Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor. [More]Right. The Mexican border is so devoid of any real threats we need to conjure up a stereotyped slander against veterans.
Funny thing is, sources I've checked say CA law does not address Airsoft guns, so they use US code. But the funnier thing is, CA law says an "imitation firearm" is:
any BB device, toy gun, replica of a firearm, or other device that is so substantially similar in coloration and overall appearance to an existing firearm as to lead a reasonable person to perceive that the device is a firearm.We're then told:
No person may openly display or expose any imitation firearm, as defined in Section 12550, in a public place...So take a look at the Imperial Storm Troo...uh...Explorer Scouts in the picture.
Merely having an orange tip as provided in federal law and regulations does not satisfy this requirement. The entire surface must be colored or transparent or translucent.
I'm note there's an "out" for "civic activities" to allow the proto-"Only Ones" to shoot imaginary veterans to their hearts' content while their less privileged and immune contemporaries would probably draw a SWAT team that would later claim the shots they fired in response complied with department use of force policy...
[Via Michael G]