Posted on 06/07/2007 7:59:37 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
11-Year-Old Arrested For Using Rubber Band Gun OCOEE (Florida), June 7: An 11-year-old Ocoee boy was arrested for playing with a toy gun. Police said the arrest was necessary, because it was a safety issue.
The boy was using a rubber band gun and his father said the kid did nothing wrong, but police said they take it as a serious threat and the 11-year-old is facing felony charges.
The crime isn't very common, but Ocoee police said it is serious. It centers on an 11-year0old boy and his toy short-barreled shotgun.
The incident started Sunday afternoon, when the 11-year-old was riding in his dad's pickup near Clarke Road and White Road in Ocoee. Someone driving nearby called police after they said the boy pointed what looked like a real gun out the window. The victim told police she was afraid for her life.
"With that type of behavior, it's hard to tell if it's a real gun or not, especially in their car," said Sgt. Randy Conyers, Ocoee Police Department.
But, according to the charging affidavit, the 11-year-old's dad said nothing was wrong with what his son had done and that he used to do it as a kid. The boy even told police he was pretending to be a cop and thought the victims were laughing with him.
The gun itself only fires rubber bands and was checked into evidence. Police didn't comment on the weapon's color or release any images. Still, the victims said they were frightened and, police said, toy or no toy, the charges are justified.
Eyewitness News spoke to the father of the suspect on the phone. He said his son is out of juvenile detention and that a judge told him the case would be dropped. He also confirmed that the gun was black, but that it looked more like a stick than a gun.
From teh side it is immdediately obvious.
Pointed at someone from a moving car?
Probably not so obvious.
Fire all involved except the judge. He’s the only one with any sense.
Oh wait, they're too busy with real crime to do that. /s
I’ll make one more attempt at a serious discussion. Yeah, I posted a picture of a real shot gun, not the toy. It was an over-under but if you look at the front of my Mossberg, the magazine gives a similar aspect. In the picture you say shows the real toy, the barrel is NOT painted orange. I suspect we can also agree that the kid didn’t hold it sideways out the window but instead pointed it at people like the report said. Which picture will it look more like from the perspective of the pointee, yours or mine? You have a split second to decide.
Of course it looked more like a stick than a gun. rubber bands need a tube about 2 inches in diameter to fly down without hitting the sides and stopping, so you make a rubber band gun to hold the rubber band on the outside of the tube. How can we have a thread this long with so few people who know how to make rubber band guns? A replica gun with the band in a hollow tube wouldn't be functional (I tried that when I was a kid).
If you post a picture of a real gun trying imply that a wooden toy looks just like it, you have little point. kids use sticks too and they don’t paint them orange. Adults are supposed to have judgment. From the front that rubber band gun is square.
How long before we see SWAT teams wearing tactical vests and ski masks aiming MP-5's at "cowgirls" at a shopping mall.
“Someone driving nearby called police after they said the boy pointed what looked like a real gun out the window. The victim told police she was afraid for her life.”
Big brother. Big auntie.
What was she doing, driving around behind Republican politicians with a scanner that picks up cell phone transmissions?
One of the problems is that our society has forced all guns out of sight (”If you can’t see it, it can’t hurt you” type of thinking.) The old bat probably wouldn’t be able to tell a pea shooter from an AK-47.
Like some of you, I carried all sorts of “weaponry” around with me when I was a kid, from air-rifles to squirt guns to cap guns. Heck, I even took toy guns that didn’t look “real” and painted them to look more realistic. To my knowledge, no one ever called the police.
On the other hand, I had parents who taught me to not point my weapons in inappropriate situations, such as at passing motorists or at school or church. So yeah, the kid should have been given a warning at most, but people in this country, like the old bat, need to get a clue.
Ummm - what about the 11 year-old’s right to keep and bear arms - even toy ones? There is no victim and no crime.
The pretense of weapon may make some loony activists uncomfortable, but their presence makes me uncomfortable too! Discomfort is not crime - rape, murder, stealing are crimes. When the police have got all those solved then maybe they worry about arresting all the socialists who would remove a right granted in the constitution.
But please no more preemptive arrests because it looks like someone could possibly - if they wanted too - even if they haven’t, but they might one day commit one! This kind of looniness makes everyone a suspect and requires that you prove your innocence rather than an accuser proving guilt.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Here, fixed this one:
“Blah, blah, BLAH, blah, blah.”
That’s better.
It is now a felony to scare someone? Why aren’t Hillary, Nancy and Rosie behind bars? They’re the scariest things I’ve seen in a long long time.
“My father taught me never to point a weapon at anyone (toy or not) if you don’t intend to shoot them.”
Exactly right.
This father should have enough sense than to let his kid point something that even remotely resembles a gun at people driving a car.
Yeah, but they don't used carved wood, with clothspins glued on top, to do it.
That's because our nation used to be more sane.
Hey kid, didn’t your parents teach you not to point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot?
Sheesh...
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