7th-grader gets suspended for playing with airsoft gun

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A 7th-grade student in Virginia Beach, Va., suspended from school for shooting an airsoft gun in his front yard will find out on Monday if he is expelled for the rest of the year, a local television station reported.Khalid Caraballo, 13, and some friends were playing with airsoft guns on his front lawn as they waited for the bus one morning, WAVY first reported. Airsoft guns are non-lethal replica firearms that fire plastic pellets by way of spring-driven pistons.
A concerned neighbor called 911 to report the incident.

“He is pointing the gun, and it looks like there’s a target in a tree in his front yard,� she told the dispatcher. “This is not a real one, but it makes people uncomfortable. I know that it makes me [uncomfortable], as a mom, to see a boy pointing a gun.�

Ironically, the caller’s son was playing with Khalid and Aidan in the Caraballo front yard.

Khalid and his friend Aidan, 13, were suspended for “possession, handling and use of a firearm.� The airsoft guns reportedly never made it to school property. The bus stop is reportedly 70 yards from the yard.

Aidan’s father, Tim Clark, said he doesn’t allow his son to play with the replica guns unsupervised, and the suspension lacks common sense.

“My son is my private property. He does not become the school’s property until he goes to the bus stop, gets on the bus, and goes to school,� said Khalid’s mother, Solangel Caraballo, according to WAVY.

Larkspur Middle School principal Matthew Delaney issued a statement that the “children were firing pellet guns at each other, and at people near the bus stop,� adding that one child “was only 10 feet from the bus stop, and ran from the shots being fired, but was still hit.�

Police said no one will be charged in the case.

“We understand that a number of juveniles possess air soft guns and have ‘airsoft gun’ wars with each other, but as it relates to the city code referenced above, they are in violation of the code if the juveniles are not exercising ‘reasonable care,’ � the Virginia Beach Police Department said in a statement. “We want to stress to the parents of the juveniles and the operators of these type of ‘pneumatic guns’ that they need to be handled responsibly and with reasonable care to ensure that the projectile is properly contained.�

The boys had a hearing Monday afternoon to determine if they will be kicked out of their school for the entire year, the station reported.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/23/7th-grader-suspended-using-airsoft-gun-his-own-fro/

 
I do agree that it would make me uncomfortable too, but unless of intentionally firing at others, they don't deserve a year long suspension. There is such a fine, almost transparent line between air soft and real guns. Though they should not have kept using the air soft guns as the bus approached, and if they didn't notice, should have used common sense as they knew they were getting picked up soon.

Now for the twist to this, re-read that knowing the main kid being charged is of African-American decent. What do you think people's opinions would be, would they change?

 
A fine line in terms of looks? I've never looked into Air soft guns, but I guess my uneducated understanding is they are basically an alternative to paint ball, or perhaps super powered nerf guns.
 
True air soft guns you can't tell the difference in looks from a real gun. The good stuff comes from japan and when they are brought to America they must have an orange tip placed on them. Besides they they are 1:1 scale and you can't tell a difference.
 
I guess when I compared t paintball I was just making sure my understanding of airsoft being fairly harmless and used amongst friends for war-game type activity, the same as paintball.

I get that they look like real guns, but from a distance so would numerous toys, though they take more and more steps to change that. As has been said, the kids probably should've known better or stopped. Parents should probably have been involved as well. At the end of the day though, the kid was basically playing with toys and being suspended for any length of time for doing so seems pretty ridiculous. I could see a few days or something if it was on school grounds, assuming there are rules against it in place.

 
Lets face it it's just the media's portrayal and the way the country is now. At one time you had kids like myself out in their yards with their BB guns, metal guns from the toy store etc. out there playing cowboy and Indians. But now people freak out out over anything.
 
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