Posted on 12/22/2013 6:48:15 PM PST by Doomonyou
To the surprise of even city council members, the Petaluma Police Department dusted off a little-known law last week in an effort to educate the public on the city's regulations regarding toy guns. The move comes in the wake of the shooting death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by a Sonoma County Sheriff's deputy, who reportedly mistook a replica airsoft gun the teen was carrying for a real AK-47 assault rifle.
The shooting sparked a handful of phone calls from concerned citizens seeking information about the laws regulating airsoft guns, which caused the Petaluma police to announce the ordinance in a press release last week.
The obscure Petaluma Municipal Code 10.56 outlaws the discharge or public display of any firearms — including airsoft and BB guns — within city limits. Firing any type of gun within Petaluma's boundaries is a misdemeanor criminal offense punishable by a $75 to $500 fine and up to six months in jail. There are exceptions to the law that cover police officer's weapons and legally licensed firearms being used in self defense.
The ordinance also makes the public display of any type of firearm or toy replica illegal, other than transporting legally owned guns within the trunk of a vehicle. Petaluma police officers have ticketed individuals for firing BB guns and airsoft rifles within city limits in the past, but Petaluma Police Sgt. Jim Stephenson said it's a rare occurrence.
“We've received a few calls from rural residents, complaining of people firing airsoft guns and pellet guns over the past few years,” he said, unable to remember how many times officers have responded to such reports in recent years. “We've cited a couple people for it, but it hasn't happened too often.”
(Excerpt) Read more at petaluma360.com ...
“Because the kid left the dog at home? “
—
Aw,God,give it a rest.
.
Jobs in Texas
http://www.indeed.com/l-Denton,-TX-jobs.html
I’m with you on that. The kid should have brought the dog with him and put an end to it.
When I was in the fifth grade the local dime store got in a stock of luger water pistols. The looked so neat that at any distance it really would have been hard to tell they were not real.
For a couple of weeks the boys were just about all having water gun fights at recess..When the cop came by and we pointed at him, he would just smile and wave at us. You see he knew fifth graders would not be running around with real lugers.
didn’t think about that..lol
What kind of "fire" is used to propel a BB?
-PJ
Do not judge us all upon the basis of Frisco, Bezerkely, Los Angeles (Mehico Norte), or the transplanted east coast liberal scum that have taken over this once-great state. Some of us -make that quite a few of us, hate what has been done, but attempting to change things at the ballot box has been an exercise in futility when the opposing party uses every dirty trick in the book to get their way.
I think that bloke on another thread got it right: Cali should be divided into six (or at the minimum, four) separate states since it is so divided internally.
Had one myself. Of course I lived in an age where the law was real.
What they need to do is pass a law prohibiting police officers who can't make the mental calculation: Let's see, now there's a 13 year old boy walking down the street carrying a gun. What are the odds that this gun is an AK-47 and what are the odds that this gun is a plastic toy.
If cops can't make that kind of logical distinction, they have no business being cops!
Yeah I know and I know it is unreasonable to think an eight year old would be running around with an AK but do you want to trust your or your child’s life to today’s trigger happy police? Why take that chance?
When they do, I will.
That's only if you MAKE IT to custody.
Speak for yourself, dobie. Weapons fall into certain general shapes for a reason, and of course air guns will also fall into such categories or be changed into them for personal or other reasons at times.
I personally used to have a pellet rifle cunningly crafted to look remarkably like an Uzi (since lost to an unfortunate boating accident many years ago) that was quite the rat exterminator.
Your assumption that the kid was asking to be killed because he was playing with a toy gun is reprehensible beyond words.
Youngest kid killed by a cop I read was five. Cop came into his bedroom, kid was in the corner on the floor with a plastic gun. Happened in LA many years ago.
the cops broke off the red tip on the end of the barrel.
California definition of a firearm is here:
http://wiki.calgunsfoundation.org/Definition_of_a_firearm/gun
I think that is one I remember. The cops called it a good shoot too.
I call it murder. As soon as I saw a kid that young holding a gun, I would have immediately gotten out of the room. That would be as fast as aiming and shooting.
The kid was murdered in Santa Rosa about ten miles north of Petaluma. This is just the idiotic knee jerk, over reaction, opportunistic, liberal response to the incident. I expect to see a massive lawsuit against the cops. The outrage against this has been pretty loud.
“We’ve received a few calls from rural residents, complaining of people firing airsoft guns and pellet guns over the past few years”
That statement really set my BS meter off. What did they complain of? The loud noise when fired? Pellets bouncing off a barn? Rural residents complained about pellet and airsoft guns? Uh huh. Sure they did.
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.