Why I dislike this line of thinking:
- Computers can be used to hack into companies' networks, so let's restrict those. Of course to hack, you need internet access, so bye-bye modems!
- Kitchen knives can be used to injure people. Get rid of those.
- So can forks, shovels, chainsaws, bandsaws, all other saws, pencils, staplers, scissors, rocks....BAN THEM
- Baseball bats, can openers, glass china, chairs, and anything heavy...BAD
It's like parents today have no idea how to raise their kids (No offense to you fatherly airsofters here, I'm sure you're doing fine). Remember the days where you could watch a children's cartoon and see the characters playing games and eating at restaurants all named for slang terms for ...anyone who watched Rocko's Modern Life will get it.
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Dave kill us all. Except for you. He just doesn't love you.
- Kitchen knives can be used to injure people. Get rid of those.
The UK has proposed legislation to outlaw pointy knives, saying that the need for a point is no longer necessary and, in fact, is dangerous to society.
I think the most disheartening thing is that most people fail to realize what a slippery slope these sort of restrictions and bans deal with. I think they need a wakeup call on the scale of bringing back Prohibition, just to reinstill the fact that just because you outlaw something doesn't mean anything associated with it will go away, and if anything you just make it that much more insidious.
__________________ "Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong."
-Thomas Fuller
*shrugs* I can see both good points and bad points with this law. On one hand, most of it is common sense (don't be stupid! don't go take a stroll with your TM M4 in hand, and such) and does promote the responsible handling of airsoft guns (as in treating them like real guns instead of mere toys). On the other hand, I can see where you guys are all coming from about how legislation could be a bad thing. It could precipitate a "domino effect," you could say. First, it's just reasonable laws like this, then gradually they'll become ridiculous, etc.
Personally, it's not that bad a law (it doesn't affect me anyway), but I don't feel that legislation will be the answer to making airsoft a safer hobby for those who are involved in it as well as those who aren't.
I know we don't have an official body that represents the US airsoft community, but maybe we should? The point of it, I think, would be so that we (and by we I mean everyone in the hobby, not just the c3 community) could be recognized as an organization, and that we have standards, that there is a larger majority of us that is responsible and will not stand for being smeared by the idiocy of others, we could speak in one large voice, things like that. I mean, it wouldn't even have to be involved in every little aspect of the hobby, even if it's just involved in promoting safety and responsibility, I think that would be good enough. That way, we're not all going to suffer because one kid decided to do something stupid.
They would never give us a body for the airsoft community because what if there other organizations in PA and around the US? That'd be saying that "Our group is better so we get to represent you." Also, airsoft is view as a hobby so it would be treated as such. Although i see where you're going with this. It's like the old Revolutionary War saying, "No Taxation without representation," but in our case it's "No Bannation without representation!"
Airsoft is still a long way away from beign recognized as a "sport". Look how long it took paintball to become main stream. The fact is, airsoft scares the hell out of some people, especially those who dont want their children growing up with some unhealthy gun fixation (sic) You have idiots bringing these guns to school or playing out in public. Until we can weed out the ubder idiots or make it more difficult for younger people to buy airsoft, we will always be under the watchfull eye of the media and the law makers looking for a quick vote.
__________________ Just saw a man jogging. For recreation. At 3am. Who's he training to be, batman?
Life is a pop quiz, you never know when the test will occur, it's like we are all sitting in the game show audience of life, we should always be ready to hear "You are the next contestant for 'The **** has Hit the Fan!'"
"Dont suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it." -ID Basic Patrol Academy #156
