one worried about it back then. However, we all realize that sadly, times have changed for certain. Like it or not, and we all realize that it is a sad world we live in today, regardless of our wonderful freedoms. It is what it is. Unfortunately, guns have a bad name and scare people...even if they are toys. I hate to see it and read about it. I am always setting people straight about the reality of gun ownership, but it seems to be a losing battle.

[DKD]

There is just NO COMMON SENSE these days...none! I do miss the old days when people meant what they said and a mans word was his bond!

[getsome]

Yea I was kinda making a joke of the situation but I do understand that some of the newer Airsoft guns do look very real and that could be a problem...My younger son got into the Airsoft thing and one day I found a can of flat black spray paint in the garage and a newspaper with a black gun outline...Now I had already gone over the deal about the orange barrel tip and why it was there but he didn't listen and wanted the AR-15 Airsoft rifle to look even more real...Here is how I handled that situation...I got him and the rifle in the garage and had him put the gun in my bench vice and watch while I crushed it into little plastic shards....That one time cured him of ever trying that again...Now he is 15 and I am very proud of how gun safe he is when we go to the range...Seems with all that safety talk we had at least some did find its way into his brain after all and he is a fine young man and one rank away from Eagle Scout and can shoot my pants off any day....I tell myself its my eyesight or lack of it...:cool:

[Bawanna]

They call that tough love and I think you did the right thing personally speaking. Share my pride with your boy on his scout rank. I was an Eagle myself and it wasn't a bowl of cherries to get either. You should be proud.

We deal with kids frequently around town with these very real looking Airsoft toys, get calls of a kid packing a rifle or pistol down Main St. Until they see a platoon a squad cars arriving in all directions I don't think it clicks in their minds and certainly not in their parents minds the perception they create.

As I'm usually the one to give the airsoft gun back to the parents I'm semi obligated to one final time explain to them the horribly ugly things that could have happened had their child not done exactly what the responding officer told them to do. I've even gone so far as to show them one of our very real ARs to show them visually how real the toy one looked to an officer coming in with 26 gallons of adrenaline flowing thru his veins.

Some following the talk just signed it away and told us to destroy it. I don't advocate that at all, I know its a heart breaker for the kid but do recommend they keep it in the back yard out of sight of the general populous.

[aray]

Hats off to anyone who made Eagle Scout. It's not easy, that's for sure. My brother got there - me not so much.