Up next, airsoft
A court has ruled that a BB gun is a gun in the legal sense of the word:
A convicted felon barred from carrying a firearm broke the law when he started toting a BB gun, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled.
John Fleming Jr. couldn’t legally carry a gun because of two felony assault convictions, so he packed a BB gun instead.
Ramsey County prosecutors decided Fleming was splitting hairs and charged him with unlawful possession of a firearm.
Fleming won when a Ramsey County District judge threw out the charge, ruling the statute doesn’t apply to BB guns. But the appeals court ruled prosecutors could again take aim at the two-time felon.
The appellate court reinstated the charge against Fleming, finding that a firearm is “any gun from which a shot or a projectile is discharged by means of explosive, gas or compressed air.”
Fleming is accused of carrying a black metal BB gun that discharges a pellet by means of a CO2 cartridge.
Typically, a firearms is defined as shooting a projectile by means of explosives and, at least at the federal level, blackpowder weapons are excluded from that definition. So, when someone enacts an assault weapons ban, will it affect BB guns?
Stupid ruling.
Update: That’s a helluvan airsoft gun.
December 15th, 2006 at 11:04 am
When I was in the 5th grade, my friend was screwing around and shot me in the foot with a BB Gun…its still floating around in there.
December 15th, 2006 at 11:16 am
Wow. This better be overturned fast, or the ATF is going to soon find thousands of automatic paintball and airsoft guns which have never had a title 3 paid for them.
And if you want to see something impressive, check out this sniper rifle or this machine gun. It’s enough to see the statist’s pants wet.
Sean, BB guns and airsoft guns are a little different. Metal 0.177 BBs can actually penetrate the skin and are sometimes used to hunt varmits. Plastics 6 mm airsoft pellets are a hell of a lot lighter, and the guns firing them are typically built around a self-limited 1.5-2.0 kilojoule maximum force. Even at extremely close range they require vast modification to reach the 5-6 kj needed to break human skin.
December 15th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Gatt,
I have an airsoft gun…a little faggy in my opinion, I prefer BB Guns. But regardless, from the article, it seems as though they were talking about BB guns, though I guess Airsoft guns could apply to that ruling.
December 15th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
When I was a senior in high school – two weeks after turning 18 – I was arrested in New Jersey for possession of a firearm without a Firearms ID card. I was hunting squirrels with a BB Gun.
Luckily my parents knew the chief of police, otherwise I probably would have faced some serious trouble. Regardless, it turns out a BB gun is a firearm in Jersey
December 15th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Is a gun powder accuated nail gun (as seen on The Wire) considered a firearm?
December 15th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Sean, a shoestring is sometimes a firearm.
Gun laws can be capricious and arbitrary.
December 15th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Now this is a BB Gun!
See the Quicktime Video below the title.
December 15th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
I would have driven my parents insane if there had been BB guns like that when I was a kid.
December 15th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
I wonder if they can build one that works with an air compressor instead of CO2 cartridges?
December 16th, 2006 at 12:28 am
And what about propane as a propellant with an igniter at the end of the barrel?
Hmm Could be fun.
December 16th, 2006 at 12:54 am
USCitizen:
I built a spud launcher in college with friend of mine from college who was from New Jersey. We had a letter from the ATF saying it wasn’t considered a firearm. We had no idea New Jersey considered it as such and how much trouble we could have gotten into for that. As a college kid, you don’t have much conception that some states consider “fun” to be feloniously illegal. That’s why I can never take liberals seriously when they tell me they care about protecting freedom from evil Republicans. When I hear people saying that, I just have to point east.
Of course, I can still buy Everclear legally in New Jersey, so I can’t get too uppity about it I guess 😉 It’s illegal to sell anything stronger than Bacardi 151 in Pennsylvania.
December 18th, 2006 at 1:55 am
[…] A court has ruled that a BB gun is a gun in the legal sense of the word: A convicted felon barred from carrying a firearm broke the law when he started toting a BB gun, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled. John Fleming Jr. couldn’t legally carry a gun because of two felony assault convict… –More– […]