Airsoft is marginally dangerous, like playing in a swimming pool, but not like driving a car which is much more dangerous. In my country at least children are allowed to drive a car on their parents' property.
The reason this child was suspended is that the people on the school board have a political problem with ownership of real guns by other people, which is a disgraceful way to treat a child.
Kid playing Airsoft in own yard facing school expulsion
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Re: Kid playing Airsoft in own yard facing school expulsion
I think the bigger issue isn't so much that he was "using an airsoft gun on his own property" and more an issue with firing the airsoftgun at other people. If Khalid were strictly firing at a target in his own front yard that would be one thing, but that doesn't appear to be the case. There is also contention as to whether or not people were shot at while running in the street, or if they were all involved in an "airsoft war" on private property. If there were in fact unwilling participants fired at while waiting or on their way to the bus stop, regardless of where Khalid himself may have been, then the school is in the right. That's the key detail to resolve.Airsoft is marginally dangerous, like playing in a swimming pool, but not like driving a car which is much more dangerous. In my country at least children are allowed to drive a car on their parents' property.
The reason this child was suspended is that the people on the school board have a political problem with ownership of real guns by other people, which is a disgraceful way to treat a child.
Re: Kid playing Airsoft in own yard facing school expulsion
I've already posted the articles, so I'll just summize:TheHammer wrote:I think the bigger issue isn't so much that he was "using an airsoft gun on his own property" and more an issue with firing the airsoftgun at other people. If Khalid were strictly firing at a target in his own front yard that would be one thing, but that doesn't appear to be the case. There is also contention as to whether or not people were shot at while running in the street, or if they were all involved in an "airsoft war" on private property. If there were in fact unwilling participants fired at while waiting or on their way to the bus stop, regardless of where Khalid himself may have been, then the school is in the right. That's the key detail to resolve.
1. The lady who called police said the kids were on private property and the shooter even had a net to stop errant rounds.
2. A second caller also stated the kids were on private property
3. Of the 6 kids involved, all were on the property when they were hit by the pellets
4. None of those assaulted called the cops, their parents didn't press charges, nor even bothered coming forward about the incident.
5. Police found the kids to be acting in a responsible manner.
6. No law enforcement agency classifies airsoft as "firearms," why the fuck can schools do so?
This seems like a perfect example of friends screwing friends over without meaning to:
Principal: "Were you shot?"
Kid: "Well, yes, but.."
Principal: "Thank you, that's all."
Now the principal is on twitter posting private details about a student in order to deflect criticism.
The only evidence that a 7th+ kid was hit or shot at while waiting for the bus comes from the principal. If I've missed otherwise, please inform me. Shooting your friend with an airsoft pistol is stupid, no one is arguing that. But kids do stupid shit all the time, survive with no injury, and hopefully learn to not be idiots in the future. It's called growing up. Should there be some kind of punishment or education required? Yes, but a year in kiddie jail is not the proper response. If no tolerance policies did not exist and the school was not able to classify a $20 airsoft pistol as a handgun, they would have been forced to measure their punishment and likely defend it more than they are now.
To expand on the "kiddie jail" part: my friend in high school did a month stint in "Alternative Education." For 20 days (give or take) he did next to nothing. When they weren't busy doing 10 word vocabulary tests (and being given an hour to study for it), they were sleeping while a teacher read newspapers. Maybe things are better in other districts, but that's my "experience" with them.
Re: Kid playing Airsoft in own yard facing school expulsion
You'd have to be able to prove that she knew it was an airsoft gun and that she was trying to deliberately mislead the 911 operator and police. Given that some of the airsoft guns I've seen look very real except for an orange "safety tip" which she may or may not have seen at a distance and with the kids running around (and maybe not the greatest lighting conditions, it was morning but I don't know how bright it would get on that particular street at that time with the weather conditions, etc.) you'd have a tough time proving she intentionally lied, rather than being genuinely mistaken. Even then it'd probably be a lesser charge rather than manslaughter.energiewende wrote:This raises an interesting question: suppose that Mrs Nervous Neighbour had not mentioned the fact that the gun was not real even though she knew that it was not real, the police showed up and shot the kid. Could the neighbour be charged with manslaughter, or reckless endangerment?“He is pointing the gun, and it looks like there’s a target in a tree in his front yard,” she told the dispatcher. “This is not a real one, but it makes people uncomfortable. I know that it makes me [uncomfortable], as a mom, to see a boy pointing a gun.”
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This is the price of war,
We rise with noble intentions,
And we risk all that is pure..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, Forever (Rome: Total War)
"On and on, through the years,
The war continues on..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, We Are All One (Medieval 2: Total War)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight