Posted on 02/28/2010 5:56:07 AM PST by Harrius Magnus
CORNELIUS, Ore. - A local business owner is flabbergasted after a shipment of 30 toy guns for his store was confiscated by ATF agents in Tacoma.
Brad Martin and his son, Ben, sell the Airsoft BB guns from their store in Cornelius where they’ve been in business for seven years.
The Martins said they buy their stock from Taiwan because the merchandise is less expensive. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized a shipment of 30 in October. That shipment is worth around $12,000 and the ATF is promising to destroy the entire shipment.
Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons.
"With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun," Crenshaw said.
Brad Martin is furious about the loss of money, for sure, but also in what he now thinks as a loss of his time and the use of government agents to seize toy guns.
"All this manpower, all this time, all this taxpayer money, [it is] wasting my time and my profitability,” Martin said. “[Just] to seize 30 toy guns!"
Ben Martin disagrees that the toy guns could ever be considered dangerous.
"To say these are readily convertible to machine guns is absolutely preposterous,” he said. “The round wouldn't go into the firing chamber and even if the firing pin did strike the primer the gun would basically blow up in your face.”
ATF said it also seized the toys because they are missing the blaze orange tips required on all imported toy guns.
The Martins said they've received shipments before from Taiwan that were missing the orange tips and were simply asked by customs agents to drive up to Tacoma and paint the tips orange themselves. They are wondering why it is an issue now.
Yeah, right, a plastic toy gun can be converted to fire live ammo "with a minimal of work". These a**hats made a mistake and now they are trying to cover their a** by making idiotic statements to justify their stealing this load of fake guns.
You forgot to mention shooting their dog.
$400 for a BB gun is crazy. That ain’t no toy, IMHO.
Paintball guns can cost that much. Time we stopped that sport, also.
“Toys” also applies to adults. “The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys”.
You think a plastic toy BB costs $400 a pop?
He’s probably lieing his A$$ off !! Nazi thug.
Yep
Well the blaze orange tip makes the gun safer. Sigh....this is what happens when the government has so much power that they can do this.
“Why you could squirt someone in the eye with one. “
Assult with a wet weapon.
I suppose he should consider himself lucky the ATF didn’t just bust into his store &start shoot American citizens.
There are airrifles that can drop a hog. They go for about 800.00 to a grand. They are not adveristed as toys, but lethal weapons.
That would so cool to have one of those bad boys.
What a bunch of Jack Booted cowards! Maybe it’s time they got their asses kicked again the way they had it handed to them at Mount Carmel. They faced REAL guns there and on live TV they had to lay down their weapons and with their hands raised, go in to recover their wounded. David Koresh may have been a first rate nut job but he gave the ATF an asskicking they had been in sore need of for a long time. Looks like they are cruising for another one.
I wondered from the first time I heard this story if it wasn't something like this. A LOT of imports are modified after being received in-country to meet various specialized requirements. The BATFE once again prove themselves to be fools.
But since the BATFE says it can be easily done, I may just get me one of these in case of apocalypse.
It's all a bunch of crap and they know it. If these things could be converted into anything other than the little BB guns they are, they would have been banned long ago.
http://www.trendtimes.com/metal-aeg-airsoft-rifle-saw249.html
I bought some airsoft guns last year- they cost around $300 ea. The top end electronic ones can exceed 400 quickly. Some even cost into $3-4000. It’s a big money business for top end items.
Better yet - Ban the ATF!
If the firearms are real then let the owners be arrested, I see nothing about their imminent arrest in the article. This is CYA time for the BATFE(a dictatorial bureaucracy in anyone's language). The only way a firearm can be easily converted to fire full auto is if it is already a semi-automatic fully functioning REAL firearm to start with.
The article, and the BATFE, admits these are air soft BB guns that look like M4s, they cannot be coverted to machine guns with "minimal" work or any work at all short of actually replacing the whole BB gun with a real rifle.
BATF = Brown shirts
The BATFags aren't supposed to do "smell tests". They are supposed to follow the law. I'm sure a lot of people in government think that Chevrolet Corvettes are VERY expensive toys that no one should be able to own. That thought does NOT justify the confiscation of Corvettes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.