Southeastern silliness, or an ounce of prevention?
Burlington, IA –-(Ammoland.com)- The Burlington City Council is considering an ordnance to ban the open or concealed carry of a toy or air gun on one’s person without a proper Iowa carry permit, and mandating that they be carried in a proper gun case when otherwise being transported.
Citing several past cases of mistaken identity, particularly with minors, Burlington Police Chief Doug Beaird fears that police officers may someday shoot someone with a toy gun, believing in the moment that the gun is real and resulting in the use of lethal force.
Burlington Mayor Shane McCampbell said, ““It’s not saying that nobody can have [a toy or BB gun]. It’s saying that they need to be in a proper carrying bag, so that you’re not running around with a BB gun that may or may not look real.”
The propsed ordnance would cover all spring-loaded or compressed air powered BB and airsoft guns, as well as any other paintball, pellet or replica gun.
We at Iowa Firearms Coalition (IFC) certainly recognize the potential public safety issue here, and we applaud the Burlington City Council for their good intentions in considering this matter. Â However we must also ask whether a city ordnance, which will ostensibly be aimed mostly at children, is really the appropriate and most effective solution to the problem?
The youthful offenders in question are already acting foolishly, and there’s presently no logical reason why a minor walking around with a BB gun will be deterred by a new ordnance–not to mention law enforcement will still be required to confront them and will still be faced with the same problem. Â It must be considered then what such a law will actually accomplish, except just making a few city officials, and maybe a few parents, feel good for awhile?
The Burlington City Council will likely hear this issue twice more prior to a final vote.
If you live in Burlington, give the matter some thought and let your city representatives know what you think.
For everyone else in Iowa, this is the kind of thing we all need to stay vigilant for and always be ready to provide input on. Â This isn’t specifically a Second Amendment issue this time, but we must nonetheless take care that anti-gun fear and paranoia doesn’t spill over into other issues, and result in the passage of still more ineffectual laws that seem so popular today.
Providing a little food for thought,
Barry B. SnellIFC Communications Director
NRA Member
About Iowa Firearms Coalition:
The mission of the Iowa Firearms Coalition is to be THE firearms rights organization in Iowa, representing Second Amendment concerns for all firearms owners in the state. We will staunchly defend the rights of hunters and sportsmen as well as the rights of all Iowans to defend themselves and their loved ones. We seek to partner with other like-minded organizations to increase our effectiveness in accomplishing these goals. Visit: www.iowafc.org
Methinks the decreeing Council-Man’s views on control are discounting ‘free will’ and ‘civil disobedience’. Probably believes in what B.F. Skinner wrote in ‘Beyond Freedom and Dignity’?
I am the Council-Man and I decree,
All that you can do and all that you see,
For I make the rules and I am the law,
And no one best test me, for I command all,
Bow on your knees citizen, for I am a King!
Once I have made rules, to control everything!
Which’s brings us to the second and most important point:The police chief and the Burlington city council SHOULD NOT smoke CRACK!!!!
Encourage your rugrats to enjoy and respect firearms.Teach the little curtain climbers gun saftey and to be responsible with their firearm ! Dont allow them to get to careless with cap pistols ! It could get them shot by some idiot cop who got scared !
Maybe police should take course 101 on how to identify kids and toy guns. If the person is 3 ft.tall,has a colored weapon,usu.with an orange tip,doesn’t have CCW or DL because they are KIDs,doesn’t have real good communication skills of engish language yet because they’re age is still in single digits,…DONT SHOOT ! There aint a GD thing wrong with our kids or how they’re being raised,…the problem is some cops are idiots !
A Country Founded by Geniuses but Run by Idiots! If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but
not for entering and remaining in the country illegally — you might 
live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots. If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or 
to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion — you might 
live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots. If you MUST show your identification to board an… Read more »
Airsoft seems to be the rage in my neighborhood (10-15 kids) and had a couple of double takes of kids pointing them at me driving. Several others have used black marker to obscure the orange tips. I know most of the toys by sight. Couple rifles are extremely realistic, those kids lowered their barrel and have been polite. I have told officers on 2 occasions just kids with airsoft pistols. The officers said thank you. Some of the high end airsoft plastic BB use real stocks ,pistol grips, fore ends, scopes etc. Look at DSArms SA58 OSW airsoft , then… Read more »
What the liberal trash is trying to do is demonize anything related to firearms to the next generation of people,and the generation after that ! Its our responsibility as lawabidding gun owners who believe in our 2A freedoms to not allow that to happen !
The “Heartland of America” is now officially braindead. The heartbeat is in cardiac arrest.
Any officer that doesn’t know a real from a toy, as carried by a child, needs another line of work. Like shoveling cow sh_t.
And any PARENT of a kid who allows the kids to have replica look-alikes deserves to have their heads examined if they let the kid go out with same. Especially near dusk.
COPS THAT CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERANCE FROM A PLASTIC TOY GUN FROMA REAL ONE SHOULD NOT BE ON THE STREET. BB GUNS THAT LOOK REAL SHOULD BE KEPT AT HOME WHERE A YOUNG CHILD CAN SHOOT IT WITH SUPERVISION. BB GUNS DO LOOK REAL THEY SHOULD BE CARRIED INA BACK PACK , OR CARRYING CASE WHEN GOING OUT TO SHOOT OTHER THAN YOUR OWN HOME. I’M NOT A COP, BUT A CERTIFIED FIREARMS INSTRUCTOR. I CAN TELL THE DIFFERANCE FROM AN AIR SOFT GUN THAN A REAL ONE. SOON AS A COP THESES DAYS SEE’S A GUN THEY GET FREAKED… Read more »