Wow there is so much stupid in this thread its unbelievable. Do you think a police officer has time to be doubley sure to verify that a firearm is real or not? Sure there is some discretion but we are talking about public safety here. While I do agree that these events are tragic, we cannot ignore the fact that an airsoft gun was brandished in public. And whats this bullshit about waiting for the kid to raise the gun to the police before shooting. Do you really think a police officer would wait for someone to point a gun at them before taking a shot to protect themselves? And do you really think its reasonable for someone to aim for the leg instead of center mass? I recall a thread on here not too long ago speaking about shot placement, and how aiming for the legs and arms is sheer stupidity.

Edit: http://airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=159398

Last few lines of the article, and first few subsequent posts.

You just won this thread chief.

It happened again "(
 

How about you go stand down range of someone with a rifle. You don't know if they have a real gun or not. You are responding to the scene and have mere seconds to determine if it's real or not. Are you really going to wait for a rifle to be raised towards you before you react? You are facing potentially a real AK with full auto.

In terms of them acting too quickly, we don't know the time line or how things unfolded.



Put yourself in their shoes. Are you going to shoot someone in the leg, who is turning to you with a rifle, so that you can determine if it's real or not? No, because you'd be dead. Also don't tell me that they should have aimed for the shooting arm. So that he couldn't pull the trigger. Shoot center mass and take down the threat otherwise you will become a victim.

Is a 13 year old is incapable if pulling the trigger on a real gun and killing people in range of the weapon? I think not.

Volteco... Thats simply not how things are done. There are no 'shooting at legs' or anything like that. The kid was brandishing what the cop could only identify as a firearm. The police are trained to shoot centre mass with no exceptions. The kid, instead of putting the gun down, ended up turning around to point the gun at the cop.

What do you honestly expect anyone would do if put into that position.

Look at the photo, the barrel was chopped off, No orange tip. And at a distance, the clear receiver is almost impossible to distinguish between something more solid. Clear receivers are common on the field I play at, and half the time I cant tell until I see it up close.

The kid was being a dumb shit and decided to do something incredibly stupid, which cost him his life in the end.

Orange flash hider is only mandatory for import and sale. Privately you can do whatever you want to it, depending on the state.

Police officers shoot to stop which typically means center of mass. Also I am not a lawyer, but most bylaws prohibit the brandishing a weapon in public. Concealed carry and open carry is not brandishing, since they are safed in holsters

It should be mandatory for newbs to read these news articles to help its sink in as to why we use gun bags and keep our guns out of sight. You end up paying the ultimate price, and the Airsoft community will eventually pay the price. No more game or guns allowed:(

buddy, do you understand what was each police officers was taught? they were taught to use deadly force, for fear of personal safety and public safety.
if you go around carrying an airsoft AK, even though it may be a toy to you, in eyes of the law enforcement, its a firearm and they can't risk it. so they tell you to drop it and if you don't comply, you are getting shot for failing to do so

Yep darwinism at work.

Kid Should be given a Darwin award if he actually Cut the barrel off to remove the bright orange it that i thought the gun must have under federal law in the USA...

I kept mine and it's not even the law here encase i ever decide i might want A bright orange tip on my not real gun...

Why was his dad not watching him???

I doubt he was using it with the front sight removed....
which makes me wonder if the kid wanted to be more Ganksta!!! and removed the orange tip...

irresponsible fucking parrents

in honest really I doubt the kid cared about the airsoft community...

this will be used by the Control lobby to ban milsim paint ball and airsoft again

I meant for new Airsoft players here. And I know it's just common sense to not walk around with anything that looks like a gun, I wouldn't walk down the street with a paintball gun. But it's amazing what I've heard some people say...."what's the big deal, there not real guns" Idiots I tell ya!

As soon as someone says "shoot for the leg" I know they're stupid. Too much fuckin TV, NOBODY FUCKING NOBODY is trained to "shoot for the leg" just fuckin stop right there.

The gun belonged to his friend, who was the person that removed the orange flash-hider. It's hard to know exactly what happened in this incident as many of the news stories have slightly different details. Regardless of timeline, regardless of whether the police actually told him to drop the weapon, regardless of anything; the parents should have known full well that their son, walking around anywhere in Cali with something that looks like a real firearm, could get beaten up, arrested or shot. I for one don't think the parents have anything to blame the police for. The responsibility lay with them and their son for not having the sense to bag that shit toy or not.

Fact remains cops Should be trained To Not Instinctively blow away children with out a second thought. being jumpy and over excited is no excuse.

Think about this for the pig lovers with your "he HAD TO BLOW THE KID AWAY TRAINING!!!!!!!! IT'S HIS JOB FORGIVE HIM"... Would you be jumping up and defending a Legal Civilian gun owner for killing a kid in the same position?

also in cali many think it's less serious cause Having a real one is less common...

FYI Cali is actually dumber then texas...

Dumb kid with gun = dead kid with gun.

I'm no expert on California geography and certainly don't know the crime scene in Santa Rosa, but I can make an educated guess on a couple of key things:

- highly unlikely the neighborhood is upper middle class
- gangs are probably a problem in the area
- cops seeing kids with real guns and committing real crimes is a much more common occurrence than in places like Oshawa or even Toronto.

Can't blame the officer for reacting to a threat.

JOC members have had conversations with Calgary police about 'what if' situations just like this. They were told to treat it like any other firearm call.

I'm sure the officer feels like a big bag of shit right now, but going on the information he had at the time he made the correct judgement call.

hey guys do we have a price for that kind of comment?

really.. I mean REALLY ?

shoot the boys leg... yeah right... is that a soccer mom behind that keyboard that has no idea how this kind of stuff works?