I recently had to go to a Shopko to buy dental floss and mouthwash. With varying intensity, I universally dislike stores like Shopko, Alco, Canadian Tyre, Fred Meyer, Target, and WalMart. While I have defended Fred Meyers against comparisons to WalMart, as Kroger strikes me as a relatively decent company compared to Target and WalMart, the very nature of these stores discomforts me. Beyond the politics of these stores, I dislike the experience from entry to exit. The warehouse lighting and structure of big box stores and shopping malls creates an ambiance that causes me to have something akin to an anxiety attack. I do not mind walking down a busy street crowded with millionaires dodging the homeless, but I become unhappy if I am put with those same people in a giant box with harsh lighting; that faint, deafening white noise; and the smell of industrial cleaners and off-gassing plastics.
Accordingly, when I go into a big box store, I want to ensure that I do not have to go into one again for as long as possible. Which, often means I text someone from inside the store to ensure that nothing else is needed, and await the response. While waiting, I will wander the store, discovering what treasures of Americana the merchandiser thought the region could not live without. Cheap shoes and clothes abound. The toy section in Ely had a LEGO mining truck, that, guiltily, appealed to me. Every one of these stores has a sporting goods section, stocked with basketballs, flying discs, fishing rods, and guns. I say guns because in this case, it is more fitting than firearms. Some of these stores do not carry firearms, they lack the licensing, the market, or the inventory to stock such devices, but guns they most certainly stock.
While toy guns for children are in the toy section, BB guns, paintball markers, pellet pistols, and their accessories are the realm of sporting goods. As violent as Nerf guns may seem, I think they are fun, and I think that there is healthy play with such things. The child who never play fights with hands, "swords," or Nerf is missing out on undefinable skills as much as the child who is not allowed to use computers or play video games. That said, a toy should be bright orange, shaped like an elephant, and come with instructions certain to be ignored like, "never point this at a living thing, particularly humans." Parents, relatives, or friends who buy these toys are assuming the responsibility to talk about safety, morals, and rules regarding their play. This same logic can probably be applied to video games. That said, the contents of the sporting goods aisle makes for a radically different story.
I had two BB guns growing up, my brother had one, our friends had them too. One of them had a pellet pistol. I own and shot a Anschutz air rifle competitively in high school. I had two paintball markers, and shot squirrels with a shotgun growing up. It would not be fair for me to speak negatively of the existence of these things in society without acknowledging their benefits, and my involvement with them. One of my paintball markers looked, for all intents and purposes, tactical. It was matte black, had a foregrip, and a red dot sight. For those into paintball markers, it was an Autococker, and without the cylinder and hopper, it looked delightfully sinister. With the hopper and cylinder attached, it looked like a paintball marker. Looking at paintball markers now, I am drawn to the brightly colored ones that, while clearly a gun, look less like weapons, and more part of an action filled game. Regardless of my current feelings, I can admit some understanding of the desire for a paintball marker or BB gun to look like a firearm.
What caught me off guard in this particular Shopko was their selection of Airsoft guns. These firearm replicas look convincing, can be fully automatic, and are non-lethal. They are easily purchased, though Shopko requires purchasers to be 18, one can buy them online from Amazon in their Sports and Outdoors section. I was previously aware of fully automatic BB guns available online, which I do not understand the purpose of, but was not aware of the Airsoft military replicas lining the aisles of these stores.
I was shocked, and started thinking about these devices. Children's toy guns have become less and less convincing, at the fear of unarmed people being mistaken for armed threats by police with real firearms. Which, as tragic as any wrongful death is, in a world with the powerful weapons, where "law-abiding" firearms owners leave loaded weapons in reach of children, I have a difficult time blaming the police for seeing convincing toys as convincing threats. My mind mulled over these replicas, then wondered what a police officer would say about these replicas.
A new question about the Second Amendment entered my mind. Just what are arms, and what is armed? This is not a new question for me, nor for many others, but is being armed a case of what a person is carrying, or what is perceived to be carried? I immediately wanted to buy the Airsoft rifle, and ask an expert.
I did not buy the rifle, nor did I ask anyone, but I want to. Well, I do not want to buy one new, because that means that Airsoft will think there is a demand for one more of these, and will pay someone less than a living wage to crank out another device that will only lead to future woes, but it might be worth it. I had the desire to purchase this non-lethal replica, then ask the people charged with making quick decisions about armed people about it. Who are these experts? Police, border patrol agents, and soldiers all come to mind. If someone in Afghanistan pointed an Airsoft replica at US troops on patrol, I think it is safe to say that they would be perceived as armed. If I approached the border with a replica machine gun in my car, I would expect to be investigated more thoroughly. If I was carrying a replica M4, I would hope that a police officer would stop me walking down the street, before I boarded a subway, or before I walked into a school or government building. Why would I hope this? Because to all outward appearances, I would be armed.
All this, of course, is conjecture. Maybe all of these people can tell the difference, and would recognize me for the replica enthusiast I would posing as, and not the armed nut that I would appear to be. I further conjecture that the weapons lobby would respond with the charge that I want to make everything illegal, but that would be illogical. I think it is great that there is a noble and wacky crowd that spend their weekends dressing up in period garb, blacksmithing and fighting with swords. I encourage people who think the AR-15 is cool to buy a non-lethal replica. It saves money, and potentially lives. The point is not a discussion of the purpose or legality of these devices, or whether they should be sold as a piece of sports equipment, though I do have obvious opinions about that. The point is that armed, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Accordingly, when I go into a big box store, I want to ensure that I do not have to go into one again for as long as possible. Which, often means I text someone from inside the store to ensure that nothing else is needed, and await the response. While waiting, I will wander the store, discovering what treasures of Americana the merchandiser thought the region could not live without. Cheap shoes and clothes abound. The toy section in Ely had a LEGO mining truck, that, guiltily, appealed to me. Every one of these stores has a sporting goods section, stocked with basketballs, flying discs, fishing rods, and guns. I say guns because in this case, it is more fitting than firearms. Some of these stores do not carry firearms, they lack the licensing, the market, or the inventory to stock such devices, but guns they most certainly stock.
While toy guns for children are in the toy section, BB guns, paintball markers, pellet pistols, and their accessories are the realm of sporting goods. As violent as Nerf guns may seem, I think they are fun, and I think that there is healthy play with such things. The child who never play fights with hands, "swords," or Nerf is missing out on undefinable skills as much as the child who is not allowed to use computers or play video games. That said, a toy should be bright orange, shaped like an elephant, and come with instructions certain to be ignored like, "never point this at a living thing, particularly humans." Parents, relatives, or friends who buy these toys are assuming the responsibility to talk about safety, morals, and rules regarding their play. This same logic can probably be applied to video games. That said, the contents of the sporting goods aisle makes for a radically different story.
I had two BB guns growing up, my brother had one, our friends had them too. One of them had a pellet pistol. I own and shot a Anschutz air rifle competitively in high school. I had two paintball markers, and shot squirrels with a shotgun growing up. It would not be fair for me to speak negatively of the existence of these things in society without acknowledging their benefits, and my involvement with them. One of my paintball markers looked, for all intents and purposes, tactical. It was matte black, had a foregrip, and a red dot sight. For those into paintball markers, it was an Autococker, and without the cylinder and hopper, it looked delightfully sinister. With the hopper and cylinder attached, it looked like a paintball marker. Looking at paintball markers now, I am drawn to the brightly colored ones that, while clearly a gun, look less like weapons, and more part of an action filled game. Regardless of my current feelings, I can admit some understanding of the desire for a paintball marker or BB gun to look like a firearm.
What caught me off guard in this particular Shopko was their selection of Airsoft guns. These firearm replicas look convincing, can be fully automatic, and are non-lethal. They are easily purchased, though Shopko requires purchasers to be 18, one can buy them online from Amazon in their Sports and Outdoors section. I was previously aware of fully automatic BB guns available online, which I do not understand the purpose of, but was not aware of the Airsoft military replicas lining the aisles of these stores.
I was shocked, and started thinking about these devices. Children's toy guns have become less and less convincing, at the fear of unarmed people being mistaken for armed threats by police with real firearms. Which, as tragic as any wrongful death is, in a world with the powerful weapons, where "law-abiding" firearms owners leave loaded weapons in reach of children, I have a difficult time blaming the police for seeing convincing toys as convincing threats. My mind mulled over these replicas, then wondered what a police officer would say about these replicas.
A new question about the Second Amendment entered my mind. Just what are arms, and what is armed? This is not a new question for me, nor for many others, but is being armed a case of what a person is carrying, or what is perceived to be carried? I immediately wanted to buy the Airsoft rifle, and ask an expert.
I did not buy the rifle, nor did I ask anyone, but I want to. Well, I do not want to buy one new, because that means that Airsoft will think there is a demand for one more of these, and will pay someone less than a living wage to crank out another device that will only lead to future woes, but it might be worth it. I had the desire to purchase this non-lethal replica, then ask the people charged with making quick decisions about armed people about it. Who are these experts? Police, border patrol agents, and soldiers all come to mind. If someone in Afghanistan pointed an Airsoft replica at US troops on patrol, I think it is safe to say that they would be perceived as armed. If I approached the border with a replica machine gun in my car, I would expect to be investigated more thoroughly. If I was carrying a replica M4, I would hope that a police officer would stop me walking down the street, before I boarded a subway, or before I walked into a school or government building. Why would I hope this? Because to all outward appearances, I would be armed.
All this, of course, is conjecture. Maybe all of these people can tell the difference, and would recognize me for the replica enthusiast I would posing as, and not the armed nut that I would appear to be. I further conjecture that the weapons lobby would respond with the charge that I want to make everything illegal, but that would be illogical. I think it is great that there is a noble and wacky crowd that spend their weekends dressing up in period garb, blacksmithing and fighting with swords. I encourage people who think the AR-15 is cool to buy a non-lethal replica. It saves money, and potentially lives. The point is not a discussion of the purpose or legality of these devices, or whether they should be sold as a piece of sports equipment, though I do have obvious opinions about that. The point is that armed, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
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