With the FBI shooting of the man allegedly threatening people on Tantalus, have sparked a renewed interest in replica gun laws. Maybe this is a good thing as people can not tell the difference between an airsoft gun and a real gun when they are being threatened by it. This goes back to the guy that carried an oranged tipped AK pistol in a park and how we can not intrinsically trust whether a gun is fake or not.

The Advertiser article talks about a bill that died that would have made theats with an airsoft gun the same as with a real gun. I would support this law based on what I just said. You can't trust whether a gun is fake or not.

I would say this should go back to common sense (is it really common anymore) and you shouldn't be pointing a gun at anyone, toy or not.

What are your thoughts?

'AIEA — The owners and sellers of realistic looking "airsoft" guns are re-emphasizing safety, common sense and Honolulu law after a man apparently bent on suicide was shot by an FBI agent while waving an airsoft pistol on Mother's Day.

Sunday's shooting left a 27-year-old Makiki man in critical condition and represents the most serious incident yet among several cases that led Honolulu police to draw their weapons on people carrying airsoft guns.

"This is really the first time that someone has acted so recklessly," said Grant Woo, the co-owner of Impact Games in 'Aiea, one of Hawai'i's biggest sellers of airsoft guns.

Since 2003, it's been illegal in Honolulu to carry airsoft — or other so-called "replica" — guns outside of a case, or to brandish one in front of a law enforcement officer.

A bill died this session in the Legislature that would have made the penalties for using airsoft guns in robberies and terroristic threatening cases identical to cases involving real guns.

In 2009, airsoft guns were recovered in eight robberies and seven terroristic threatening cases in Honolulu. There were likely many more instances in which airsoft guns were never found after a crime, said Honolulu police Capt. Rich Robinson.

Yesterday Robinson displayed two shotguns, two Glock semi-automatic pistols and an MP5 assault rifle and challenged reporters and cameramen to identify which guns were real and which were fakes.

No one guessed that the Glock 26 was real and the rest were replica airsoft weapons.

"You can't even tell the difference between the Glock 18 and the Glock 26 — which one is real," Robinson said. "You get that gun pointed at you, you think you're about to be shot. You don't know it's a toy gun."

Airsoft guns fire nonlethal, plastic BBs and are required by federal law to be sold with orange tips on their barrels. But the tips are almost always immediately removed by buyers.

"I've never seen one with an orange tip," Robinson said, "and I've seen a lot of them."

Airsoft guns are most popularly used in shooting games, similar to paintball.

Like paintball players, airsoft players wear safety masks and helmets but fire BBs at one another in teams — or as individuals — in an infinite number of indoor and outdoor scenarios.

But unlike paintball, the allure of airsoft for a growing subculture dominated by teenage boys and young men comes from the realistic look of the guns.

"The realism, I would say, is 80 percent of the appeal," Woo said.

5,000 on O'ahu
Today, an estimated 5,000 players on O'ahu participate in at least one airsoft game each month, Woo said.

Airsoft's beginnings remain a mystery. Some say it started with BB gun manufacturer Daisy. Others believe the guns originated in Japan because of strict Japanese gun-control laws.

Regardless, airsoft's popularity in Japan quickly spread to Hawai'i, where the country's oldest airsoft organization — Air-Soft Hawai'i — was formed by founders such as Pat Ohta 23 years ago.

"Most of us will never own a real gun," Ohta said yesterday. "And these just look cool. They're the same ones that are in movies and TV shows and video games. Everybody has their favorite."

Following the passage of Honolulu's 2003 ordinance, Air-Soft Hawai'i began distributing hundreds of bright yellow brochures outlining the new law to dealers, such as Woo, who also gives his customers another sheet on safety tips and responsible behavior.

"We decided to take the initiative and go out there first with an awareness campaign," Ohta said. "That's helped a lot."

But airsoft guns continue to get some people into trouble here and on the Mainland, where criminals have increasingly used airsoft guns in robberies.

Police encounters
Locally, before then-Mayor Jeremy Harris signed the 2003 bill into law, Honolulu police had increasingly been pulling their weapons on young men carrying airsoft assault rifles, including:

• Sept. 28, 2003, when officers ordered a 16-year-old boy on Brown Way in Mānoa Valley to put down an airsoft AR-15 assault rifle that he had been loading with a magazine.

"If the male had not complied," HPD Capt. Marie McCauley said at the time, "I'm sure there would have been a shooting."

• Oct. 7, 2003, when officers confronted a 21-year-old man at the Market City Shopping Center who was trying to board a bus carrying an AR-15 airsoft rifle.

And on Sunday, law enforcement officials determined that Martin Boegel, 27, was carrying an airsoft pistol when he was shot and critically wounded by an off-duty FBI agent on Tantalus Drive.

Boegel's mother, Ute, believes he wanted to be killed by a law enforcement officer in what's commonly known as "suicide by cop."

Ute told The Advertiser that Martin had spoken several times about suicide since he stopped taking medicine for anxiety and depression in January but believed he wouldn't go to heaven if he killed himself.

Despite the passage of the 2003 Honolulu law, police continue to encounter people carrying airsoft guns.

As recently as May 1, a police officer was dispatched to a report of a man armed with a gun in 'Ewa Beach around 5 p.m.

As more officers arrived on the scene, one of them shot the suspect with a Taser gun.

The suspect's weapon turned out to be an airsoft gun.

Safety first
That's why airsoft player Scott Naleimaile, 57, of 'Aiea, has always prohibited his son, Chris, from taking their airsoft guns outside, except to play in an organized game.

"Basic gun rules — we stick to those," Naleimaile said yesterday. "I'm very adamant about that stuff. We follow all of the real firearm rules because they look so real, somebody can make a mistake."

When he saw his first airsoft gun eight years ago, Naleimaile was stunned by its resemblance to a real weapon.

"I was like, 'Wow,' " Naleimaile said. "I liked it."

Randall Omoto, 50, of Nu'uanu, also insists that his son treat their airsoft guns like the real ones they have at home.

"I also have two small children — a 3-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter — and all the guns are in a very secure part of the house and locked up," he said.

Omoto's also been impressed with the way that Honolulu's airsoft retailers emphasize gun safety.

"There's a pretty substantial briefing that they go through when it comes to safety," he said. "The safety part is paramount."

Peter Du, the owner of the Power Edge airsoft store in Kaimukī, has been emphasizing airsoft safety since he expanded his Wai'alae Avenue knife shop into a burgeoning airsoft business in 2001.

After the city ordinance went into effect in 2003, Du now refuses service to people who bring their guns in without a case.

"We don't want people carrying their guns while walking down the sidewalk," Du said. "That's a bad image for us. We tell them to treat them just like a real gun and use common sense."

I agree. 

Why is common sense not so common?

As in many things, I am of two minds here.  Yes, it is getting rather crowded inside my skull

On the one hand, I think anyone using a realistic-looking weapon in a threatening manner deserves to have others treat them as a legitimate threat and act accordingly.  I've spent my life around firearms, and I am not the least bit confident that if I see someone step out of an alley and point a firearm-ish looking thing at me, I will be able to instantaneously and accurately tell the difference.  I'll react as if the threat is real and take the consequences if it was someone's bad idea of a prank.

On the other hand, I have never understood the fascination with making toys look real.  Toy guns are toy guns.  If you want something that looks like a real gun, then buy a real gun!  Airsoft does have some practical application in firearms training, but there are also practical ways to use real guns, which are more effective.

Honestly, I'm surprised that more crimes aren't committed with look-alikes.  Seems like the way to go, especially considering that if you get caught (but not killed), the penalties are lower than if you had done the same thing with a firearm.

Since 2003, it's been illegal in Honolulu to carry airsoft — or other so-called "replica" — guns outside of a case, or to brandish one in front of a law enforcement officer.

Is it illegal to brandish a "replica" at someone other than an LEO? I think that's what the proposed law that died in committe was supposed to do. Anyone know?

It looks like it is a Honolulu only ordinance.

Sec. 40-23.2    Prohibitions.
(a)    No person shall carry or display a replica gun on any street, alley, public road, or on any public lands unless such
    replica gun is in a suitable case or securely wrapped.
(b)    No person shall draw or brandish a replica gun in the presence of a law enforcement officer engaged in the
    performance of his or her duties.
(c)    Nothing in this article shall be deemed to prevent any person who has obtained a hunting license pursuant to HRS
    Chapter 183D from engaging in hunting in accordance with law.
(d)    In the event a replica gun is also an “air gun,” as defined in Section 41-8.1, the exceptions in Section 41-8.4 shall
    also be exceptions to the prohibitions in this article.
(e)    Nothing in this article shall prevent carrying or display of a replica gun by a person involved in a living history
    presentation or other activity for historical interpretation or educational purposes, or by a person participating in a
    parade if such activity or parade participant is associated with an established historical organization, museum,
    military preservation organization, or other group with a mission to educate the public at various events through the
    use of historical artifacts, clothing, vehicles, aircraft, maritime vessels, and firearms or replicas thereof.

On a side note, I know one of the first people charged under this ordinance.

On the other hand, I have never understood the fascination with making toys look real.  Toy guns are toy guns.  If you want something that looks like a real gun, then buy a real gun!  Airsoft does have some practical application in firearms training, but there are also practical ways to use real guns, which are more effective.

Yes but you can't shoot your friends with real gun... I suppose you could but you wouldn't be much of a friend. 

The appeal of airsoft is the fantasy of playing soldier without actually dying.  For the most part, the airsoft crowd is made up of the same adolescent to young adult males who play first person shooter video games.  They want their gun/shooting fix, and airsoft is as close as they can get to the real thing.  Especially in Hawaii, it's not so much about tactics or strategic combat, as it is running around guns blazing playing rambo.  It's not about simulating realistic situations, rather it's emulating what is seen in movies and video games.  On the mainland they a different attitude and it is a bit more military-simulation than just a shoot-em-up free for all.  On the mainland they also do some pretty large scale airsoft events that rival the action of many war movies in terms of scale and participants:



So the image of airsoft in Hawaii is actually quite different from how it is played in many other places. 

They got tanks....boy that's big time!