I'm putting this in this section due to airsoft being a sport.

 

As an airsoft player, I honestly despise the blazing orange tips that come on all rifles and guns. There are two sides to this:

 

1. The orange tip helps LEOs identify the guns are not real-steel firearms. (Public View)
2. The orange tips do not have to legally be on the airsoft guns for shipping and transporting reasons and can be removed once received. (Airsofters' View)

 

 

I honestly believe that if you inform the police/law enforcement in your area that an airsoft war is to be held (Let's say in the woods), that it will help the law enforcement by knowing of what is happening. That is UNLESS someone decides to be stupid and threaten the officer's safety by pointing an airsoft gun or not complying with their requests. This has lead to death in individuals. I am going off of America's laws regarding airsoft and may vary in other countries. 

 

According to Title 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations: (Commerce and Foreign Trade) PART 1150—MARKING OF TOY, LOOK-ALIKE AND IMITATION FIREARMS;

 

§ 1150.3   Approved markings.
(a) A blaze orange...marking permanently affixed to the exterior surface of the barrel, covering the circumference of the barrel from the muzzle end for a depth of at least 6 millimeters.

 

This regulation applies to Commerce and Foreign Trade, NOT ownership by the end user.

 

(In other words, Airsoft guns may not be sold, shipped or received without the approved orange marking, but CAN be taken off when you receive the gun after purchase.)

 

§ 1150.2   Prohibitions.
No person shall manufacture, enter into commerce, ship, transport, or receive any toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm (“device”) covered by this part as set forth in §1150.1 of this part unless such device contains, or has affixed to it, one of the markings set forth in §1150.3 of this part, or unless this prohibition has been waived by §1150.4 of this part.
 

(In other words, it is illegal to ship or transport rifles without an orange tip.)

 

The nice thing is airsoft guns are easily customizable and black and orange tips can be easily interchanged. 

 

This thread isn't to hate on one side or the other, but it is something I'd like to see from people on their argument and reasoning.

 

What is your opinion on orange tips and why?

I feel it protects LEO's & Airsofter's. Without it a LEO may assume its a real gun declaring them lethal-force in a situation where there may be a "air-soft war" and someone is aiming there "weapon" at another player. Without the orange tip the LEO may assume its a real gun and shoot the individual with the mindset that he needs to protect the individual who is being "aimed" at. If it was up to me I would decide to require the whole gun is orange.

 

Thanks,

Edited June 29, 201411 yr by TmBB101

About a year ago, some teenagers decided to have an airsoft war in the woods in a neighboring city to me. Not realizing what was happening, homeowners called the police because they saw people running around the woods with what they thought were assault rifles. This resulted in a SWAT callout, and they were extremely lucky that the SWAT guy that aimed at them had a magnified scope and saw an orange tip.

 

It's absolutely stupid to run around and aim with what appear to be firearms in public (an orange tip isn't nearly as noticeable as everything else) in the current hysteria over mass shootings going on in the US. People will get killed because of this, and some one might take a life thinking they are defending themselves.

 

I don't have a problem with people doing this without the tip on an actual airsoft field, indoors or on secluded private property, but doing this in public view is begging for trouble. Even with the tip it's hard to tell when you get a call thinking it's a gun.

Heres what I think. Don't have an airsoft war in the woods in a neighborhood. There are airsoft fields for a reason. Use them, you don't have to have an orange tip there.

I forgot to add this, but even if you did call to warn the police, they would still have to respond to a call as dangerous (from the information they were given) as people running around a neighborhood with guns.

Air soft guns should only be used on air soft fields, end of story.

Long time airsofter here... actually was at a game just a couple of weeks ago that had 500 registered players over two days. Bear in mind these are my opinions, but I don't think many airsofters will disagree with me on this.

 

Airsoft games should be held in dedicated fields... areas meant for airsoft. Just like paintball is generally played at, well, paintball fields/arenas.

 

Within these fields, orange tip or not doesn't matter, because you are playing in an area designated for airsoft games, run by a company that probably has insurance (ie you sign a waiver to play there), and probably has notified local LE what goes on there. Plus most fields are intentionally opened in secluded areas (or are indoor fields in which case, well, it's behind walls!) This is how I play, thus I don't generally have orange on muzzles, and believe me my guns could easily be mistaken for the real deal (anyone here know of Real Sword? Yup.)

 

Important to remember to transport stuff in bags/cases too, of course. Many indoor fields especially are located in parking lots near to, or shared by, totally unrelated establishments, who wouldn't be too happy to see folks walking out of their cars with an AK in hand.

 

Private property (that you own or have permission to use, of course... so that abandoned factory complex? Unless you can get permission from whoever owns it, NOPE) isn't as good as a field for plenty of reasons (eg. no insurance, no refs, etc), but if it's secluded, I'd still say it's alright, same transport rule from above applies though.

 

Playing in a public neighborhood, or anywhere that could be seen by non-players reasonably easily? Orange tip or not still doesn't matter I'd say, but in this case it's a no-go either way.

Here's a scenario why:

Kids running around neighborhood with airsoft guns, with orange tips.

Someone sees, doesn't realize they are replicas (calling them toys is sometimes frowned upon for this very reason), calls 911 and reports people with guns.

Officer arrives on scene, and mentally is probably expecting real firearms.

 

Maybe he sees the orange tips clearly, and the kids all drop the guns, and get dealt with peacefully.

OR maybe one of them, for whatever reason, points the gun at the officer or another person. The officer has seconds to react, and even if he sees and processes the orange tip in his/her mind, might still consider it a serious threat and take action with his very real weapon. Frankly, even with an orange tip, I can imagine plenty of circumstances where I'd feel an officer was justified in feeling there was sufficient threat present to fire their gun.

 

[TL;DR] Solution? Keep airsoft in your house, in a bag/case, or at an airsoft field. Orange tip for shipping as per law, beyond that, I don't think it matters much whether regardless of if you're gonna be smart with them or not.

These are some really good points. Glad to see good judgement from the community.

Dont use airsoft guns in your yard, or in the woods. Unless the woods are owned by you, and are away from public view. Go to an airsoft place. Black tips are allowed, and overall its more fun.

Dont use airsoft guns in your yard, or in the woods. Unless the woods are owned by you, and are away from public view. Go to an airsoft place. Black tips are allowed, and overall its more fun.

Dont use airsoft guns in your yard, or in the woods. Unless the woods are owned by you, and are away from public view. Go to an airsoft place. Black tips are allowed, and overall its more fun.

Even if the orange tip saves one juvenile's life, or prevents an LEO from having the burden of knowing he killed a juvenile for the rest of his/her life, it is worth it (in my eyes). I mean you are talking about taking off a life saving piece of equipment, just to have some more fun.

 

Edit ~ This is referring to any airsoft gun, not used in a dedicated arena, or privately owned field.

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 201411 yr by McAwesome6934

Orange tip or not, this is what happens when you decide to play with guns outside of a protected, private area.

And yes guns, they may be fake, but people react to them as if they are guns and they should be treated as if they are.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/24/justice/california-fake-rifle-boy-killed/

When I used to play airsoft I had a threaded tip for my M4. I had my "transport" tip which was the brightest orange color I could possibly find, then I had my game tip which was black. Keep in mind I only played at sanctioned games on paintball fields and such hosted by a regional organization in my area.

 

Also, even if you have an orange tip and do everything right you could still end up in a jam or worse. Cops are now being trained that if looks like a gun it IS a gun, unless blantly obvious such as one of those see thru airsoft guns. There's nothing stopping Bo Bo Badass from painting the tip on this weeks burner orange before he robs his local gas station hoping the cops won't shoot him when they point their very real and very loaded firearms at him.

Edited July 1, 201411 yr by securitasguard

I'm an avid airsoft player, and my neighbors know it. My pistols don't have orange tips on them, and they cycle just like a real steel firearm, but I never leave my deck in the backyard with them for those safety reasons stated above. My neighbor know not to call the police on me, at least I would hope so, because they know I'm not using a real firearm. I don't ever play in the woods around a neighborhood either. The closest to a neighborhood I've played at was a mile hike away, so there was no way we could have been seen, even then, the players I was with still let our local LEOs what we were doing and where, so if there was a report about us, they would already know what was going on. 

 

With that said, I mainly play at close CQB fields where, in my opinion, having the blaze orange tip can be a bad thing since you need to go sneaky sneaky crime crime every now and then in order to win the game(s), and with a bright orange tip, it can give away your position. I carry all 6 of my guns, 2 M4s, an AK-47, a Shotgun, Sig P226, Beretta M9, and S&W M&P 9c all inside a gun bag that you can't see inside, which is the way most airsoft fields require you to show up with for safety reasons. 

 

IMO, if you use them right, and don't leave your own property with them out, you shouldn't have a problem. Airsoft guns aren't real guns, but they should be treated as such anyways. They can help teach proper firearm usage and proper firearm safety.