Thumpy has sent over news of another attack on airsoft in California:
There is now a "second front" in California’s battle to kill Airsoft:
On Tuesday, L.A. Time, (June 7, 2011) the City Police Commission took up a proposal from Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who was THE advocate for California Senate Bill 798…to start the process for OUTLAWING anyone with "toy guns" in the City of Los Angeles.
Basically, the Police Commission is being asked by Beck to send a request to the City Attorney to change the Municipal Code, a move that would virtually ban ANY possession or sale of anything resembling a gun inside the city. And also, the Commissioners opened up a possible push against coloring/painting of real guns with bright colors or paint. This is all supposed to help police on the street determine if someone they are dealing with has a real gun, a "toy gun" or something else.
But, this latest move is in exactly 180-degrees out-of-phase from what Chief Beck wanted SB 798 to do…make "toy guns" colored so Cops can allegedly tell the difference, in the dark-of-night, when they might be facing down a deadly felon…or just some kids who don’t know any better.
Video of the entire meeting is at the following link, with the part about the Airsoft/"Toy Gun" Code changes starts at about 1:35:20 or so….and listen for bad logic, no questioning about the 2nd Amendment Rights of private citizens, about the lack of public "education" about the dangers of guns, and especially listen for the paintball guys who showed up to start to throwing airsofters under-the-bus to save their sport, when they should realize these folks want ALL GUNS to go away.
http://lacity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=136&clip_id=9220
Obviously this is all crazy. What color a suspect’s "weapon" or lack thereof makes no difference. Having "them" in public is the problem. IF "they" just enforced laws already on the books, and IF prosecutors pushed for the toughest possible sentencing/fines….this would all be a moot point.
Instead, California is demonizing law-abiding business and citizens, threatening thousands of jobs and millions in revenue (including tax revenue, too–Hello, California..your are going broke?), and not just in their own state, but across the country and around the world, because of the actions of 3 people (one kid who failed to follow orders to put down his Airsoft pistol in the dark with officers drawing down on him, one "suicide-by-cop" guy with a BB gun, and one guy with a garden hose nozzle that police "though" looked like a gun.)
Those 3 people did the wrong thing and found out what we all know….that Airsoft Guns ARE DEADLY WEAPONS…just not to the guys on the down-range end of the gun, but to the person holding it in the wrong place, at the wrong time. These proposals, both SB 798 AND the L.A. code changes, are the antithesis of what all of our collective efforts have been, to bring our game/sport into safe places to play, with the proper equipment, proper instruction on FIREARMS/AIRGUN SAFETY, and to keep "craptastic plastic" guns off the big-box store shelves and out of the hands of kids who do not know the dangers they face from neighborhood games.
Until Police Chief Beck, "Politicians" in L.A. and California–and across the country–and everyone who comes in contact with Airsoft understands those points, it is all just a moot point, and blowing in the wind.
Speak up NOW. Tell your local leaders what you know about the positive, good things airsoft has done for you and your friends. Tell military players and law enforcement officers who are airsofters and use airsoft for LIFE SAVING TRAINING to speak out, too. Call/E-Mail/Write and visit your local, state and national politicians and make your case. Or, we’ll all be packing our guns into cases, to turn-in for destruction.
Thumpy…OVER (Thumpy’s 3-D House of Airsoft)
