Before those who advocate the banning of airsoft guns for skirmishes and leisure shooting start pointing to this story that an airsoft gun is behind the death of a 19 year old Lower Nazareth, should read again the Coroner's report. The death was caused by the traditional BB gun according to the Police, which means the victim was hit in the head with a steel BB that is coated with copper or zinc, which can be a .177 cal (4.5mm), 0.33g-0.45g.

It is unfortunate for this young man to die from bb gun. But some are starting to use this incident as a means to regulate strictly or even outright banning airsoft guns. But this has nothing to do with plastic BBs in airsoft guns, but on the BB guns that fire pellets and are used more for target and varmint shooting rather than skirmishes. The lever action BB guns may not be the cause, but a more high powered-BB gun going over 550fps (those of the varmint control variety) can be the culprit of this incident. The police said it was a pump-action BB gun, and this type can fire up to 755 fps on .177 bbs and is cheaper than many airsoft guns (please refer to some samples with this link).

While we sympathize with the family of the victim for this unfortunate incident, we also would like to clarify that the death is not caused by an airsoft gun. We hope the local authorities get to what caused this accident as it was done inside the house of relatives with no charges yet being filed.