Air Soft guns

I can't claim to know you or the neighbor in question, but as a third party observer, you are the one who called the cops for what I would call a minor infraction. I could understand a person becoming "volatile and bullying" (subjective accusations) perhaps in frustration from having a neighbor call the cops for minor infractions.

Obviously people have different opinions about matters like this one, I just think the best approach is to not escalate things quite so quickly and try to be a little more diplomatic first before using the police as a last resort.

 

Yes, I would prefer the diplomatic approach but you do not know the neighbor in question. I'm not exaggerating when I use the terms volatile and bullying.

 

The original post was about a kid shooting a couple of girls with a bb gun. It's cliche, but my guess is that a bb could take an eye out and do other damage depending on distance, etc. If a parent in this densely populated area is knowingly allowing a kid to discharge one of these things off the deck or whatever, I doubt that a "conversation" with said parent is going to accomplish much.

 

Andy- I haven't talked to his parents and I wouldn't do so since I didn't observe this incident.

Im just commenting on this thread. And you don't *gasp* think this isn't scary? Well what if this kid had shot at other people or people's pets? Last I read the county's police condensed reports, there was someone who was hit by BB guns...I think its scary because someone's eyes or worse could have been hit. Your definition of scary may not be the same as others definition. I wouldn't call the cops on this kid but I would talk to his parents if I had observed it.

 

It was never stated that he did and I didn't speculate otherwise.

You're correct. My experiences shape my opinion which is different than yours. I spent my youth running through fields shooting things with my BB gun and to this day still have some scars on my arm where I was shot by other kids as part of playing around. Life went on, but the part I didn't consider "scary" was where a kid shot a bird. Shooting people isn't acceptable; it is assault, but not what I was commenting on. If the neighbor kid were popping birds next to my house, with my kids nearby, I wouldn't appreciate it and would hash it out with his parents.

My comments are based on the fact that I'm sensitive to the "criminalization of society" where all of us break multiple laws every day mostly due to the fact that the laws exist, not necessarily because they are good laws. I'm also sensitive to the fact that the level of overreaction prevalent around behavior (especially around kids and schools) has the capability to really affect or ruin someone's life in a disproportionate way.

 

Then why was your comment that I should talk to his parents directed to me after I had made the original comment about "taking the gun away from the kid and having him talked to"? Was confused when you followed up with that comment that I should be talking to his parents when I hadn't observed anything.

 

Misquoting. Sorry. Your comment was trapped between the two cop references.

 

Ahh understood and no big deal...was just confused if that was directed to me or what. Understand that you've been hit with a BB but Im under the impression that Loudoun county law forbids the use of BB guns or any other type of guns in residential areas nowadays.

 

A bb CAN definately kill! My cat was shot with a pellet gun a couple of years ago...it missed her spine by less than an inch. If it had hit her spine, she wouldn't have survived. Even so, she endured godawful pain during the weeks it took to heal. (We never found out who did it, but if we had, we would have pressed charges.)

If a kid is willing to shoot at ANY animal, whether it be a pellet gun or air-soft gun, then they have a problem. And that problem may intensify as he/she grows older. Just my opinion.

 

Does this mean that BB guns should be banned? If so, how about knives, sticks and anything else able to kill?

I suspected this was coming. What if the kid shoots them with a gun, while hunting?

 

Well, it's a little different if a kid shoots a cat just because, then if they are hunting, supervised. I guess I just don't see the thrill in killing.

 

Wonder if you would be this dismissive if it was your kid/animal on the receiving end of the pellet.

 

I recall a friend and I carting a couple pellet guns into the wilderness when I was young. I was just randomly firing into the trees when a tangled mess of feathers and ear piercing squawks came tumbling down, bouncing around uncontrollably. I was completely freaked out, and even more so when the rest of the birds in the area gathered around and started to chime in witht he squawking... was a bizarre experience. Luckily my friend had experience with this type of thing and put his gun to the birds head and quickly put it out of its misery. I'll never forget the guilt I felt for taking that bird down for no reason at all, accident or not. The recall is burned clear as day into my conscience.

Guess the point I'm trying to make is that life dishes out its own lessons... which are much more powerful than some authority figure hovering around sayiing 'don't do that cause I say so'...

 

True enough. But sometimes something like that doesn't faze them at all.

 

Your quote was "If a kid is willing to shoot at ANY animal, whether it be a pellet gun or air-soft gun, then they have a problem. And that problem may intensify as he/she grows older. Just my opinion." It appears that you have softened your stance. I think that rarely are such things black and white.

 

How does being concerned about some unsupervised kid in a densely populated area with a bb gun rise to the level of making "sure nothing ever could possibly happen to us that might impact us negatively" ? It doesn't, but then your point isn't very well made without the exaggeration.

 

I think I get his point. I'm not sure I can do it justice since it's a complex thing to explain and develops as a gut feeling. To begin, I think you are playing exactly the same game since his point involved calling the cops. You downplay it just as much by saying "concerned about some unsupervised kid". That greatly underplays the amount of reaction that was called for that prompted this entire thread.

Gut reactions that involve calling the cops over popping a bird with a BB gun made some of us cringe because we did it too...and likely much worse. Oddly, we still grew up to be mildly successful upstanding members of the community with kids of our own and that may not have been the case had charges been filed against us for even one (of the hundreds) of stupid things I did as a kid.

In fact, (and some people will love/hate this story), I recall owning a 6 ft. blowgun as a kid. It seemed like a good idea at one point to shoot a squirrel in my front yard. He was sitting in a tree and I walked directly under him and blew my dart directly into his heart. He lost his muscle control and fell out of the tree...directly onto my head. This 4-5 lbs piece of meat with claws fell approximately 20-30 ft. onto my head. I was in my front yard, dancing around like a fool and squealing like a little girl trying to get this paralyzed squirrel off my head.

My mother was understandably horrified (after she found it decomposing in her garden). I had killed something without any regard to life and now would counsel and punish my own children for the same action. I didn't have that kind of guidance when I was growing up though. Had a neighbor called the cops on me and had me prosecuted (for what was legal then but illegal now) then I would have a record. It would affect my life, my security clearance and other aspects. The point is that's unnecessary. Kids do, have always, and will always, make poor choices and do stupid ****. Let's try not put them all in jail before they figure life out though (or make sweeping conclusions about what type of people they are based upon a few things that 'scare' people).

 

No, I haven't softened my stance. I just didn't want to get into the whole "to hunt or not to hunt" issue right now. I don't believe in hunting and I don't believe a kid should be killing anything, whether it be hunting or not. Now that will probably open a whole other can of worms, but I'm not going to get into it.