After a rash of West Seattle drive-by pellet gun shootings in August, and the subsequent arrest of three 17-year-olds in connection with the shootings, it appears the reign of muted terror is back: On Saturday, September 24 at 5:29 a.m., officers responded to a call from a woman who reported being the victim of a drive-by airsoft pellet gun shooting in the Central District.
According to the police report, the woman stated that she was walking to work at the ungodly hour of 4:45 a.m. when a “maroon 80’s style boxy 4 door car with tinted windows” drove past her in the area of 23rd Avenue East and East John Street. The woman told police that the car then pulled a partial U-turn at the intersection, putting her in the position of walking towards the driver’s door. At which point, the report states that the driver allegedly “pointed a gun at her and fired” before speeding off. The victim said that “the pellet grazed her right pant leg, but did not hit her fully on the leg.” The victim was understandably “startled” and “afraid.”
Sure, airsoft pellet guns—which shoot plastic BBs using gas or air—sound like toys in comparison with “real” guns, but it’s important to note that a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms classifies airsoft pellet guns as firearms. And when you’re walking down the street and someone points an airsoft gun at you there’s no time to process whether or not it’s a real gun. Have you seen an airsoft gun? They look pretty fucking real to me.
The victim also told officers that when she arrived at work, “an intoxicated male was outside of the store and stated that he had [also] been shot,” but the man left the area before officers arrived. Even though the man was never interviewed, the fact that another person claimed to have been shot indicates that this was not an isolated incident.
I’m racking my brain for rational reasons to drive around looking for people to shoot with airsoft guns. Were these young men looking for big game? It seems to me that they’re just alleged assholes. I am generally a nice person but I hope that each one of them gets a swift airsoft kick in the balls.
I just read the linked KING5 story. The utter ignorance in the comments is appalling, since presumably these are gun afficionados criticizing the ATF. You’d think they’d know more about guns.
The main issue is the autosear in the replica weapons. An autosear is the key magic bit that is needed to convert an AR15 into a fully-auto “submachine” gun. Yeah, there are other bits that are helpful, too, but this is the one piece that the ATF put heavy regulation on, and requires the same license to possess as you would need for possessing a fully functional machine gun. In other words, that little metal part effectively is legally a machine gun.
Adapting the lower receiver of the Airsoft gun to take a real AR15 upper may not be a trivial exercise, but if the autosear in an Airsoft gun is compatible to be dropped into an AR15 lower, with or without minor modification, then that part is a submachine gun and hence the Airsoft weapon containing it has to be classified as such, too, even if it seems silly to people who don’t know anything about fully-auto AR15s.
They’re not “alleged assholes”, but certifiable assholes. Eventually one of these assholes will pull this shit on a cop or second amendment nutcase.
For the record, most airsoft guns are not illegal, are not considered actual firearms, but they are both fun and stupid. But shooting them at strangers on the street is even stupider.
For what it’s worth, pellet guns and BB guns are not one in the same. BB guns are for shooting tin cans off the fence (and expel round BBs), whereas pellet guns are designed to kill small animals. You can get an air powered .22 fer chrissake.
In California, these kinda shenanigans could get you three years. Washington no doubt has more lenient gun control laws, but sounds like these kids are in deep shit.
Happened to me once, years ago. Totally at random, and it scared the living crap out of me. If my limited experience gives me the right to have an opinion on the matter, then I say: “Yes. shooting people with ANY kind of gun in pretty much ANY situation is the mark of an asshole.”
I was shot once by some fuckers with what I guess was some sort of home-made, bird-shot-emitting zip gun. It hurt, but didn’t break my skin. Mostly it made a loud noise and smoke and scared the living bejesus out of me. Before they fired their lame-ass toy at me they yelled at me and when I looked up to see the barrel coming out of the rolled-down car window I thought it was the last act. They laughed like hell as they drove off. Assholes indeed.
Their time will come. If I had to walk by myself in the CD at 4:45am on a regular basis, I’d probably legally conceal carry my licensed 9mm pistol. And when those guys rolled down their window and pointed a weapon and me, I’d probably empty my clip into them. I know a lot of The Stranger peeps hate guns but one of these days these assholes will try their shit on a licensed pistol packing citizen and learn the hard way not to fuck with people.
It’s America! Shoot back, you arseholes!
Okay, anyone with any sense who has used a BB gun or pellet gun knows that they can be fucking dangerous. I’ve been shot with them (thanks to my little brother) and had them break skin but the biggest danger is honestly being hit in the eye. A Christmas Story wasn’t lying, you can really put someone’s eye out with one, especially if they don’t know they’re being shot at. More likely than one of these asshole’s getting shot by someone with a real gun is that they are going to blind someone.