Hooded air gun thugs shoot 11 pupils on lunch break at school

[Nathan]

Witnesses said the thugs were firing a black airgun indiscriminately, laughing as they did so.

The terrifying incident will raise serious concerns about the prevalence of airguns throughout Britain. 


Nathan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359916/Airgun-thugs-shoot-11-pupils-lunch-break-Ayrshire-school.html

[a1Bogey]

Cowards.   And as an after thought,  someday they will be murdering trash from H*LL.  A pox on society.

[mojomoto]

Hope they find them and make them pay. Line them up and let the kids that got hit or just shot at, take 11 shots at them...See how they like it.
After some good practice first of course.

[mojomoto]

I did some quick math!

lets say 25 kids x 11 well placed bbs or pellets....... =125 welts a piece. :-
A big pink welt makes a good target too. OUCHY.

[jonny.177.22]

yesh, why do they treat it like a murder?

[daveshoot]

"They said they were looking for a ‘BB’ type gun which was probably capable of repeat fire. Three pellets had been found, which police said were of a ‘heavy resinous material’."

Umm, reading between some lines, do you think this might have been an airsoft attack? Kid in the story says he was shot in the back but it didn't penetrate because of his heavy coat.

[Brushy Bill]

Umm, reading between some lines, do you think this might have been an airsoft attack? Kid in the story says he was shot in the back but it didn't penetrate because of his heavy coat.

I was thinking the same thing.
Not that it would make it any less wrong, I remember
seeing reports here in the states of "drive by shootings"
using paint ball guns.

Here is a photo of a "Gang Shooting"




Unfortunately this is not what one thinks of when they see the term
"Gang Shooting"

[woogie_man]

You beat me to it dave...


Sounds like kids with airsoft guns.   That really is stupid, as the rifles can look identical to the real thing.  And there is no way that most police officers can know.  So they shoot first and find out after.

[oldpink]

Definitely Airsoft, and the British press is clearly too clueless to know the difference.
Still definitely wrong.
It wouldn't surprise me if this had been staged to get Airsoft or other airguns completely banned over there.
Only half kidding there.

[Brushy Bill]

It wouldn't surprise me if this had been staged to get Airsoft or other airguns completely banned over there.
Only half kidding there.

Agree, but the other half is the really scary half.
It would not surprise me if that actually happens.

[uncle paulie]

I saw a kid outside of a Dicks at the back of his Moms SUV. He had just bought a couple of packages of airsoft pellets, and was loading some into his gun while Mom was busy talking to someone on her phone. The kid had blacked out the red indicator on the end of the barrel. Couldn't  tell it from the real thing. I started questioning the kid, Mom came around(still on the phone) & asked what was up? I explained what her little darling had done and tried to explain to her that were I a cop, I would be within my rights to use my weapon. Her response was "Don't be silly, its just a toy gun!".... I figured there was no use arguing with that bit of logic and left.

pv

[RedFeather]

They wouldn't have fared to well on this side of the water.  Be wearing tags on their big toes by now.  You hood yourself and step onto a school ground in the US with a lookalike airsoft pistol you might as well step in front of a bus.  It's more humane.

My son had a Beretta 9mm looking airsoft gun.  I had to really look hard at the black barrel to convince myself he hadn't picked up a real gun.  Might be wrong but I don't believe the ones that adults use at airsoft ranges have the red tips.  They are all lookalikes.

[woogie_man]

You are kind of right there red....

I love airsoft, and have been playing for around 12 years now.

By law they have to be sold, and shipped with an orange tip.  So that people can know that it is a fake/toy gun.

But as soon as you get the rifle, you can take it off.  No law that says you need to keep the tip orange.  Over in europe a lot of the rifles are sold with a green stock, easier to see that it is a toy.

No I can honestly say that all of my airsoft rifles are one to one in the look and weight department.  But again, I am not an 8 year old kid that carries his stuff outside and points at people.  Like all weapons, they need to be in a rifle bag, or box when transporting.

There have indeed been a few times here in the US where an officer has pulled his pistol on a person with an airsoft rifle out in public.  I am not sure but I remember hearing somewhere that there have been people shot, again here in the US.  Overseas they are trying to out law them, just to avoid the chance in counter with it.


No matter what the age, you need to be responsible with them.  And that mother should have been a parent, rather than talking on the phone and thinking her little son was an angel.

[RedFeather]

You whip one of those out, especially without the orange tip, and you are asking for it.  A cop doesn't have but a split second to decide what he should do.  Make it dark enough, and it can be a fatal move, as the poor kid in California found out some years back.  Ditto a lot of these pellet pistols designed for indoor practice.  Those are dead ringers.

[woogie_man]

I have some pictures of my M4's, an M249, a 240B, and a sniper rifle.....all next to the real thing.  The only way you can tell the airsoft rifles from the real ones, is to look at the chamber.

I did this at one of my guard drills.  And the supply sargent, as well as 90% of my unit couldn't tell the difference. 

Then again all of the rifles that I have are all close to $600 or more, so nothing cheap about them.  We pay for that "real look". 

[mojomoto]

I saw a kid outside of a Dicks at the back of his Moms SUV. He had just bought a couple of packages of airsoft pellets, and was loading some into his gun while Mom was busy talking to someone on her phone. The kid had blacked out the red indicator on the end of the barrel. Couldn't  tell it from the real thing. I started questioning the kid, Mom came around(still on the phone) & asked what was up? I explained what her little darling had done and tried to explain to her that were I a cop, I would be within my rights to use my weapon. Her response was "Don't be silly, its just a toy gun!".... I figured there was no use arguing with that bit of logic and left.

pv

Thanks for trying!

In my day toy guns were much smaller or obviously not real. (a stick will do with some imagination.)
Not sure it should be legal for any "replica" gun to be owned by a child. My kids dont know what a toy gun is. They have a Daisy Red Rider. They only know how to treat a gun as real.
A toy should look like a toy. IMO.