By Jared Christensen
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Dan Myers and his 13-year-old son Jay Dee spend most weekends on a battlefield taking down enemy combatants with their military assault-style weapons.
During one battle last weekend, for example, the Myer’s team was able to hold off enemies from invading and capturing their outpost where an imaginary helicopter came to extract them from the battle.
“It takes a lot of physical and situational awareness,” the 46-year-old Myers said, an Airsoft pistol hanging from his hip. “It is just like every other sport in the fact that it can be used for training, exercise and educational purposes.”
The Edgewood resident is one of thousands of people across the state who play Airsoft, a military simulation sport in which players participate in mock combat using military style replica weapons called Airsoft guns that shoot six-millimeter-round plastic BBs at their opponents.
See updated story here.
But all that could be severely curtailed or come to an end soon if the General Assembly passes a bill that would prohibit the manufacture, sale, possession, use or commercial transfer of imitation firearms like the ones used in Airsoft.
The bills – known as SB742 in the Senate and HB879 in the Assembly – are designed to help law enforcement officials who sometimes cannot tell the difference between real guns and imitation models. (The bills have since been withdrawn.)
The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the State House in Annapolis. Airsoft enthusiasts plan to be in attendance to voice their concerns over the proposed bills.
State Sen. Anthony Muse, D-Prince George’s County, and state Del. Jill Carter, D-Baltimore City, said the bill is needed to prevent children and teenagers who play with realistic looking guns from accidentally being shot by police officers.
“SB742 and HB879 were drafted in light of young people such as Tamir Rice, Andy Lopez and other young men and women who have been shot and/or killed because their ‘toy’ gun was mistaken for an actual firearm,” Muse and Carter said in a joint statement.
They were referring to Rice, the 12-year-old boy who was shot and killed when an Ohio police officer mistook his pellet gun for a real firearm, and Lopez, who was 13 years old when he was killed by a California police officer when his Airsoft gun resembling an AK-47 was mistaken for an actual firearm.
Joshua Hoffman, the chief of staff for bill co-sponsor Sen. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, D-Baltimore City and Baltimore County, said imitation firearms create at least two potential problems.
“First, fake but real-looking guns have been used to commit robberies. This is a problem and also imperils the potential wielder of the weapon, as someone might retaliate,” Hoffman said. “Second, a person might wind up getting killed due to wielding what the bill calls an imitation firearm. Imagine if a police officer wound up in the vicinity of one of these. It would be a potentially deadly situation.”
As it relates to business in the state of Maryland, Muse and Carter said it is uncertain as to which businesses will be impacted because there are a number of imitation firearms that are exempt from this legislation.
Matthew Gabriel, the owner of East Coast Airsoft in Bel Air, said that if the bill passes “it will put us out of business overnight and I have $100,000 worth of equipment I’m sitting on.”
“I’m hoping all Airsoft field and store owners show up to the hearing to show their support,” Gabriel said. “From what I heard it doesn’t seem like the bill will pass, but we will find out more at the hearing.”
Myers and other Airsoft enthusiast feel that the proposed bills will have devastating effects on the sport in Maryland.
“It’s going to kill the entire Airsoft industry in Maryland, no doubt about it,” Myers said.
Chris Trivane, the owner of Replay Airsoft Arena in Glen Burnie, said he believes his business helps keep guns off the street by giving people a place to use military-style replica weapons and participate in military simulation style games under the supervision of an adult.
“There is no risk of people or neighbors calling the police,” Trivane said. “What we do here has a purpose. We provide service to the community.”
Trivane said the proposed bills just another encroachment of the right to keep and bare arms.
“Generally, freedoms are not taken away all at once,” Trivane said. “The government tries to do it in degrees to pick at and delegitimize something. I feel that is happening here.”