More Press - Star Newspaper today

Boru.

Just saw the Star Newspaper today, page 26 reporting on a trial involving assault of a young boy with an air gun, firing 6mm, plastic bb's. He was shot in the eye. :mad:

Miscreant

Do you have a scan of the article by any chance or can you post the text?

zero19

Hmmm not good, a scan would be good

Boru.

Read it in work. I'll pic it up tomorrow if it's still there and get some pic's up.

Alvin T. Grey

You know, just for once I'd like to vist this site and not read about the muppets.......

On topic, So he wasn't blinded then?

johnser

The article as also covered in the sun. To be fair about the article (in the sun anyway) they dont make a big deal about the bb gun. {Edited}. I'll scan it in later and post it.

Dave!

Gotta agree... there wasnt much mention of "replica gun" or "bb gun" or "weapons of mass destruction" in it.

Hivemind187

Racism? Airsoft? Blind children?

... does anyone else think it sounds like the formula for a poor-taste joke?

gandalf

Personally I think this thread should be deleted.

Alvin T. Grey

gandalf wrote: »

Personally I think this thread should be deleted.

Any specific reason?

gandalf

I think the reason would be obvious myself.

Alvin T. Grey

I must be slow this morning then......

Hivemind187

Alvin T. Grey wrote: »

Any specific reason?

Probably because a) the crime doesnt appear to have that much to do with airsoft (if anything at all) and because of allegations of racism.

Think: Montana Militia.

Alvin T. Grey

Like I said.
Slow this morning. (No jokes about being slow all the time please. - It's too obvious, too crass. And will result in the death of countless cute baby seals.)

kdouglas

there's no need for this thread to go any further really tbh, i haven't read the article but if it was a racially motivated (or any other type of) assault, then it really doesn't matter what was used to carry out said assault, whether it be a golf club, baseball bat, hurley, airgun or airsoft, assault is assault

kdouglas

Re-opened at Boru's request as he now has a scan of the article in question to share, I have also been informed that there is no racial motivation in this assault.

johnser

Yes, I agree. I had actually re-read the article yesterday and was going to edit my post to reflect the comment I made. But the thread was locked.

Post edited.

John

bullets

Cool I'd like to see a scan of this.
I am planning on collecting articles and scanning them anytime
there is something Airsoft or Firearms related (having an interest in both)

It sickens me when I read stuff that is factually just wrong.
I wrote in before about a story published on a local rag that
had all the facts wrong. The guy that wrote the article said he was
legally obliged to report what was said in court or by the Gardai.
So when or if they had their facts wrong it still gets reported wrong.

~B

Hivemind187

Bullets: Unfortunately he has a point. Court reporting etc requires that you accurately and factually report the goings on of the court without inflection. The trouble is, as we have seen, when the authorities and those who should no better are not aware or up to date in their knowledge of the law or the science surrounding an object.

Alas, this is regularly the case.

Alvin T. Grey

Hence the need for rectification by the IAA.

Boru.

Hey guys, sorry to have caused so much trouble with this, the reason I did so was that I feel in order to protect the sport from such criminal acts I would think it important for the IAA to be aware of each publicly made incident so that if questioned can refute and explain the position of the sport.

- here's the article in question -

Hivemind187

Hey Boru,

Can you make that an attached document too (stupid websense is blocking the image display).

Regarding your statement about the IAA. We fully agree and are extremely appreciative of folks who keep their eyes peeled to spot articles that come up. In most cases they wont warrant a response from the IAA (since it may be a court report etc) but in other cases (NOTW and the Evenign Herald for example) it makes sense to state our case.

Keep up the good work folks and thanks to Boru for spotting this one.

kdouglas

well from reading the article, we can get two positive things out of this

1) Being shot in the eye will not kill/blind or maim you as i'm sure someone would have noticed if the boy's eye ball was hanging out and he would not have been able to keep it a secret at first

2) If you use an airsoft device in the commission of a crime, you deserve everything you get

Edit: not saying that the incident is a good thing, it should never have happened in the first place and the way that boy was treated is absolutely disgraceful, but making the best of a bad situation

Dr_Pepper

Also they call it an Airgun so were still in the clear

kdouglas

well the un-informed would call any airsoft an airgun, and given that they say 6mm plastic bbs and they do technically use air to fire them (motor turns gears->gears push back piston->spring pushes piston forward to create a burst of air), then it's not too big a jump to make, however as we all know, the type of airgun which requires a licence uses compressed air and fires lead pellets

CrazyRabbit

Good that Justice McDonnell is looking after this one. He is a very strict judge and likes to dish out tough sentences when deserved. (I have mates who were before him for minor offences.)

Hivemind187

Finally got around to reading this.

The individual who pulled the trigger is a criminal and in my humble opinion got too light a sentence. The acomplice who videoed it deserves just as long a sentence for his part in the incident.

There need be no reply or response from the IAA since it is the crime that is focussed on and no specific maligning of Airsoft took place.

For once, and surprsingly considering the general tone of the paper, they have managed to focus on the real issue and the crime itself rather than the object used.

I'll let the caption under the photo of the gun slide for now.

Gatling

only read thread and i know a fair bit about what went on ,firstly the victim was shot with a springer and was hit in the face not the eye as reported,
2nd the lad in question was held hostage for a couple of hours,it wasnt an airsoft based crime just some muppet acting the hard man ,shot boy terror is a little over the top ,just another case of assault in dublin i see worse most day around where i live