Conservative Student News

Artwork by Amie Kieffer

St. Paul, MN: Mayor Chris Coleman and his gang of lawmakers on the St. Paul City Council have recently proposed a new ordinance that bans public displays of toy guns.  

No one came forward to oppose the ordinance at a public hearing on Feb. 21, 2007 so it was read at the Feb. 28 City Council meeting, and the law goes into effect 30 days after the published change.

Airsoft is a hobby.  It is similar to paintball, but airsoft guns use plastic pellets instead of paint.  The new ordinance will ban the public display of toy weapons that look substantially like real firearms unless they are completely painted a solid bright color such as pink, purple or yellow. Toy guns must also have a blaze orange extension projecting at least six millimeters beyond the muzzle.  

It’s not the gun that’s causing the problems, Coleman, it’s the brandisher!  Common sense, not regulation, is going to solve our woes.  So, let’s use it.  

Here are the facts:  According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “In 2006, there were at least eight fatalities across the country involving suspects brandishing toy guns or rifles at police.”  These events are tragic, but apparently quite rare.  Compare the eight airsoft-related fatalities to these statistics: Every 12 minutes, someone dies in a car accident, and every 14 seconds a car accident results in an injured victim, according to Lawcore.com.  Looking at these numbers, common sense tells you that the St. Paul City Council has its priorities all messed up.  Who’s holding them accountable?

The City Council was able to move this law forward without opposition—even the soft air gun community got on board!  Erik Pakieser of the Minnesota Airsoft Association said, “Many assumed that MIAA would be opposed.
 
Nothing could be further from the truth.  This should help to discourage parents who allow their children to play with guns in public.”  Similarly, Gander Mountain, a St. Paul-based retailer that reported sales of nearly $3.5 million in airsoft guns and products in 2006 has pulled replica guns from the shelves of all 105 of its stores that are not “obviously and unmistakably” toy guns.

The mainstream media, including the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, and Minnesota Monitor, have blown this story up and spun it a as an ordinance that has “stirred up little dust” and, instead, garnered “widespread backing.”  The author of nearly every article I read on this topic urged readers to know that toy guns “give police officers nightmares” and this is an issue that has sparked “little debate.”  The real reason the airsoft community has not backlashed is likely because they don’t feel that this change will hurt their sport enough to go through the ordeal of attracting negative media attention by fighting Coleman and the City Council.
 
If there is no controversy surrounding the issue, why is the press covering it so intensely?  Because it’s the perfect opportunity for liberal journalists to show the world how the general public “favors” more gun control.  

If no one is speaking out against the law, people must want it, right?  Wrong!  More likely, most St. Paulites just don’t care about the issue, and who could blame them?  They are focused on managing more pressing issues like avoiding an accident on their daily commute to work or the fact that their twin city, Minneapolis, is once again considered “Murderapolis:” Murder rates are up, gang violence is increasing, and “since 1998, the Minneapolis Police Department has shrunk by approximately 15 percent; it is budgeted for further shrinkage over the next three years,” according to Scott Johnson’s July, 2005 article, “Return to Murderapolis” in the Daily Standard.  

Can the St. Paul City Council please take a look around and start focusing on issues that affect people’s lives in a meaningful way?

Beside the fact that airsoft guns are hardly a threat to the community—associated with only eight deaths in the entire United States in 2006—it’s important to note that this law will not solve even this supposed problem.  I was discussing this ordinance with a co-worker who recently completed training in the Citizen Police Academy.  He brought up the fact that, “The last thing a police officer needs to worry about is whether the person standing in front of them has a toy gun.… What’s going to stop some kid from going into Gander Mountain and buying a real gun and then bringing it home and spray-painting it hot pink?”  

A rebellious kid is not going to brandish a hot pink gun at school or show it off to his little gangsta buddies on the street:  His peers will just tell him to go back to playing with his sister’s Barbies—they could find squirt guns more menacing!  If a kid really wants a toy gun that (gasp!) looks like the real thing and not like a Happy Meal toy, he or she will either find it on the internet or paint it up in the garage.  So, requiring manufactures to paint toy guns bright colors doesn’t help law enforcement agents determine if the person standing in front of them is harmless or not since there’s no way to verify that they aren’t holding a real gun that has been spray-painted.  Rather than reducing fatalities, this new law could potentially increase them!

Liberal leaders refuse to give our police the tools they need to combat real crime, but they are more than willing to spend countless hours writing laws that protect bratty teens brandishing guns from being shot by an innocent officer doing his job.  How about teaching high school students how to care for and respect guns?  If we can teach them how to have safe sex and put a condom on a banana, we can teach them how to treat weapons responsibly.  

I went through the Dakota County Gun Club’s firearm safety classes and received my Firearm Safety Certificate.  While I’m not a hunter, I still wanted to learn how to shoot, carry and care for a gun correctly and responsibly.  The classes helped me understand what I never hear in the mainstream media:  Guns are useful and necessary tools for self-defense, hunting, or just spending a fun Saturday afternoon out on the range.

I’ll be the first to admit toy guns have been used irresponsibly in a few cases.  Students have brought them to school and scared other students.  In 2004 and in 1999 there were cases in Minneapolis where a police officer shot a suspect brandishing a toy gun out of self-defense.  There was also a recent road rage incident in St. Paul that occurred when a driver brandished a replica .50-caliber rifle and caused roadway panic.  Still, if it’s not toy guns, it will be rocks or sticks or something else, unless we teach our kids to be responsible and respectful.  Fred Heim, marketing manager of Palco Sports in Maple Grove told the Star Tribune, “The problem stems from not using products in the way they were intended to be used.  The key here is that the sport is not bad, but the way some people are trying to use them is bad.”

A former police officer called “Antiquecop” blogged, “As an old retired cop, I would like to see the local departments spend some of their PR money arranging times and places for these kids to play with the air-soft and paint ball guns. If it's good enough for the cops to train with, it would be a blast for the kids and there would be a control factor. Kids are going to play combat games. Make it fun and use it as a training tool for fun and responsibility.”  This solution would take more time and community cooperation, but the end result would be a supervised and channeled activity where kids have fun and learn respect and teamwork along the way.
 
This idea of channeling uncertain activity into fun and responsible recreation recently worked in the City of Rosemount with skateboarders.  Skaters can cause damage to public property and put themselves at risk of getting hurt if the only places to skate are public parking ramps and library steps.  The City of Rosemount built a fenced-in skatepark.  I go jogging by this park most days in the summer, and I’ve noticed that it is always crowded with teens.  Plus, I’ve often seen parents supervising from a nearby bench or car.  Similarly, activities like paintball and softair can be safe and fun outlets for youth if there are designated places for kids to play them.

Coleman’s crew did not think about the long-term good of the St. Paul community when they wrote this law.  Regulating gunmakers is not going to make kids more responsible.  Ultimately, parents need to teach adolescents to take personal responsibility for their actions:  A better society will start in the home, not with another law on the books.

I’m not a name-caller, but I am a straight-shooter: Chris Coleman, you’re a wussy boy when it comes to toy guns.