The Internet, many say, is a double-edge sword, you can do something really good with it, or something really bad. It will make you famous, or it will make you infamous. But just like many things that we use nowadays, they can be put to good work or do bad actions as humans are morally ambivalent, having the tendency to do good or bad. In airsoft, that is also true.

Just like this video posted by username “Get Wrecked Kid” on YouTube (thanks to Merlin’s Airsoft News) in which he shoots an airsoft player oin the back with a high ROF PolarStar Airsoft rifle at SC Village:

He shot the airsoft player because the victim “Burned my patch and talked shit for a bouta year…” [sic] talk about hurt feelings. And he shot the airsoft player before the game started, which is one of the most dishonorable things that you will do in airsoft, a sport or hobby where honor is totally valued.

While many debate about the incident (which spilled to speedsoft vs milsim, to banning PolarStars. Oh the wonders of internet comments, always going off-topic), let me be clear, what the perpetrator did in the video is PLAIN WRONG. Shooting the kid (the victim is said to be 13 years old) because he burned a team patch and “talked shit” for a year is just an act of revenge, and that is not how airsofters should act, if they think of themselves to be honorable people.

End of debate. No airsofter has the right to hurt another fellow airsofter, even if it is over hurt feelings.

For those who lamely explain that the perpetrator can shoot the victim because they are in an airsoft game, please stop playing airsoft and go home, that’s not how it works. You can only start shooting other airsoft players when it is “game on” and that video shows the incident took place before a game was about to start.

According to Bear Degidio, the CEO of Giant Tactical and Director of Development at Giant Sportz that owns SC Village, “they have banned the player and possibly his team as well” and that they are now working with authorities.

As to what is the violation of the perpetrator, especially that he has also put up a video incriminating himself, it is most probably a battery as defined in California’s Penal Code 242[2]. This is defined as willfully and unlawfully touching a person in a harmful and/or offensive manner and can be fined US$2000, jailed for up to six months, and other penalties.

Merlin’s Airsoft News, which has a commentary on this incident, delves on another concern that can affect airsoft’s legal standing in the U.S. as well as in other countries and its growth as a sport. Politicians proposing legislation that will either ban or put too many restrictions on airsoft can use this video as a proof that it is a harmful sport:

“This video, and the many others about getting back at cheaters or overshooting in revenge for some perceived slight on the field are just plain BAD. The legislators need only shows this video, along with a few other pretty violent videos that have appeared over the past 2 years, and airsoft will quickly have little in defense to fight of major legislation. Remember, if the NRA, a multimillion dollar lobby FOR Fire Arms is having a rough go of it against the Legislators, what do you think the kids playing with toy guns community is going to do?”

Just think about Bill H-3476 in Massachusetts. If this video is used by supporters of the proposed law, then it will cause the banning of airsoft (and other affected sports) in the state, leading to a loss of jobs and livelihood to those who make a living on airsoft.

This video is just so wrong.