*
“We’re not sure that that rifle was an actual working rifle or if it was an airsoft rifle,” Aguilar said immediately after the shooting.
By Saturday night, police had determined it was an airsoft weapon designed to shoot plastic projectiles.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have an airsoft rifle. It's a virtual duplicate of my old M4. It has the same stock, grips etc etc etc. It does have a bright orange nose piece in the flash suppressor. If that orange tip was removed or painted over, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference, especially at a distance.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the thing is great fun and a good way to teach the grandkids about guns and gun safety.
Yeah, but my point is the shooting took place at 1:20 PM yet according to the article, it was later that night before they determined it was an airsoft gun.
DeleteI agree, pretty suspect…or negligent. With respect to the first post, my son bought his daughter (13) a CO2-powered pistol that looked exactly like a Glock 17. All black. Very realistic-looking. I went to the local hardware store and purchased some 1” wide orange electrical tape, and put a strip of it around the muzzle.
DeleteI imagine they knew it was a toy as soon as it was picked up off the ground. The lesson here is to stay out of the feral cities, where there are abundant thugs on both sides of the law.
DeleteLots of Airsoft guns weigh about at much as the real thing. My nephew's M4 weighs in, without optics and rail attachments, at around 7lbs. Everything looks 'real-real,' even the magazines, until you look real closely. Shit's so real that a lot of people use the cheaper airsoft accessories rather than ponying up more cash for 'real' stuff.
DeleteAdd in that a lot of cops, especially in California, are not 'people of the gun' and therefore have no idea about how to tell fake from real.
I figure the cops knew it was a toy gun almost immediately after they examined it. Their lawyers and union rep’s just took a few hours to figure out how to spin it. In today’s world, I would not get my grandchildren toy guns. An M- forgery with an international orange flash suppressor might give a bad person an edge, if only for a second. What a time to be alive! Eod1sg Ret
ReplyDeleteDon't assume cops know anything about guns. I've seen cops shows where they confiscate a pistol and couldn't figure out how to unload it. Or they pull the mag but fail to clear the chamber. Some of the airsoft stuff actually has a heft to it, it's not like picking up a plastic toy.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, no body cam released yet. I'm wondering if they even gave the guy a chance to put it down, or just opened fire immediately on seeing it. As stated above, the delay gave them time to get the union reps and lawyers involved.
Exactly. They said the man exited a house with the toy. Was he walking out to drive to the airsoft range? Pointing it, high ready? Or did the snowflakes with badges see him and shoot with no warning?
DeleteThey didn't even know if both snowflakes fired their weapons. How long does it take to count rounds in a mag?
I don't trust anything the cops say. They are trained liars.
Got pulled over a few years ago in
Deletenorthern Arizona and had a tuned up ( beveled cylinder, tuned forcing come, trigger tuned to be 2.5lbs exact but no travel at all so it *felt* like 1lbs) SAA (Peacemaker) clone in .45LC along with a 1892 lever action clone in .45LC with me. The SAA was on my hip, lever gun in a vertical rifle rack between the front seats of my truck. A city cop who was in the 45-50ish range (normal cop, not Sgt or Lt, so bad sign already at his age.) Pulled me over for drinking a can of monster while driving. He decided that my can of monster was *obviously* some type of alcohol and proceeded to treat me as a drunk driver. During the third or fourth round of "so, you gonna tell me how much you've *really* had to drink" he noticed the rifle and freaked the fuck out. Pulled me out of the truck, took my pistol, and then monkeyfucked with it trying to unload it. I explained how you unload a SAA (half cock, open loading gate, tilt gun so ammo falls out while rotating the cylinder.) And the stupid sumbitch put it to full cock and then flagged me with the damn thing like five times. Right after the fifth time (with me yelling and trying to keep away from the muzzle) a Sgt pulled up and got out (who was in his thirties). First time I've ever seen a cop go ballist on another cop Infront of a 'suspect'. Thankfully the Sgt knew about SAA guns, was safely able to decock and then unload the gun, and reamed out the other cop. I got a half ass apology from the first cop, a sincere apology from the Sgt, and spent about a half hour talking about SASS matches and how to tune SASS guns (SAA colts, 1892 and 1887 lever guns, and double shotguns). Ended up doing a SASS match where the Sgt was also competing a couple years later and had a pretty good chuckle when he told me about the ration of shit the patrol cop got for being a dumbass.
First off, I absolutely detest (hate?) cops, but I do NOT expect them to wait before shooting a perp that comes out KNOWING they are cops brandishing ANY rifle shaped item until they know for sure it is real or not.... play stupid games.....
ReplyDeleteAmericans have the right to bear arms. The story does not even say if the man was "brandishing" the toy or not. It says he exited from a house carrying it, no mention of if it was the house they were responding to or not. I do expect cops to take the risk and make sure there is a actual threat, not a "I feared for muh life!" . The life, rights, and property of a citizen are more important than the safety of a government employee.
DeleteThere is not enough info in this story to know, but in the current day (a phrase loved by cops) I treat all cop shootings as bad shoots until they prove they are not.
Be very careful with that word "brandishing". Cops love to use it, and DAs are worse. Brandishing means you pulled out a weapon and pointed it in a threatening way. As you couch it, I could be shot for standing in my yard and shaking my cane at a cop.
DeleteIn the useless state I live in, open carry is considered brandishing.
DeleteLeigh
Whitehall, NY
Chris, in California if walking out the front door of your house puts you in a place where the public can see, you carrying a firearm is brandishing.
DeleteExample: if any part of the space between your house door and your vehicle is visible to a passerby it is a public space. Even though your vehicle is parked on your property, even though from house to vehicle you did not leave your property. Even though it was only a few seconds. Even though you are on your way to an official shooting range, or to go hunting.
Carrying in a public space is brandishing.
No mention of the victim's race, hmmmmmm.
ReplyDeleteVermont Vista is 66% Hispanic and 31% black.
That said, big screen simulation target practice can only go so far,
Nothing beats 'meat world' target practice /sarc
As said, orange tip or orange tape or not, how many criminals could do the same thing to a real gun? If you live in a free fire zone than treat the handling of any object that might be mistaken for a gun as a gun.
ReplyDeleteIf that guy was going to an airsoft range (does such an animal exist?) then buy a transport sleeve or gun case and put it inside.
Better yet, move.
Who cares if it was an Airsoft gun? You wave something that looks like a weapon around cops, and they are going to shoot you. That is how it works. Especially in LA.
ReplyDeleteYes, most cops just barely pass their annual firearms qualifications, and while they may be a little too quick on the trigger sometimes, they make up with a typical hit rate of about 10 %. Wait. What? Oh well.
As the other poster said, "play stupid games, win stupid prizes".
What....no dogs in the neighborhood.....???????
ReplyDeleteEd357
I consider most cops to be as truthful as most politicians.
ReplyDeleteCC