(GunReports.com) — Airgun maker Crosman is worried that pending regulations in California may actually increase police/citizen mishaps and accidental shootings.
According to a letter from Laura Evans, Marketing Coordinator at Crosman, “Some of you may already be aware, but the State of California is prepared to vote on a new law that will affect the future of the airgun and airsoft industries. It could also jeopardize the safety of the public and especially, police officers.”
California is planning to make it law that all airsoft guns and all BB guns must be brightly colored, so police can distinguish these guns from actual firearms. As most of you know, all airsoft guns sold in the USA already have a bright orange tip and many are clear, she wrote.
Early on it was recognized the underlying issue is created by consumers who allow potentially dangerous situations to develop. A prime example is the December 2010 incident that apparently prompted SB 798.
As reported in the Los Angeles Times, police wounded a teenager when he failed to comply with police commands to “surrender.” Instead, the young man produced an airsoft gun. Expectedly, a police officer feared for his and his partner’s safety. He fired his gun and wounded the young man.
Noteworthy is that the young man’s two companions, who complied with the officers’ commands to drop their guns, were not injured.
Evans wrote, “SB 798 obviously presumes that a ‘bright pink’ airsoft gun, for example, would distinguish it from a firearm, thus providing a police officer with an immediate sense of security that he was not being threatened with a firearm. That assumption, however, might prove deadly to the officers or innocent bystanders. There are firearms sold that are, indeed, bright pink and other bright colors. Coloring an airsoft gun bright pink, therefore, would notdistinguish it from firearms. A law enforcement officer should and would never assume a pink or other colored gun is harmless. On the other hand, an orange muzzle on an airsoft gun does distinguish it from firearms.”
This bill would require the appearance of airsoft guns to change, but this change would not clear up the confusion issue, she said.
To the contrary, it would likely have the opposite effect. She said, “The change in appearance would render it more similar in appearance to some firearms. It is the simple and effective placement of orange at the muzzle that distinguishes an airsoft gun from firearm.”
