Be careful walking in public with your air gun in plain view

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The kids were 14 and 18, old enough to know better. If their parents allow them to possess the rifles unsupervised, even BB guns, then they should know the laws. Granted, some of the laws are excessive, but kids with toy guns and air guns have been the cause of some tragedies. If an officer has a reasonable belief that he/she is approaching someone with a firearm, they have to assume the worst.
 
Well, there certainly was no common sense displayed in this event by the officers. Sure, they had to investigate. But, once the devices were determined to be BB guns they should have put both kids in the cruiser and driven them home, then talked to the parents. Why charge young kids with multiple felonies that can ruin their entire lives? Hopefully, the prosecutor who gets the case has some common sense. I sincerely doubt a grand jury would indict either, given that these are not firearms.
 
Police overreacted. The teachers overreacted. The members of this forum are overreacting. This whole thing brings up a question.

If BB guns are not firearms and 2A is consistently (and incorrectly) interpreted to mean firearms, what if any protections do BB guns have under the law? Make sure you understand the answer to that is none.

None of the laws cited or applied in this context are appropriate. I don't go out of my way to hide my air guns or my firearms for that matter because I don't want anyone to think I might be trying to hide them. The only time that you should carry concealed when you have a permit carry concealed. If you think the police overreacted to someone open carrying a BB gun what might they do if they suddenly realized you were carrying some kind of "firearm" concealed?

Food for thought.
 
Police overreacted. The teachers overreacted. The members of this forum are overreacting. This whole thing brings up a question. If BB guns are not firearms and 2A is consistently (and incorrectly) interpreted to mean firearms, what if any protections do BB guns have under the law? Make sure you understand the answer to that is none.

None of the laws cited or applied in this context are appropriate. I don't go out of my way to hide my air guns because I don't want anyone to think I might be trying to hide them.
The teachers and police did what they were supposed to do. You don't carry a gun (firearm or not) on school grounds and not expect there to be repercussions. Open carry is also illegal so those kids really are lucky they weren't confronted by more trigger happy police officers.

The charges are absolutely bogus though and won't stick. That was the only over reaction made here. If I were to venture a guess I would bet it is to scare some common sense into two dumb kids.
 
Coming from 29 years in law enforcement I'd rather that LE treat that call as an actual firearm and have it be a air gun than have them treat it as "probably not" a real firearm and have it turn out to be. Are charges warranted in this case, I don't know, I don't have all the facts, but a felony seems a bit much for lack of common sense on the part of the kids with the air guns. . And don't throw the "they were kids" at me......


I spent 15 years tactically training probably 1000 officers on responding to armed intruders in schools and helped write realistic school policy and procedures on dealing with a school shooter. If I'm a teacher, student, parent, responding officer, or a passerby and I see anyone carrying something that looks like a rifle then it's a rifle until factually determined otherwise. It's just how the times are now.
 
I totally agree with the officers reaction , but once established "BB guns" the officer should have done what was done to me at my stupidity , taken into custody , shown the cell i would be in IF , then i had to call my parents to come pick my up at the station .
But of course then the Lawyers would then be involved and police brutality would come into play these days . lawsuit !!!!
My parents whupped my a$$ . and i could not touch my gun for 2 whole weeks . This at the age of 9 years old .
 
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There is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is so that the idiotic wording of laws don't make criminals out of innocent people. In that vid they showed the wording of a law that stated it's illegal to have a firearm within 1,000 feet of a schools property. Does that mean that every homeowner that lives within 1,000 feet of a school is forbidden to have a firearm or BB gun in their house? I once lived within 50 feet of a school and had guns in my house, was I committing a felony at the time?
 
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